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.
