Thesis on New Words in Internet English

In summary, languages ??in the world can be divided into two major categories. One type is a language that is no longer used, is no longer popular, or has been abandoned, and is called a "dead" language; the other type is a language that is still in use today, which is called a "living" language. ). Hebrew, ancient Latin, etc. belong to the former; while Chinese, English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Russian and other languages ??all belong to the latter, and they are the most popular among them.

"Living" languages ??have a very important commonality, that is, they all change with the development of the times. This is true in English, and it is true in other languages. However, because English is more popular and widely used in the world than any other language, its changes are particularly drastic.

The changes in English are mainly reflected in two aspects: grammar and vocabulary, and these two changes promote development and form the basis of modern English. One of the most significant developments in linguistic theory in the past two decades is the emergence of "Transformational-generative Grammar". The birth of this linguistic theory has further made English more scientific. At the same time, the emergence of a large number of new vocabulary has strengthened the expressive power of English and enriched its forms, thus making English more life-oriented.

The emergence of new vocabulary

How do new vocabulary come into being?

When people discover new things, encounter new problems, summarize new experiences, and develop new ideas, they need new words and new words to express them. This is because the old and inherited The method of expression is no longer suitable or insufficient for use. On the other hand, since English is the mother tongue and second language in countries all over the world, and the customs, living habits and social environment are very different in different places, different expression forms and terms will inevitably appear, and these vocabulary Many of them will gradually be absorbed into classic English dictionaries and become part of the language.

In today's increasingly progressive society, science and technology are the main suppliers of new words. Whenever a certain science develops to a new stage, a large number of new words emerge. Many of these new words are special terms for these sciences and are rarely known to laypeople. They are only found in professional dictionaries and dictionaries. However, many of them are often used and cited, and have become popular among ordinary people. Wen Le Dao's terms.

For example, when the American astronauts successfully landed on the moon, a series of related uses such as moonwalk (moon walk), lunar rove (lunar rover), moonrock (lunar specimen rover) and so on appeared in English. word. Since many artificial satellites have been launched to orbit the moon in recent years, it is necessary to coin the terms apolune (far moon point) and perilune (near moon point). The rendezvous and docking of spaceships and space stations in space adds a new meaning to docking (docking), which is also synonymous with linkup. Launching a spacecraft is regarded as a symbol of human scientific development, so it attracts much attention. Therefore, many words related to spacecraft have been widely used, such as CM (command module: command module, command module), splashdown (splashdown), space sickness (space sickness), space age (space age), etc. When talking about exploring deep space (deep space, far space) and other space phenomena, quasar (quasar radio source), pulsar (pulsar), neutron srar (neutron star) and the mysterious black hole (space black hole) are already the most popular ones. A familiar phrase.

In the past two decades, the rapid development of genetics has created many refreshing vocabulary, such as genetic code (genetic code), codon (codon), DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), transfa RNA ( Transmission ribonucleic acid), messenger RNA (messenger ribonucleic acid), transcription (formation of messenger ribonucleic acid), etc.

These new words are becoming increasingly popular and are even used in general books and periodical reports, so they have long been accepted by a wide range of readers.

The computer industry, which has developed rapidly in recent years, has brought a lot of new vocabulary. Commonly used ones include FORTRAM (formula translation programming language), COBOL (common language for business), ALGOL (algorithm language), BASIC (universal symbolic instruction code for beginners), absolute address (absolute address), data bank (data library, database), floppy dise (flexible plastic disk) pushdown (pushdown memory), etc. Old words such as keyboard, terminal, memory bit, etc. have also been added with new usages.

The rapid development of medicine has also brought about a large number of new words, including technical medical terms and the names of newly made drugs, newly discovered germs, viruses, etc. Among them, hotscanning (light scanning), open heart surgery (open heart surgery), picornabirus (heart transplant), microcirculation (microvascular circulation), etc. have all appeared recently. Some terms such as the pill (oral contraceptive pill), test-tube baby (test-tube baby), transsexual operation (transsexual operation), etc. have become daily terms.

