| Abstract [eng] |
This thesis examines the formation of English neologisms on social media platforms Reddit and X. The study focuses on the problem of rapid lexical innovation in online communication and investigates how different social media environments contribute to the development of contemporary English vocabulary. The aim of the research is to identify the most common word-formation processes used in the creation of neologisms and to compare their distribution across platforms and thematic communities. The dataset consists of 300 neologisms collected from posts and comments published from June 2025 to February 2026. The items are equally distributed between Reddit and X, as well as among three communities: news, gaming and education. The overall corpus comprised 5582 words. The study applies both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The qualitative analysis focuses on the categorisation and examination of the collected neologisms according to word-formation processes based in established morphological frameworks (Štekauer & Lieber 2005; Mattiello 2013; Shahlee & Ahmad 2020). The quantitative analysis examines the frequency and distribution of the processes across the selected platforms and communities. The results show that initialisms, acronyms and clippings are the most frequent, accounting for the majority of the dataset (69%). Mixed-formations (9%), semantic shift (7%), compounding (6%) and affixation (5%) occur less frequently, contributing to expressive and evaluative meanings. Reddit tends to favour abbreviations and structurally complex formations, such as mixed-formations and affixations, while X demonstrates greater variety in word-formation overall, particularly semantic shift and blending. Analysis of the communities reveals that gaming discourse relies heavily on technical abbreviations. News communities show a greater use of expressive and creative forms. Education communities display a more balanced distribution of processes. Overall, the findings demonstrate how social media contributes to the ongoing development of the English lexicon by encouraging rapid lexical innovation and the spread of newly coined words. The study is limited by a relatively small dataset and the focus on only two platforms. Future research could expand the dataset and include additional social media platforms or cross-linguistic comparisons to provide a broader understanding of neologism formation in digital communication. |
