Literary coinages (including nonce-words)

Every period in the development of a language produces an enormous number of new words (neologisms), both in oral speech and in writing. Nonce words (occasional words) is a group of stylistically colored individual neologisms, which are created on the basis of the existing word-building patterns but have validity only in and for the given context. Usually they are heavily stylistically loaded. Their major stylistic function could be creation of the effect of laconism and implication or witty humor and satire.

Literary coinages are words created in writing. There are two types of literary coinages:

Terminological coinages (neologisms) are words coined to designate newly-born concepts resulting from the development of science and industry: cybernetics, nuclear fission, etc.

Stylistic coinages (neologisms) are words coined because their creators needed a more expressive means of communicating the idea. This kind of literary coinages is found in publicistic style mostly in newspapers articles and magazines.

New words are coined according to the productive models for word-building in the given language. Example: affixation: to villagize, anti-hero, anti-novelist, unworthwhile; conversion: to fellowship, to service, to garage a car; compounding: back-room boys (men engaged in secret research); blending: musicomedy (music-comedy), cinemactress (cinema actress); change of meaning: top (excellent, wonderful).

All these are new names for old concepts. The authors use them to make the utterance more conspicuous or sensational.

Words coined for one occasion are called nonce-words. If a word becomes commonly used it ceases to be a nonce-word and passes into the class of neologisms for some time, and later on it loses its novelty and ceases to be a neologism. But the majority of nonce words remain in the context for which they were created and retain the label "nonce" for ever.

Nonce words are used by writers for the sake of expressiveness, they are stylistically colored, their functions being different in different contexts, such as the creation of the effect of witty humor or satire. Example: The surgeon rubbed his hands and ha-ha-ed (Ch. Dickens). This nonce word will hardly be used in the English language.

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