The development of nuclear physics seems to bring people into the microscopic world. Kron (K meson), muon (muon), pion (pi meson), etc. were discovered one after another, the differences between lepton (lepton) and baryon (baryon), and of course the sensational quark (quark). Hypothetically, the antiworld (antimatter world) composed of various antimatter (antimatter) such as antiproton (antiproton), antineutrino (antineutrino), antiquark (antiquark), etc. has also attracted much attention.

Mathematics and other subjects are also constantly evolving. In popular teaching and research and popular science readings, it is not difficult to find the following terms: NOT ("not" logical operator), parametric equation (variable equation), newmath (new number) promoted in primary and secondary schools in recent years, artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence) ), magmetocardiogram (magnetocardiogram), IC (integrated circuit), piscicide (fish extinction), hot mooner (thermomoonologist), Sealab (undersea laboratory), radiosterilization (radioactive disinfection), etc. New disciplines are also constantly forming, such as bionics, cryosurgery, macrometereology, ocean engineering, phytochemistry, biotelemetry, astrionics (Space electronics) and other dozens of new disciplines are developing and growing.

Arms competition is fierce, weapons are changing with each passing day, and naturally many new vocabulary words have been produced. ABM (antiballistic missile: anti-ballistic missile), MIRV (multiple independently-targeted reentry vehicle: multiple warhead re-entry vehicles), the Bomb (nuclear deterrence), helilift (transport using helicopters), Green Berets ("Green Berets" Hats ("special forces"), grunt (infantry), beam weapons (death ray weapons), etc. have almost become household terms.

The improvements in transportation also make people feel jaw-dropping.

The sky is filled with SST (supersonic transport), airbus (airbus), and air-taxi (air taxi); the British-French Concorde (coordinated aircraft) certainly plays an important role in the history of aviation. The birth of HST (hyper-sonic transport: hypersonic aircraft) has brought new development to the aircraft industry. Some wealthy leisure people often take jet planes to travel and gather in various places, forming a special class called jetset. Jet passengers sometimes suffer from a condition known as jetsyndrome. On water and land, new types of transportation have appeared one after another, including ACV (air-cushion vehicle: air cushion vehicle), ATV (all-terrain vehicle: all-terrain vehicle), hovercraft (hovercraft), freight-liner (container train) ), bullet train (bullet car), aerotrain (suspended train), etc.

In addition to science and technology, the turbulent political situation, the increasingly changing social environment, global culture and all aspects of exchanges are also the sources of new English words. For example, the rise, transformation and development of the “-in movement” since the early 1960s has caused this “family” to expand to an astonishing degree. From the first-generation sit-in (sit-in demonstration) to the second-generation teach-in (lecture meeting), and even the third-generation be-in (social gathering of the decadents), dozens of them appeared in one day. The wording of -in has evolved at a speed that is really staggering.

In recent years, the world's political arena has undergone tremendous changes. In order to strengthen unity and develop trade, Western European countries organized the EEC (European Economic Community: European Economic Community). Oil-exporting countries in the Middle East, South America, and Africa have also organized OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). After the Watergate scandal broke out in the United States, the word Watergate was widely used to refer to any political scandal. Within the government, those who advocated the use of force to resolve disputes were called hawks, and those who advocated peaceful means were called doves. faction), and dawk is a hawk between hawks), those who advocate peaceful means are called doves (doves), and dawk is a passive anti-war person between hawks and doves. Other political words such as establishment (government), atomic club (atomic club), advance man (pioneer, election supporter), political animal (political animal), etc. are also commonly used in newspapers and periodicals.

The worldwide economic crisis, inflation and the development of industry and commerce are also important sources of new words. ASP (American Selling Price), slumpflation (depression expansion), added-value tax (value-added tax), Eurodollar (European dollars), petrodollar (petrodollar), revenue sharing (treasury sharing), etc. are all recent products.

