Archive PACEA Otilia
The Annals of Ovidius University Constanţa no.20 / 2009
PACEA OTILIA - New Worlds, New Words : On Language Change and Word Formation in Internet English and Romanian
(pag. 87-102)
Technology and the English language have crossed paths over the past thirty years, in particular the internet as the latest IT development being the site of unprecedented language play and creativity. Amid a high-tech revolution, new linguistic varieties are born of parents of modern technology, Romanian making no exception. In this paper we explore the effects of a novel theoretical word formation model which draws on basic principles of cross-linguistic denomination that may contribute to the (re)formation of the mainstream lexis in the context of a highly technologicallyinfluenced semiotic situation. In focus are lexical coinages, blending, lexical and semantic calques, prefixes, suffixes and other compounds.