Lexical Neologisms
Two common elements used to produce new words related to the Internet are cyber- and e-:
cybercafé, n. ‘a cafe that offers its customers computers with Internet access’; cyberterrorist, n. ‘a criminal who uses the Internet to do damage to computer systems’;
Semantic neologisms – new meanings of already existing words – result from semantic derivation due to the functional mobility of the vocabulary:
virus, n. ‘a piece of code which is capable of copying itself and typically has a detrimental effect, such as corrupting the system or destroying data’;
Idiomatic Neologisms
to open the kimono ‘to open a company's accounting books for inspection; to expose something previously hidden’; a sleep camel ‘a person who gets little sleep during the week, and then attempts to make up for it by sleeping in and napping on the weekend’; to put skin in the game ‘take an active interest in a company or undertaking by making a significant investment or financial commitment’;
27. Polysemy. Semantic structure of English words. Diachronic and synchronic approaches to polysemy. Types of polysemy.
Polysemy (Gr. πολυσημεία ‘multiple meaning’) is the ability of words to have more than one meaning.
Polysemy is typical of the English vocabulary due to:
-its monosyllabic character;
-the predominance of root words.
A monosemantic word is a word having only one meaning; these are mostly terms, e.g.: hydrogen, molecule.
A polysemantic word is a word having more than one meaning; highly polysemous words can include dozens of meanings, e.g. to go – appr. 40 meanings), to get, to put, to take – appr. 30 meanings).
A lexeme is the totality of all the forms and meanings of a word; a structural item of the vocabulary.
A lexico-semantic variant is one of the individual meanings of a polysemantic word.
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