Lexical Creativity in

Technology-Related Blogs
Nelson Cornejo del Mundo, LPT
Ph.D Applied Linguistics cand.
MOOC Camp Leader – RELO US Embassy in
the Philippines
Introduction
Language evolved in time. Change is the only constant in
this planet and we cannot deny that fact. Similarly, the change that
happened in other things in this world occur as well in language
and on how creative people are in using it in daily conversation.

Morphological change happened through time. Morphology

is something that linguist should know about.

Creating new words is something that cannot be stop or prevented

nowadays where all the innovation in language occur from time to
time varying across cultures and context. There are lots of
experiences that happened everyday and the creation of new
vocabulary exist.
Related Literature
In English words: structure and meaning (2009), the
discussion dealt with the meaning of existent words in English but
different situation arises: new phenomenon is introduced into
human experience and some new words needs to be created. It is
possible to identify a process by which new words are formed, it is
difficult to precisely determine when a new word was first used,
and why speakers of the language agreed to use it. For example,
the candy term/food term lollipop was created through the
process of meaning extension: the meaning of word as it applies
to food was extended to the versions of android operating systems
in gadgets. Dictionaries at this point can only provide general
information about the origins of words, but certainly cannot
explain why a given word gains universal acceptance.
• In English words: structure and meaning (2009), Acronyms and
abbreviations are formed using the first letters of two or more words to form
a single word. The difference between the two processes is that while
acronyms can be pronounced as a single word, abbreviations have to be
spelled out. Thus, AIDS is an acronym because it can be pronounced as a
single word, while CIA is an abbreviation because the individual letters
have to be pronounced. Acronyms and abbreviations are very common in
English.
• Abbreviations LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) DVD (digital video disc)
CPA (certified public accountant) IED (improvised explosive device) ID
(identification) lol (laughing out loud) WMD (weapons of mass destruction)
MP (Member of Parliament, or military police).
• An abbreviation or acronym is spelled entirely with capital letters. However,
lol is entirely in lower case because it comes from a medium – instant
messaging – in which lower-case letters are generally preferred. Words
such as radar or sonar are lower case because these words are not
perceived to be acronyms, they are regarded as words themselves, not
letters derived from a series of words.
• In many languages, Meyer (2007), compounding (also called
composition) is the most frequently used way of making new
lexemes. Its defining property is that it consists of the
combination of lexemes into larger words. In simple cases,
compounding are word combinations, in which one word
modifies the meaning of the other, the head.
• Clipping (Aarts & McMahon, 2006) refers to the shortening of
some word while the original meaning is retained.
• In technology related blogs there are words like applications
that were already known as app or apps in computer and
smartphones. Some other term like specs for specifications
appear in different technology-related blogs in the
Philippines.
• Blends, (Aarts & McMahon, 2006) or portmanteau words as
Humpty Dumpty called them, are lexemes made out of a
phonological parts of two (rarely more) other words, with the
parts which remain from the originals being determined purely
phonologically without any reference to morphs. Examples are
motel for motor hotel, sexploitation for sex + exploitation, and
smog for smoke + fog. In some cases, there may be some part
of the blend which is common to the two words of the original
(as in sexploitation) but this is not a requirement for a blend.
• In this world where English gained so much attention in all its
glory from the inner circle like United States, United Kingdom,
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and the outer circle
counterpart Singapore, India, and the Philippines including the
expanding circle as mentioned by Kachru (2005).
 Methods
• No. of words: 120, 000 (original)
• After data cleansing: 118,063 words (Tagalog words
omitted)
• Coverage: November – December 2018
January – March 2019
To further check and verify the list of word formation, the
researcher, used two dictionaries specifically Merriam and
Webster and an on-line dictionary www.grandtourdictionary.com to
counter check the meaning of words that are common or existent
words but used in different context or application in present day
English.
Table 1. Roster of Technology-related blogs in the Philippines and
the number of words and percentage used in this study:
Web Blogs No. of Words Percentage