Social changes have had a great impact in the past two decades, and many basic ideologies have been impacted. The outbreak of the feminist movement gave rise to new terms such as Women's Lib (women's liberation movement), chairperson (chairperson), male chauvinist (male chauvinist), girlcott (boycott), etc., but it also contributed to the emergence of Men's Lib (men's liberation movement). was born.

After the outbreak of the Black Power movement in the United States in the late 1960s, many terms expressing "...movement" emerged, including: Brown Power, Flower Power, Student power (student power), Red Power (red power), etc. Some people even jokingly coined the term green power, which means "money magic" (because the back of the dollar is green).

The change in moral concepts has caused a generation gap, and the uses of the word gap have diversified on this basis, resulting in credibility gap, culture gap, communication New words such as gap (communication gap). The separation of the minds of Western youth from the old customary society forces them to find ways to vent their anger. So Mary Jane (marijuana), LSD (psychedelic drug), upper (stimulant), soft drug (soft drug), hard drug (hard drug), headshop (psychedelic store), commune (hippie commune), psychedelphia (psychedelic drug) Words such as "Fantasy Village" came into being. Generations of decadent groups have also appeared one after another: hippies, flower children, gentle people, street people, teenyboppers, and so on.

People's attention to environmental pollution has been particularly noticeable in recent years. This can be seen in the initiatives of environmental scientists to establish EarthDay (Earth Cleanup Day) and Earth Week (Earth Cleanup Week). The word "pollution" appears in newspapers and magazines every day. Newer terms include environmental pollution, heat/thermal pollution, internal pollution, and visual pollution. ), antipollutionist (anti-polluter), environmentalist (environmental issue expert), dystrophication (river and lake pollution), etc.

In education and language research, a series of new words have emerged due to the reform of teaching methods and teaching tools, such as schoolbook, pass-fail, CAI (computer-assisted instruction (computer-assisted instruction), audiovisuals (audiovisual teaching materials), coedism (coeducational education), preppie (preparatory students), open classroom (open classroom), polyversity (multiple universities), megaversity (super university), Generative grammar (generative grammar), kernel sentencd (core sentence) and Chomskian (Chomsky theory), etc.

Entertainment and sports are also large suppliers of new vocabulary to radio and television stations. rating, call-in, sitcom, soap opera, prime time, instant replay, VTR, VCR Videos) are all well-known terms. The colorful new sports have also enriched the English vocabulary. Recently emerging things include skateboarding (skateboarding) and skydive (parachute jumping). ).

Land/sand yacht (beach boat, land sail) and hang glider (flying kite) are more advanced playthings. Some compound words such as cyclo-cross (bike cross-country race), roller hockey (roller hockey), demolition derby (crash competition), etc. also appeared one after another due to the rise of new sports. Sportsmen also invented slimnastics (weight loss gymnastics), isometrics (static exercise) and other methods to build the body and enhance strength. Of course, there are also Chinese kung fu (kung fu) and Japanese aikido (aikido) that are popular overseas. .

Many new words have actually entered people's daily lives and every family. Nowadays, many families have VCDs (video cassette recorders); and the TV sets that were originally called television set are now called box, gogglebox, idiot box, idiot'slantern. Microwave ovens, autotimers, etc. are new products of technology. Videophone/picturephone (videophone) are also in mass production. New words in the audio field also include quadraphony (four-channel), sensurrornd (Dolby system), etc. The Polarvision System, which was produced in the last year of the 1970s, is now popular all over the world. Telex (User Telegraph), which appeared earlier, is a must-have communication system for large companies and commercial banks, and of course IDDD (International Direct Distance Dialling). The last few years have seen the production of pop-top cans for drinks, and the throwaway containers that create waste and waste have new names: thrwaway or diposable.

