New words : a study of applied linguistic relativity and the types and historical development of word formation in literature
This thesis is a literary linguistic study of lexical innovation in fiction. It uses corpus linguistic methods and concepts of morphological theory to develop a new word typology and to examine new words as to their role in directing a reader's imagination and with regard to their frequency and distribution in classic English literature between 1750 and 1923. A 56 million word corpus consisting of a homogenous variety of texts converted from online literature databases serves as the basis for a chronologically structured new word extraction. This is carried out aided by the concordancer programme AntConc. The following three aspects are addressed in this research. The first attempts to explain why certain new words appear newer than other equally novel forms. It demonstrates that the factors influencing a word's novelty effect are wordlike-ness, morpheme content, and formal and semantic analogy. A new word typology is derived from these. A second main section focuses on stylistic aspects. If the words we use influence the way we think, as theorised in the principle of linguistic relativity, then forming new words and reading these should influence the way we think about what they describe. The second element
Birth, Ann-Inga
Words ; New ; Grammar ; comparative and general ; Applied linguistics
New words : a study of applied linguistic relativity and the types and historical development of word formation in literature. This thesis is a literary linguistic study of lexical innovation in fiction. It uses corpus linguistic methods and concepts of morphological theory to develop a new word typology and to examine new words as to their role in directing a reader's imagination and with regard to their frequency and distribution in classic English literature between 1750 and 1923. A 56 million word corpus consisting of a homogenous variety of texts converted from online literature databases serves as the basis for a chronologically structured new word extraction. This is carried out aided by the concordancer programme AntConc. The following three aspects are addressed in this research. The first attempts to explain why certain new words appear newer than other equally novel forms. It demonstrates that the factors influencing a word's novelty effect are wordlike-ness, morpheme content, and formal and semantic analogy. A new word typology is derived from these. A second main section focuses on stylistic aspects. If the words we use influence the way we think, as theorised in the principle of linguistic relativity, then forming new words and reading these should influence the way we think about what they describe. The second element
new_word study apply_linguistic relativity type historical_development word_formation literature literary_linguistic study lexical innovation fiction corpus_linguistic method concept morphological theory develop_new word typology examine new_word role direct reader imagination regard frequency_distribution classic english literature word corpus_consist homogenous variety text convert online literature databases serve_basis chronologically structure new_word extraction carry aided programme follow_three aspect address research first_attempt explain certain new_word appear newer equally novel form demonstrates factor_influence word novelty effect ness morpheme content formal_semantic analogy new_word typology derive these second main_section focus stylistic aspect word_use influence way_think theorise principle linguistic relativity form new_word read influence way_think describe second element