filipinotechaddict 3768 3.19

gadgets magazine 4620 3.91

ilonngotechblog 138 0.12

mobiletechpinoy 7276 6.16

mosh.ph 2943 2.49

noypigeeks 6593 5.58

pinoytechnoguide 7592 6.43

techchore 988 0.84

technobaboy 6777 5.74

techpinas 22318 18.90

techtektek 47075 39.87

techycorner 1174 0.99

tjsdaily 6801 5.76

TOTAL 118063 100%

• The data were analyzed based on its number of
occurrences in different blog reviews. The blogs were
compiled to become one text file for concordance.
AntConc, a tool used for different corpus-based study
was employed to make sure that each word were
counted systematically.
Studying word formation process is not as easy as one, two, and

three and therefore an extensive research on the origin of words and

its lexical form should be taken into consideration. We cannot just

utter a word and give our own meaning to it. As the researcher

explore the technology-related blogs let us take a look at the

following findings:
 Table 2. Existent Words/New Words in English that
gain universal acceptance in technology-based world.
Existent Words/New Technology related use Frequency
Words in English
Refers to an advanced version of operating system of an android smart phone
Lollipop and tablets 41
Refers to an advanced version of operating system of an android smart phone
KitKat and tablets 66
An act of capturing your own image at the moment for social media posting
Selfies/selfie 61
Refers to online memory that can be accessed anywhere
Cloud 73
Vivid or a very high resolution of screen display
Retina 16
To execute an internet search; to make an online search. A particular internet
Google company. 95
Refers to the memory capacity of a computer or gadgets (tablet, mobile phones
Memory etc.) 66
Wireless transfer of data and information from one destination to another
Bluetooth 102
A very popular and user-friendly operating system environment for mobile phones
Android and tablets. 290

Popular Philippine brand for smartphones and tablets.

Cherry 106
Smartphone Electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of mobile phones, personal 261
digital assistant or other information appliance.

Tablet/tablets Replace laptop mobility having similar functions and usability 113

Apple Name of Apple Inc. that produces computers and digital devices 123

IPad Refers to a popular brand of tablet 67

IPhone Refers to a popular brand of smartphone 124

Juice Refers to battery life 15

Phablets Smart Phone tablet 21

MacBook A popular version of apple laptops 29

EPSON A very popular brand of printer 28

Touch screen An input/output device that allows the users to interact with the computer by touching the 34
display screen

Blackberry Popular brand of smartphones and tablets 42

SAMSUNG Popular Korean brand of smartphones and other gadgets. 211

WINDOWS An operating system with Graphical User Interface 185

GALAXY A popular series of Samsung Galaxy smartphone 174

Skype A popular face-to-face videoconferencing communication 12

• Aarts & McMahon (2006), in their book mentioned that the term word-
manufacture is used to refer to the creation of words as nothing more than a
sequence of letters or phonemes. The letters or phonemes must (with a certain
amount of freedom which is hard to quantify) form patterns which are permitted
within English, but otherwise there is no requirement of internal structure, and
indeed, we would expect internal morphological structure to be absent. Word-
manufacture is used most obvious in the formation of new trade names like
Kodak and Exxon, but also occurs in the rest of the vocabulary. Words such as
barf ‘vomit,’ blurb, boff ‘have sexual intercourse with,’ quark, scag are probably
(it is often difficult to tell with certainty) instances of word-manufacture.
• In Behera & Mishra (2013), the process of creating new words specifically in
product or to extension of a name of a product from a specific reference to a
more general one such as Xerox and Kleenex are termed new coinages. Band-
Aid, Factoid, Google, Zipper. In fact, completely new words account for less than
1% of all English neologisms.
• Table 2 showed several words like Epson (a very popular name of printer),
skype (a very popular application for video conferencing and telecommuting)
and words like Samsung and many others are examples of word manufacture in
the technology aspect and can also be termed new coinages in some respect.
Table 3. Acronyms and abbreviations
Acronyms/Abbreviatio Meaning Frequency

ns

HTTP/s Hypertext transfer protocol 93

HDMI High definition multiple interface 21

HD High definition 147

GB Gigabyte 452

LCD Liquid Crystal Display 34

MBPS Megabyte per second 31

PC Personal Computer 27

VGA Video Graphics Array 24

• An acronym (Behera & Mishra, 2013), unlike an abbreviation,
is a word formed from the first letters of a series of words.
"NATO" is an example of an acronym.
• All acronyms are abbreviations, but not all abbreviations are
acronyms.
• In the world of technology acronyms and abbreviations
commonly appeared in the roster of its dictionary. GB for
example referring to gigabyte that measure the memory
capacity of a computer or gadget becomes a very popular
computer term in computer-embedded manufacturing. Other
popular acronyms include HD (high definition), LCD (liquid
crystal display), MBPS (megabyte per second), and HTTP
(hypertext transfer protocol).
• Aside from acronym and abbreviations, a new blend of word was coined
and termed an ACROWORD, the researcher’s own terminology.
• An acroword is the combination of letters usually in upper case, (it can be
a single letter or more but cannot be accounted as word) and the word
itself. A very classic example of an acroword is MicroSD (micro storage
device).
• As you can see the combination is in a form of an acronym or
abbreviation and a word where I devised my own term. MicroSD
appeared seventy one times in the corpus. Another acroword that
appeared twenty three times in the corpus is microUSB (micro universal
serial bus) and dual-SIM (dual single inline memory) that appeared ten
times and nanoSIM that appear four times.
• This combinations cannot be derived from any of the word formations
since it’s a combination of acronym and words. In this regard, as
mentioned by the researcher, more and more words can be coined in the
field of technology and we will see how it gained acceptance as we listen
to people around talking about it in our day-to-day life activities.
 Table 4. Compounding Compounding or compound words can be a
Technology related compound words combination of two lexemes that are closely
Smartphone Text-ads related, example given contains the noun +
noun, adjective + noun and verb + noun.
Smartwatch Text-selection
Quadcore Text-based In the production of technology products
people tend to think of words or combination of
Quadband Surface-clone
words that can attract the buying public to catch
Power-demanding Surface-looking an eye on their saleable items. Notice that the
Power-efficient Oneboard term used like ultra (n. extreme, far beyond the
Power-saving Onedrive norm) is partnered with either a noun or another
Power-packed OneNote adjective such as ultrabook, ultra-portable, ultra-
sharp, and ultra-power that can exactly attract
Touchpad Open office the attention of people to buy a certain
Touch-screen Openstack technology product. Another example is the
Touch-sensitive Opensignal word touch (n. an act of touching, especially with
Touch-enable Dualband the hand or finger) is combined with another
noun or an adjective like touch-sensitive and
Gorilla glass Dual-sim
touchpad. The word smart (adj. exhibiting
Ultrabook Dual-core intellectual knowledge, clever, wise and
Ultra-fast Dual-cartridge humorous) come along with noun or another
Ultra-portable Dualshock adjective such as smartwatch and smartphone.
Ultra-sharp Crowdfunding In this account, the researcher agrees that
combining such word that denotes positive
Ultra-chrome Crowdsourcing impact can attract people attention specifically all
Ultra-pixel Backlit of these words are known to be used to advertise
Ultra-power Backlash a product.
Monochrome Soundtrue
 Technology Related CAP Compound
MegaPixel MyPhone
QuickMemo BackBeat
Apart from the common compound words or compounding the
TouchWiz PayPal
VoiceMate LIVEChat
researcher arrived with a new term CAP compound (the word CAP is
YouTube AllShare
Touch-Type WikiPedia
intentionally spell-out in upper case letters for emphasis) which appeared to
OneDrive TrackPad
QuickSnap PhoneArena
be combination of two words having the first letter of each word in capital
WeChat CloudFone
PureView WinTab
letter or uppercase form. Usually, these words are features of technology
StreetView SugarSync
ClearType DisplayPort
product or name of an application associated to a product.
ClearBlack ColorSpill
WordMonger ZenWatch
RealSense HandAnalysis
CrystalVoice FaceAnalysis
• Clipping process in which words are made by removing a
part of that word and using the remnant as a word with the
same meaning.
• Nelson (2001) said that clipping is a type of abbreviation in
which one or more syllables are omitted or ‘clipped’ from a
word. Most commonly, the beginning of the word is
retained like ad (or advert) for advertisement, decaff (also
decaf) for decaffeinated coffee, demo for demonstration,
exam for examination, improv for improvisation, lab for
laboratory, memo for memorandum, movie for moving
picture, photo for photograph, and pub for public house.
• Clipping is a very common method of creating familiar
personal names, including Fred (from Frederick), Tim (from
Timothy) and Seb (from Sebastian).
 Word Clipping Frequency