In order to strengthen the power of expression, many new daily vocabulary have been created. This type of terminology has become very popular in recent years. If you don't understand it, it will be difficult to communicate with British, American and other people. For example, the new name of the psychiatric hospital is funny farm, while fat farm is a weight loss center; the female police officer who hands out tickets to illegally parked vehicles in the parking lot is called meter maid (slot machine girl) and uses a lot of oil. A "big food truck" is a gas eater. Money that is easy to get, especially through unfair means, is called quick buck, etc.

In fact, the reasons for the emergence of new words and their sources are very wide. It can be said that they are caused by various changes in the world, so it is impossible to list them as much as possible. All in all, the emergence of a large number of new words shows that society is changing and English is changing.

The composition of new vocabulary

According to research and statistics, in the 1960s and 1970s, more than 10,000 new English words appeared in Japan. However, this number only includes words and words that have been established and widely used, and some words that are accepted by most people, are too specialized, or are rarely used are not included. According to the research on these more than 10,000 new words, their composition methods can be divided into four major categories.

lt;1gt;Innovation method - that is, creating a brand new English word. According to the research results, the proportion of new characters and words created using this method is relatively small, because so far, English has a very strong and solid "team", and new words can be composed of old characters and original ones. The root of the word changes out. New words formed by innovative methods include.

(a) A small number of social science and natural science words, such as: periapsis (periapsis), cladistics (genetic taxonomy), penetralium (core organization), ekistics (urban and regional planning) , isomorphism (isomorphism), quark (quark);

(b) Trade names of new products that have become common (representing or used to refer to the same type of products) and proprietary names that have been used as common nouns Names, such as: lasercomp (laser computer typesetting machine), dolby system (Dolby system), miniteller (miniteller), Rent-a-Train taxi train). polarvision system (Polarvision system - instant movies) system), sealab (undersea laboratory), watergate (political scandal), Frisbee (toy flying saucer);

(c) Common parts of speech derived from proper nouns such as names of people and places, such as: Hitchcockian

(d) Frequently used acronyms (acronym) and common abbreviations (abbtreviation), such as: STLT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), COBOL (Coommon business Oriented Language) : Common language for business), BADGE (Base Air Defense Ground Environment: regional semi-automatic air defense system), ACV (air-cushion vehicle: air cushion vehicle), EEC (European Economic Community: European Economic Community, Europe ***Same market), comsat (communication satellite: communication satellite);

(e) New idioms, including slang and colloquialism that have not been included in official dictionaries before, Such as: posh (very fashionable), bonkers (crazy), easy meat (easy to distinguish), like a lead balloon (useless), can of worms (a mess), merchant of death (death dealer), go for broke (try your best), carry the can (face blame, take responsibility), selllike T-shirts (goods turn around).

The new characters and words created by this method also include a new form that shortens long words while maintaining the original meaning, such as deli (delicatessen: delicatessen), mod (modern : fashionable, modern), nat (mationalist: nationalist), neut (neutron bomb: neutron bomb), divi (dividend: bonus), disco (discotheque: disco, record nightclub), etc. This new form is as popular as the original character, and even surpasses it.

After some trademark names were accepted as common words, their usage, meaning and part-of-speech attributes also changed. For example, telex was originally a noun (user telegraph, telegraph user direct circuit), and now it can be used as a verb, meaning "notify by user telegram"; xerox was originally a noun (dry photocopying, static photocopying), and now it can be used as a verb; STP was originally gasoline Additives now refer to hallucinogens; in the word Tom it, it means "to accept the consequences".

lt; 2gt; Combination method - on the basis of old useful words, add prefixes, suffixes or other word-forming components to form new words, or combine two old useful words or parts of old useful words to form a new word, or to combine two word-forming components into a new word. The proportion of new words formed using this method is larger, and the meaning of the words is easier to understand and derive. For example: microelectronics (micro electrons: microelectronics), antididnapping (anti kidnapping: anti-kidnapping), autocue (auto cue: automatic prompter), electrofishing (electro fishing: electric fishing), photobotany (photo botany: photobotany ), educationese (education ese: education term), Pekingology (Peking o logy: Beijing studies, Beijing issue research), Dullesian (Dulles ian: Dulles style), robotesque (robot esque: robot-like);

