A Morpho-Semantic Analysis of Netspeak Neologisms in Fashion and Entertainment Blogs in Nigeria
Keywords:
neologism, morpho-semantics, lexical semantics, blogs, netspeakAbstract
The focus of the study was on the morpho-semantic analysis of netspeak neologisms in fashion and entertainment blogs in Nigeria. Through online interactions, certain English words, in Nigeria, have either been coined or have acquired a new sense. In order to examine how neologisms are used in blogs to create and maintain certain social constructions, the study analysed neologisms from five Nigerian blogs: Lindaikeji’s blog, bellanaija.com, naijaloaded.com.ng, notjustok.com, pulse.ng. The neologisms were sourced from blogs between 2015 and 2018. The analysis was based on Shuxin’s (1990) opinion that a newly created word, which has achieved universal acceptance and viral use in the vocabulary system of its users could be referred to as neologism. The analysis focused on the morphological processes that characterise the neologisms as well as the meanings of such in the contexts of fashion and entertainment in Nigeria. Our findings show that some instances of neologisms have been in use before, and have only undergone semantic extension. On the other hand, it was observed that other neologisms resulted from coinages. The dominant word classes that characterise the coined neologisms are nouns, verbs and adjectives which belong to the open class. The study observed that hardly was there any neologism from the closed class of words such as pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions.
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