“Hoos’ and Hurrahs in Jumbo vs. Betel Final”

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the common morphological processes used in forming neologisms found in Sri Lankan print media. The morphological processes adopted in this study are affixation, compounding, borrowing, acronomy, clipping and blending. The oxford English dictionary defines neologism as ―a new word or expression‖ or the coining or use of new words. Neologisms are formed daily in most languages around the world. Nowadays, many Sri Lankan ESL learners tend to use these neologisms in their writing compositions and in their conversations knowingly or unknowingly with the advent of social sites. Furthermore, many journalists make it a practice to use at least one or more neologisms in their newspaper articles to expand their vocabulary. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to find out how word formation has become an important process in the growth and expansion of the English vocabulary. The research problem of this study was what are the morphological processes frequently used in forming neologisms found in print media. The neologisms were collected from a selected weekly paper ―The Island‖. The data collection lasted throughout the month of August, 2015.40 neologisms were found after a careful observation of the editorials in ―The Island‖ newspaper. These selected neologisms were classified into their respective word classes. After that the meanings of the selected neologisms were mentioned based on the context in which they have been used in the selected material. Finally, the morphological processes of the selected neologisms were identified and analyzed by the researcher. Based on the analysis of the data it was found that ―affixation‖ is the most frequently used morphological process in forming new words whereas ―acronomy‖ is the second most frequently used neologism in forming neologisms. The study also showcased that ―blending‖ is the least frequently used morphological process out of the six morphological processes identified in the study. It was clearly evident from the findings that English is a language that is subjected to constant growth. In conclusion it is clear that the morphological processes that have been used for decades are still being used in the formation of neologism.