Abstract

A neologism is created in some specific period, which is often related to something or somebody and is accepted by most people in that period. This thesis takes the studies of English neologisms in the 21st century as base, combines some domestic and foreign research achievement of English neologisms in the 21st century, gathers English neologisms from official media and magazines for data statistics and analysis, concludes their linguistic developmental factors from the two aspects of addition of words—acronym, blending, functional shift and borrowing—and semantic changes and analyzes the extra-linguistic factors of their appearance, including economic factors, political factors, scientific and technological factors and psychological factors so as to make language learners understand the new words better and use them more properly in actual communications. Also, it can bring learners a better knowledge of the rules of language development and changes.

Key words: English neologism; the 21st century; linguistic developmental factors; extra-linguistic developmental factors

摘要

新词是某个时期创造出的词语，通常会与某一事件或人物有相关联系，被特定时期的大部分人所接受。本文以21世纪英语中出现的新词汇为研究对象，结合21世纪英语新词的国内外研究成果，对从官方媒体和报刊收集来的新词进行统计和分析，从缩略、混合、功能转移和借用四种增词法和语义变化总结其发展的内部语言因素，并分析其出现的外在非语言因素，包括经济因素、政治因素、科技因素和心理因素，以便于语言学习者及使用者更好地理解其意义并在交际中更恰当地使用这些词汇，同时也能更好地理解语言发展变化的规律。

关键词：英语新词；21世纪；语言发展因素；非语言发展因素