Neologisms in Business - an Indication of our Incessantly Developing Economy (PART 2)

Studying neologisms from the cultural perspective brings better understanding of our world. The appearance of new words enables us to observe how the business world evolves, what direction it goes and what its target is. It is unquestionable that economy will transform through innovation and technological development, and hence the language - be it jargon or formal language - will change accordingly. Refusal to accept neologisms equals dissent from acquiescence to the improvement of the whole business sector, including computing, science and technology.

   As markers of these changes, new words perform various functions; they denote totally new phenomena, as was exemplified by the phrase ambush marketing, they present new attitude towards already existing ones, let us recall the noun philantropreneur, neologisms also refer to the whole industry, which

was the case of the e-prefix, and finally new words classified as jargon or buzzwords signify the transitoriness of economic trends and preferences. No new science is possible without neologisms, new words or fresh interpretations of obscure lexemes describe and explain reality in novel ways. How would we refer to the latest technological devices if there were no modern lexemes such as iPod, palmtop or laptop? Would the advance of the Internet be possible, were it not for the neologisms such as: e-learning, e-business or e-mail? It seems radical, even to a conservative to name innovative phenomena with outmoded words. Economists, to quote for example G.A.Moore, say that "in our global economy, it's either innovate or die" and that "successful companies must evolve their competence or become marginalized". Linguists, however, would probably respond by saying that language as a living system adapts to meet the evolution of life and the business world, what is more, by making a profound inquiry into neologisms one may notice the patterns of the way new words reflect our incessantly changing economy.