ENEOLI: A Short Guide
Michael Rosner, University of Malta
The Action: European Network On Lexical Innovation (ENEOLI) is action CA22126 (2023-2027) supported by the EU under the COST programme. All such actions are intended to foster scientific collaboration and community building in a particular thematic area, which, in the case of ENEOLI, is Neology, the study of neologisms – new words and word forms.
The Idea: Neologisms are a universal and necessary aspect of human language and so Neology has fundamental importance providing insights not only into lexical structure of individual languages, but into the communities within which novel terms are created and used. The study of Neology gravitates around a number of important scientific questions such as: what exactly is meant by a new word? What is the trajectory of such words over different dimensions such as time; language, geographical region and subject area? What linguistic mechanisms are available for their creation? What methods can be used for their discovery, and how do some neologisms become assimilated into a language?
The Goals: The overall aim of the action to establish a network of researchers in and beyond EU countries sharing best practices and methods concerning the study of lexical innovation. The network will focus on four key objectives in pursuit of this aim. The first is to establish and disseminate a much needed shared metalanguage circumscribing the system of concepts essential to the study of Neology. The second seeks to describe and develop a repository encompassing the data, methodologies and methods used by practitioners in the field. The third focuses on documenting how neologisms compare across different languages and regions. Finally, the fourth will develop and implement a training programme to facilitate the take-up of the field within a broad context inside and outside academia.
Structure: Four working groups have been established In order to achieve this broad range of goals.
- WG1 A Multilingual Glossary of Neology will be created containing definitions and references in the form of an accessible web-based knowledge graph, using corpora in different languages to identify key terms and associated concepts.
- WG2 Methods, Digital Resources and Tools for Neology will make available digital resources and tools developed to study lexical innovation, and will foster cross-fertilisation of ideas on lexical innovation using computational methods and tools from other scientific communities (e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Linguistic Linked Open Data, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, etc.)
- WG3 Diachronic and Synchronic Comparative Studies of Neology aims to measure the “permeability” of languages to outside influence (especially in the field of new digital and web-based technologies) and the degree of reactivity they show in creating and disseminating new expressions. Case studies on several languages having differing traditions of and attitudes to neologisms will be carried out.
- WG4 Training in Neology will focus on the development of a didactic approach to neology tailored to a number of different professional fields such as terminology, technical communication, literary translation and specialised translation, each requiring a different approach to lexical creation
Besides the working groups ENEOLI offers a programme of support for scientific exchanges and visits allowing participant members to carry out collaborative work transcending the traditional academic and national boundaries.
