Protologism Explained
In linguistics, a protologism is a newly used or coined word, a nonce word, that has been repeated but not gained acceptance beyond its original users or been published independently of the coiners. The word may be proposed, may be extremely new, or may be established only within a very limited group of people. A protologism becomes a neologism as soon as it appears in published press, on a website, or in a book, independently of the coiner[1] - though, most definitively, in a dictionary.[2] A word whose developmental stage is between that of a protologism (freshly coined) and a neologism (a new word) is a prelogism.[3]
Overview
Protologisms constitute one stage in the development of neologisms. A protologism is coined to fill a gap in the language, with the hope of its becoming an accepted word. As an example, when the word protologism itself was coined—in 2003 by the American literary theorist Mikhail Epstein—it was autological: an example of the thing it describes.
About the concept and his name for it, Epstein wrote:
According to Epstein, every word in use started out as a protologism, subsequently became a neologism, and then gradually grew to be part of the language.
There is no fixed rule determining when a protologism becomes a stable neologism, and according to Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words:
See also
- Hapax legomenon, a word occurring only once in a given context, such as in the works of a particular author
- Neologism, a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language.
- Nonce word, a word created for a single occasion
- Sniglet, a humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists
References
- Book: Aitken, James K. . Aitken, J.K. . Clines, J.M.S. . Maier, C.M. . Neologisms: A Septuagint Problem . Interested Readers: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David J. A. Clines . 2013 . Society of Biblical Literature . Atlanta, Georgia . 978-1-58983-926-7 . https://books.google.com/books?id=JNqdAgAAQBAJ&q=protologisms+protologism&pg=PA316 .
- Book: Eismann, Wolfgang . Müller, Peter O. . Ohnheiser, Ingeborg . Olsen, Susan . Rainer, Franz . 1 . 2015 . Individual initiatives and concepts for expanding the lexicon in Russian . Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe: Volume 3 . Walter de Gruyter . Berlin, Germany; Boston, USA . https://books.google.com/books?id=myuCCgAAQBAJ&q=protologism&pg=PA1756 . 978-3-11-037566-4 .
- Book: Epstein, Mikhail . 2011 . PreDictionary: Experiments in Verbal Creativity . Franc-Tireur . 978-1-257-83189-0 . 758864333.
- Book: Epstein, Mikhail . 2012 . The Transformative Humanities: A Manifesto . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-1-4411-6094-2 .
- Book: Gryniuk, D. . Malec, W. . Rusinek, M. . 2015 . On Institutionalization and De-Institutionalization of Late 1990s Neologisms . Within Language, Beyond Theories (Volume III): Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Corpus-based Studies . Cambridge Scholars Publishing . Newcastle upon Tyne, UK . https://books.google.com/books?id=HoLWCgAAQBAJ&q=protologisms&pg=PA150 . 978-1-4438-7822-7 .
- Book: Humez . Alexander . Humez . Nicholas . Flynn . Rob . Short Cuts: A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, and Other Forms of Minimalist Communication . registration . 36 . protologism. . 3 August 2010 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-538913-5 .
- Web site: Maxwell . Kerry . 28 October 2014 . BuzzWord: protologism . Macmillan .
- Moore . Andrew . The hypothesis' ambassador . January 2011 . BioEssays . 1 . 33 . 1 . 10.1002/bies.201090064. 21157784 . 46119825 .
- Book: Miller . D. Gary . English Lexicogenesis . 2014 . OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-100420-9 . en.
- Book: Solnyshkina, Marina I. . Lexicographical Basis for Russian Naval Sublanguage Dictionary: Theoretical Considerations . Karpova, Olga . Kartashkova, Faina . Essays on Lexicon, Lexicography, Terminography in Russian, American and Other Cultures . https://books.google.com/books?id=s6cYBwAAQBAJ&q=protologism+neologism&pg=PA186 . 2009 . Cambridge Scholars Publishing . 978-1-4438-0645-9 .
Further reading
- Skidelsky . William . Will's words . Prospect . April 2007 . subscription .
External links
Notes and References
- Lysanets, Yu V., and K. H. Havrylieva. "Medical neologisms in the british mass media discourse." (2017).
- Simatupang, E. C. M., & Heryono, H. (2022). New-word formation and social disruption on metaverse. English Review: Journal of English Education, 10(3), 1019. http://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v10i3.6722.
- Book: Anesa . Patrizia . Lexical Innovation in World Englishes: Cross-fertilization and Evolving Paradigms . 2018 . Routledge . Three, 3.