Telephone Phone 239

Application App 169

Inches Inch 144

Applications Apps 104

Specifications Specs 100

Technology Tech 54

Professional Pro 54
Notice that words are clip but the meaning is retained. The contextual
Evolution Evo 51

Microchip Micro 35
value of the word remained the same though the word was shorten. On the
Camera Cam 30

Promotion Promo 26
contrary, blending gives new meaning to the word being combined.
Microchip Chip 25

Automatic Auto 21

Microphone Mic 12
 Blending
• Behera & Mishra (2013), Blending: Blended words are
otherwise known as portmanteaus. It is the word formation
process in which parts of two or more words combines to
create a new word whose meaning is often a combination of
the original words. For example: advertisement +
entertainment → advertainment, biographical + picture →
biopic, breakfast + lunch → brunch, chuckle + snort →
chortle
• A consideration of present-day blends (Pyles and Algeo
1993: 277-9 in Hickey, 2006), shows that more than one
process may be involved. A case like docusoap is actually
derived from a clipping of documentation to docu and then
the combination with soap, itself a clipping from soap opera.
Blends Words blended together
Supcase Support + case It is without relevance whether blends are
Pixels Picture + elements
established words in current English even within a
Internet International + network
Modem Modulator + demodulator single country like USA and Britain. For example,
Wifi Wireless + fidelity
Smartphone Smart + telephone
the term netizen ‘a citizen of the internet’
Telpad Telephone + pad
(Knowles and Elliott 1997: 208 in Hickey, 2006)
Cloudapp Cloud + application
Phablet Phone + tablet may not be part of the active vocabulary of the
Cloudfone Cloud + telephone
majority of English users. It is probably more
Wintab Windows + tablet
Telecom Telephone + communications proper to see blends as a fluid group of words

Featured app Featured + applications which come and go and whose general acceptance
Blog Web + log
in the wider community depends on their lexical
Appstore Application + store
Cellphone Cellular + phone transparency.
 In today’s world of change, where our planet becomes a global village with which
increasingly the entire population can communicate to each other with just a click of a mouse,
the possibility of lexical creativity cannot be stopped or prevented. Morphological change
occurs by all means and new words will be introduced to the masses, to the intellectual
consumers that is why lexical creativity and new word formation grows which is the solid
foundation of all information available in the Internet.
This study is an attempt to explore the present situation of morphological change and what
is yet to come in the future of lexical creativeness in present day English.

As to the introduction of all these words, formed and created through word formations by
coining, blending, clipping, or compounding including the acroword and the cap compound, the
thing that matter to us will never stop and thus it will continue as people communicate and
tried to make understanding far more better than before.
References

Aarts, B., & McMahon, A. (2006). Compounds and Minor Word-formation Types. In L. BAUER, The
Handbook of English Linguistics (pp. 483-504). Blackwell Publishing.

Behera, B., & Mishra, P. ( 2013). The Burgeoning Usage of Neologisms in Contemporary English. IOSR
Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 25-35.

Compounding. (2007). In G. Booij, The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology

Second Edition (pp. 75-76). New York: Oxford University Press.

English words: structure and meaning. (2009). In C. F. Meyer, Introduction to Linguistics (pp. 150-181).
New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hickey, R. (2006). Productive lexical processes in present-day English . Corpora and the History of
English, 153-168.

Kachru, B. B. (2011). ASIAN ENGLISHES BEYOND THE CANON. Aberdeen Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press.

Nelson, G. (2001). English: An Essential Grammar. New York: Routledge.

Spencer, A., & Zwicky, A. M. (2001). Introduction. In A. Spencer, & A. M. Zwicky , The Handbook of
Morphology (p. 1). Blackwell Publishing.
Thank you!!!

Mabuhay!
Pilipinas