Social Networks

A Source of Lexical Innovation and Creativity in Contemporary Peninsular Spanish

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7328149
AutoresBeatriz Arrizabalaga (0000-0002-8625-3732, Universidad de Huelva, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen6
Número3
Páginas138-138
Fecha de publicación2021-08-16
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLanguages (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages6030138
OpenAlexW3195508768
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas37

There is no doubt that the Internet, where English is ubiquitous, has revolutionized our way of life. Socially, it has opened frontiers to such an extent that nowadays human beings can be permanently connected, no matter the distance between them, in virtual encounters where social networks play a crucial role. Linguistically, on the other hand, it has created a new global language which combines properties of written and oral speech. The Internet’s lexical level, in particular, is described as extremely innovative, creative and playful since it is full of neologisms, many of which are Anglicisms, coined to name the new realities constantly brought along with the evolution of the digital world. In order to demonstrate that social networks are indeed the source of a wide array of creative and playful neological Anglicisms in Peninsular Spanish, we have carried out a corpus-based analysis of the names of five current social and interactive forms of Internet communication in two contemporary Spanish corpora; specifically, that of the indirect social network generically known as the blog and those of the direct social networks Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp. Our study focuses, specifically, on four facets of these neological Anglicisms: (i) their date of introduction into the language; (ii) their frequency of occurrence; (iii) their diverse spellings; and (iv) finally, the different word-formation processes they enter

Creativity · Linguistics · Neologism · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Psychology · Social Psychology · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies