TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY NEOLOGISMS: FORMATION AND SEMANTIC SHIFTS

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive examination of the formation mechanisms and semantic shifts characterizing twenty-first-century English neologisms, with particular attention to lexical innovations that have emerged between 2000 and 2024. Drawing on a robust corpus-driven methodology and framed within contemporary cognitive-semantic theory, the analysis investigates 450 neologisms compiled from major linguistic corpora—including COCA, NOW, and GloWbE—as well as extensive datasets derived from Reddit and Twitter. This combination enables a multidimensional exploration of both institutionalized lexical items and those originating within rapidly evolving digital environments.

The findings reveal that the digital era has fundamentally transformed morphological productivity, with blending, compounding, and acronymization functioning as the most prolific mechanisms of word formation. These processes reflect the communicative pressures of online discourse, where brevity, multimodality, and expressive density are increasingly prioritised. At the same time, the study identifies a range of semantic processes—including metaphorical extension, evaluative drift, pejoration, amelioration, and broader patterns of resemanticization—that collectively demonstrate how meanings evolve rapidly as lexemes circulate across technologically mediated platforms.

Crucially, the results indicate that neologisms do not merely expand the lexicon but also serve as linguistic responses to accelerating technological innovation, shifting sociopolitical conditions, and intensifying cultural dynamics. Many of the semantic trajectories documented in this research point to the role of digital communities, algorithmic amplification, and platform-specific discourse norms in shaping how new words are adopted, interpreted, and ideologically charged.

Overall, the research demonstrates that neologisms function as dynamic semiotic artifacts that both reflect and participate in the conceptual reorganization of social life in the twenty-first century.