ABSTRACT
This paper first describes the development of neologism and gives a definition to it. Then, it explores the background and the reasons of the appearance of Internet English neologisms. Next, it genelizes the characteristics of the Internet English neologisms from two perspectives of meaning and formation. In the fifth part of this paper, it illustrates seven common ways of formation of these neologisms combined with examples, i.e., compounding, affixation, clipping, acronymy, blending, by adding new meanings to existing words, coinage. The sixth part introduces a new special form of neologism: emoticon, which are discussed from three aspects, i.e., definition, classification and formation. Finally, it anticipates three development tendency of the Internet English neologisms.
Keywords：Internet English neologisms; characteristic; formation;
development tendency
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. The development of neologism and its definition 2
3. The reasons for the appearance of the Internet English neologism 4
4. The characteristics of Internet English neologisms 5
4.1 Semantic features 5
4.1.1 Terse and Clear 5
4.1.2 Vivid and proper 6
4.1.3 Popular 6
4.2 Formation features 7
4.2.1 Easy to remember and type 7
4.2.2 Utilizing the symbols on the keyboard 7
5. Ways of the formation of Internet English neologisms 8
5.1 Compounding 8
5.2 Affixation 8
5.2.1 Prefixation 9
5.2.2 Suffixation 9
5.3 Clipping 9
5.4 Acronymy 10
5.4.1 Initialism 10
5.4.2 Acronymy 11
5.5 Blending 11
5.6 Adding new meanings to existing words 12
5.7 Coinage 12
6. Emoticon—a special Internet English neologism 14
6.1 The definition of emoticon 14
6.2 Classification of Emoticon 14
6.3 The formation of emoticon 16
7. The development tendency of the Internet English Neologisms 17
7.1 Internet English neologisms coming into daily usage 17
7.2 Irregular usage in the passage written by Internet English neologisms 17
7.3 A large number of neologisms springing up at a rapid speed 18
8. Conclusion 20
Acknowledgement 21
References 22