Housrmanship (house manship: the eloquence of British MPs), Americandom (American dom:: American world), cryptosecurity (crypto security: of the Secret Security Department), paint-in (paint in: paint demonstration) , pedestrianization (pedestrianization: sidewalk), peacenik (peace nik: anti-war activist);

diet pill (weight loss pill), easy meat (easy to distinguish; easy to get things), Great Society (big society), hard science (hard science, natural science), landmark (landmark), cardcarrying (typical), carbecue (grill), boatel (motorboat hotel), chunkunnel (underwater train tunnel);

Electrophobia (electro phobia: electrical phobia), bionics (bio onics: bionics), quarkonics (quark onics: quark science).

Some prefixes, suffixes and word-forming elements are particularly prolific or active, including anti-, auto, bio, electro-, Euro-, extra-, geo-, hyper-, - ian, immuno-, in-, -in, inter-, intra-, -logy, macro-, micro-, mini-, multi-, -nik, non-, prar-, -phobia-, photo-, poly- , psycho-, etc., these word-forming components play a very active role in the process of forming new words.

lt; 3gt; Meaning-adding method---Add new meanings to old words. In recent years , many old words in use have added new meanings. There are many words of this type with old meanings and new meanings, so you should pay attention when encountering and using them, for example:

Happening: the old usage refers to an event , the new usage refers to "Hapning Art" (a stage or other form of performance that aims to surprise, surprise and engage the audience.

The new words in this part also include some words that in the past could only be used as a certain An old word used as a part of speech, but now it can be used as a different part of speech. For example, H-bomb used to be a noun (hydrogen bomb), but now it can be used as a verb, meaning "to attack with a hydrogen bomb"; lookingglass used to be a noun, meaning "mirror", but now it can be used as a verb. It can be used as an adjective to mean "upside down", "messy", etc.

Another example is that the word "soul" not only adds a new meaning, referring to "black culture", but can also be used as an adjective to generally refer to "black people", such as soul music (black music, soul music), soul food (black food), etc.

A noteworthy form of word formation is back-formation, which is the so-called "reverse word formation" or "reverse word formation". This is another part of speech that takes off the real suffix or the part that looks like a suffix from an existing word to form that word. For example, free association (free speech, free association) came first, and then free associate; one-up (one-upman, one-upman) and one-upman (one-upman, one-upman) are derived from one The word -upmanship is formed backwards. Laser is originally an acronym, but because it seems to be a noun derived from laser, people in the United Kingdom and the United States coined the verb laser, which means "to emit laser light" or "to be irradiated with laser light."

lt; 4gt; Borrowing method---borrowing or absorbing foreign words. This method has been around for a long time. Many characters and words in English were actually borrowed from foreign countries and eventually became an indispensable part of English. Many of these loanwords retain their original appearance, some are Latinized and spelled into English, and some have been reshaped or translated into English literally. For example:

discothèque lt;french gt;:record nightclub

autostrada lt;Italian gt;:autostrada

autopista lt;west gt;:autostrada

mao tai lt;中GT;:Moutai

sushi lt;日GT;:sushi

westpolitik lt;Gt;: (from Eastern European countries) )Western policy

samizdat lt;Russian gt;: samizdat publishing (material)

favela lt;Portuguese gt;: slums, wooden hut areas

haman lt; Arabic gt;: Heimam (Iranian public bathhouse)

Another example is black humor (black humor), originally French humor noir, which was borrowed by British and American people and changed into formal English according to the meaning; similarly, found Object (found art) comes from the French objet trouve. kirin comes from Japanese kylin, which in turn comes from Chinese ch’i lin (the old spelling of unicorn).

(This article is the introduction written by the author for "10,000 New English Word Dictionary")