To prove how much language is dynamic, how much it changes according to the “trends” that guide human relationships, we don't need to go much further. A practical example of this is the language of internet users, in which, through unusual abbreviations and vocabulary creations that are their own, typical of that universe, manage to maintain contact without problems. Here is the first indication that lexical creations exist and that they make the language much richer than we can imagine.
We look for another case in the so-called semantic neologisms that well illustrates the situation we propose to discuss (lexical creations). We just have to resort to the texts “semantic neologism”; as well as the “The word 'way' and its polysemic meanings” to prove that this is an unquestionable truth. So let's look at some examples that illustrate the fact:
* That resident was fined because of the “cat” he had made, a little before the arrival of the electric company inspectors.
The word cat, here, acquires a pejorative meaning, different from the conventional one, given that it characterizes an infraction with regard to the supply of energy.
* Don't worry, we'll find a way to get what you want.
In this context, the word “way” takes on a relative meaning to “achieve something”, no matter how.
Lexical creations are also present in literary works, as is the case of Guimarães Rosa in Grande Sertão: Paths. A great master in regionalism, the author also left very rich marks by innovating the cultural scene through the linguistic inventions he had made. He incorporated prefixes into existing words, as we can attest to in "circumtristry", resulting in the fusion of "sadness + surrounding", as well as in "harrelling", characterized by the joining of "open wings + fan". In other cases he actually invented words, as is the case of “drunk crawling”, whose meaning can perfectly apply to that person who is crawling, as drunk as he appears to be.
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Another representative of our lyrics is Manuel Bandeira, whose poem is entitled “Neologism”:
I kiss a little, I say even less.
But I make up words
that translate the deepest tenderness
And more everyday.
I invented, for example, the verb to weave.
Intransitive
Teadoro, Theodora.
Manuel Bandeira
We found that the poet created, as he himself attests, the verb “to tear”, resulting in the junction of the oblique pronoun + the verb to adore, which could be conjugated as follows:
I adore you
you weavers
He weaver... and so on.
Through such elucidations, the fact is that the lexical creations, even if they are not yet formalized, that is, portrayed by the dictionary, exemplify how the dynamism of our language becomes more and more gift. So, here is the question: is such an occurrence a richness for such a rich system (in this case, the language), or is it something harmful? Obviously, we must face it as something that has only to add, nothing more.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. "Lexical creations"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/criacoes-lexicais.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
