Word-Formation Processes of Occasional Neologisms in the Political Discourse of Modern Greek: Nomination of Party Representatives and Their Supporters

The article is devoted to the analysis of neologisms in the political discourse of Modern Greek derived from the names of political parties, organizations and associations to denote their members and supporters. This work analyzes word-formation models, semantics and pragmatics of these lexemes and also their role in political communication. The process of suffixation, identified as the method of formation for these lexemes, is a highly frequent phenomenon of word formation which appears as the theme of several works dedicated to the morphology and word formation of the lexemes in Modern Greek. The research material includes 57 lexemes-neologisms identified through working with electronic text corpora and websites of Greek print media. Morphological analysis of the neologisms based on D. Corbin’s derivation model is used in the study, which allows us to analyze the structure and explain semantic similarities and differences between derived neologisms, predict meanings that potentially emerge while using specific morphological structures and demonstrate the degree of realization of each lexical element. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the systematic analysis of neologisms within the political discourse of Modern Greek, which have not previously been recorded in dictionaries of Modern Greek. As a result we find out the most productive formants, the primary source for derivation appears to be abbreviations, the main word formation methods are clipping and truncation, graphic variations and letter-loss during affixation. Feminine lexemes are most commonly formed by using the suffix – ισσα, less frequently – η and – α, reflecting a broader process of feminization in Modern Greek word formation system. The results of the work confirm that neologisms in political discourse are indicators of language dynamism and their morphological analysis is a valuable tool for studying the evolution of Modern Greek word formation and sociolinguistic processes.

Modern Greek, political discourse, neologisms, nonce words, pejoratives, feminatives, suffixation, word formation, derivation, morphological analysis