Lexical Change

Lexical change — the creation, borrowing, and evolution of words — is the most visible and rapid form of language change. New words enter English every day, while existing words shift in meaning, register, or frequency. For AQA A-Level English Language, you need to understand both the processes by which new words are formed and the types of semantic change that alter the meanings of existing words. This lesson provides a comprehensive framework for analysing lexical change across any historical period.

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Word Formation Processes

A neologism is a newly coined word or expression, or a new meaning for an existing word.

English creates new words through a range of productive processes. You must be able to identify and analyse each of these:

1. Borrowing (Loanwords)

Borrowing is the adoption of words from other languages. English has borrowed more extensively than almost any other language, reflecting its history of contact with Latin, French, Old Norse, and many other languages.

Period	Source Language	Examples
Old English	Latin	street, wine, bishop, school
Old English	Old Norse	sky, take, they, egg, skirt
Middle English	French	parliament, justice, beef, beauty
Early Modern	Latin/Greek	education, democracy, physician
Modern	Global languages	tsunami (Japanese), safari (Swahili), avatar (Sanskrit), kindergarten (German), shampoo (Hindi)

2. Compounding

Compounding is the combination of two or more existing words to create a new word:

Type	Examples
Noun + noun	website, carjacking, binge-watching, smartphone
Adjective + noun	blackbird, hardware, software, fast-food
Verb + noun	pickpocket, breakfast, scarecrow
Noun + verb	babysit, daydream, lip-read

3. Blending

Blending combines parts of two words to create a new one. It differs from compounding because at least one element is a fragment rather than a complete word:

Blend	Source Words
brunch	breakfast + lunch
smog	smoke + fog
podcast	iPod + broadcast
Brexit	Britain + exit
staycation	stay + vacation
mansplain	man + explain
vlog	video + blog

4. Clipping

Clipping shortens a word by removing one or more syllables:

Type	Examples
Back-clipping (most common)	phone (telephone), gym (gymnasium), exam (examination), app (application)
Fore-clipping	bus (omnibus), plane (aeroplane)
Middle-clipping	flu (influenza), fridge (refrigerator)

5. Conversion (Zero Derivation)

Conversion changes a word's grammatical class without adding any affix:

Direction	Examples
Noun → verb	to google, to text, to email, to microwave, to bookmark
Verb → noun	a run, a build, a must, a reveal
Adjective → verb	to empty, to clean, to dry, to lower
Adjective → noun	the homeless, the unemployed, a daily

6. Affixation

Affixation adds prefixes or suffixes to existing words:

Type	Examples
Prefixation	un-friend, re-tweet, de-platform, mis-information, cyber-attack, mega-rich
Suffixation	cloud-based, user-friendly, truthful-ness, self-ish, click-able, binge-worthy

7. Back-formation

Back-formation creates a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from an existing word:

Existing Word	Back-formation
editor	edit (not the other way around)
television	televise
babysitter	babysit
donation	donate
enthuse	from enthusiasm
liaise	from liaison

8. Acronyms and Initialisms

Type	Definition	Examples
Acronym	Pronounced as a word	NATO, NASA, scuba, laser, radar
Initialism	Pronounced letter by letter	BBC, NHS, DIY, ASAP, FAQ

Some acronyms become so naturalised that speakers forget they are acronyms: laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) are rarely capitalised today.

9. Eponyms

Eponyms are words derived from proper nouns (usually names of people or places):

Eponym	Origin
sandwich	Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792)
boycott	Captain Charles Boycott (1832–1897)
algorithm	Al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850)
champagne	Champagne region, France
wellingtons	Duke of Wellington (1769–1852)
cardigan	Earl of Cardigan (1797–1868)

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Semantic Change