From Language in Times of Change to a Changewithin Language

Productive Strategies forDesignating New Content in Arabic

Abstract

The study focuses on neologisms within scientific terminology in contemporary Arabic, exploring them based on the qualitative descriptive corpus analysis method. The analysis presented in the paper results in description of the inventory and scope of productive neological strategies at the moment in time when Arabic, like other languages of the world, faces a constant need to designate new content. Unlike other languages, however, the neological landscape in contemporary Arabic differs significantly from the one described throughout history, from the period of Classical Arabic to the present day. Thus, historically the most productive strategies for creating neologisms—derivation and semantic extension—are in scientific terminology creation given entirely new roles and are most often used as means of previously contested and neglected strategies such as loan translation, formation of multi-word lexical units, blending, and, to a considerable extent, affixation. At the same time, and often in parallel with other neological processes, lexical borrowing emerges as an exceptionally significant neological strategy, particularly in certain spheres of Arabic usage, such as colloquial language or scientific registers.