The spoken word and the written word constitute a rich universe that can be explored in different ways. In the Portuguese language, the area of linguistics that deals with the study of the meaning of words is Semantics and this is the subject that we will deal with today.
when we think of neologism and foreignism, we immediately thought of the meanings of the words, didn't we? This conceptualization is correct, however, it is necessary to distinguish between these two elements that, although they are responsible for the creation and appropriation of words, should not be confused. How about understanding a little more about this subject?
Differences between neologism and foreignism
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.
(Neologism, Manuel Bandeira)
It is not by chance that Manuel Bandeira, an important poet of Brazilian Modernism, chose the title Neologism
for your poem. In these simple free verses, there is a neologism that you could certainly identify, since love you and weave they are words that do not go unnoticed even by the most incautious of readers.The word neologism is of Greek origin: neo = new + logos = word idea + ism = suffix that forms nouns. We can say, therefore, that neologism is the process of creating new words in the language. This process happens whenever speakers invent words to expand vocabulary or when they lend new meanings to words that already exist. This phenomenon is common, especially nowadays, when technology calls for the creation of new words and expressions all the time!
it is understood by foreignism the use of non-language words, expressions and constructions borrowed from another language. The incorporation of linguistic loans takes place through a natural process of cultural assimilation and even through geographic proximity. Foreign words can keep their original spelling or go through an interesting Portuguese-speaking process, which often hides the true origin of the word. They are easily found in terms that refer to technology, and it is precisely in this semantic field of information technology that doubts tend to appear, given that many words from the world of computing are borrowed from English — which does not mean that they are necessarily foreignisms. Want to see some examples?
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Tweeter: Some say that the word tweeter it is a linguistic loan. Well, actually, that's not quite the story. Of course the noun is derived from an English language word, Twitter (the famous microblog), but the word in question is actually a neologism. Do you know why? because the word tweeter won the suffix -eiro so that he could thus refer to an activity or profession, as happens with some words in the Portuguese language (postman, engineer, bricklayer, janitor). Therefore, we cannot say that this is a foreignness, as some adaptations were made — adaptations that strictly follow the rules of the Portuguese language.
Neologism is the process of creating words. Foreignism is the borrowing of words from other languages
Delete: The word delete has a curious story! It has its origins in Latin, delete, whose meaning is delete. she went from french enrapture to english delete, and in Portuguese it gave rise to the adjective indelible, which means what cannot be erased. In the computer age, the word reappeared with its original meaning, that is, it reappeared as a verb - delete -, and now it appears in Portuguese language dictionaries as a direct transitive verb (you may have noticed that the termination -air to the radical). Therefore, we can say that the word delete it is a neologism, not a foreignness, as many claim.
Observing the examples, we can conclude that neologism and foreignism are linguistic phenomena analyzed by Semantics, however, each one has its particularities and for this reason they should not be confused. While the neologism creates and/or adapts words to Portuguese, no matter if from a linguistic loan, the foreignism it just includes a word or expression from another language in our vocabulary.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
