Name it right...
“A computer was something on TV From a
science fiction show of noteA window was something you hated to cleanAnd
ram was the cousinof a goat”
(Writer unknown)
Over the last 30 years, the biggest source of neologisms or new words
in English has probably been computing. In linguistics, a neologism is a
recently coined word, or the act of inventing a word or phrase.
Additionally it can imply the use of old words in a new sense such as
giving new meanings to existing words or phrases. Neologisms are
especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas
which have taken on a new cultural context. The word “neologism” was
coined around 1800 and was, at the time, a neologism itself.
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Most of the
Sinhala cricket jargon is freshly made out of English words |
New ideas are not only expressed by coining words. Even more common
is adding fresh meanings to existing words. Still within the computing
field, the words mouse, hardware, program, virus and monitor have all
taken on new meanings in the last 50 years, but they continue to be used
with their original senses – a mouse is still a small rodent as well as
a computing device.
Some neologisms, especially those dealing with sensitive subjects,
are often objected to on the grounds that they obscure the issue being
discussed, and that such a word’s novelty often leads a discussion away
from the root issue and onto a sidetrack about the meaning of the
neologism itself.
Sinhala lexicon gained a fair amount of neologisms during past
decades. Sinhala lexicon was subjected to a gradual development under
Sri Lanka’s various political and social situations. Word like
‘thrasthawaadiyaa’ for terrorist and ‘saranaagathayaa’ for the refugee
are some of most commonly used neologisms in Sinhala lexicon. Also, most
of the Sinhala cricket jargon is freshly made out of English words.
Nipanduwa for no ball, Kadulla for wicket and Noindul Ovaraya for a
maiden over have transformed into common Sinhala vocabulary.
Proponents of a neologism see it as being useful, and also helping
the language to grow and change; often they perceive these words as
being a fun and creative way to play with a language. Also, the semantic
precision of most neologisms, along with what is usually a
straightforward syntax, often makes them easier to grasp by people who
are not native speakers of the language.
Many neologisms have come from popular literature, and tend to appear
in different forms. Most commonly, they are simply taken from a word
used in the narrative of a book; for instance, McJob from Douglas
Coupland’s Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture and cyberspace
from William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Sometimes the title of the book will
become the neologism. Also worthy of note is the case in which the
author’s name becomes the neologism, although the term is sometimes
based on only one work of that author. This includes such words as
Orwellian (from George Orwell, referring to his novel Nineteen
Eighty-Four) and Ballardesque (from J.G. Ballard, author of Crash).
Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” has been called “the king of
neologistic poems” as it incorporated some dozens of invented words.
Although we cannot easily find literature oriented neologisms in
Sinhala, we can observe a set of television oriented new words emerged
in Sinhala lexicon. Some teledramas made considerable contribution in
coining words. Sinhala speakers, still call money as ‘something’ though
that word was introduced in a Sinhala teledrama more than 2 decades ago.
Yesterday’s neologisms are often today’s essential vocabulary.
Munidasa Cumaratunga, the great thinker and Sinhala grammarian stated
that ‘a nation that does not have new thinking, it cannot achieve a
development’. This is almost relevant with neologisms. A language would
never survive without new words in it. |
