Abstract A neologism is created in some specific period, which is often related to something or somebody and is accepted by most people in that period. This thesis takes the studies of English neologisms in the 21st century as base, combines some domestic and foreign research achievement of English neologisms in the 21st century, gathers English neologisms from official media and magazines for data statistics and analysis, concludes their linguistic developmental factors from the two aspects of addition of words—acronym, blending, functional shift and borrowing—and semantic changes and analyzes the extra-linguistic factors of their appearance, including economic factors, political factors, scientific and technological factors and psychological factors so as to make language learners understand the new words better and use them more properly in actual communications. Also, it can bring learners a better knowledge of the rules of language development and changes.59082

Key words: English neologism; the 21st century; linguistic developmental factors; extra-linguistic developmental factors

摘要新词是某个时期创造出的词语，通常会与某一事件或人物有相关联系，被特定时期的大部分人所接受。本文以21世纪英语中出现的新词汇为研究对象，结合21世纪英语新词的国内外研究成果，对从官方媒体和报刊收集来的新词进行统计和分析，从缩略、混合、功能转移和借用四种增词法和语义变化总结其发展的内部语言因素，并分析其出现的外在非语言因素，包括经济因素、政治因素、科技因素和心理因素，以便于语言学习者及使用者更好地理解其意义并在交际中更恰当地使用这些词汇，同时也能更好地理解语言发展变化的规律。

关键词：英语新词；21世纪；语言发展因素；非语言发展因素

1. Introduction - 1 -

2. Literature Review - 2 -

2.1 The Definition of Neologisms - 2 -

2.2 Previous Studies of English Neologisms in the 21st Century - 2 -

3. Research Methods and Data Analysis - 4 -

3.1 Research Questions - 4 -

3.2 Subjects - 4 -

3.3 Instruments - 5 -

3.4 Data Analysis - 5 -

4. Linguistic Developmental Factors - 6 -

4.1 Addition of Words - 7 -

4.2 Semantic Changes - 10 -

5. Extra-linguistic Developmental Factors - 11 -

5.1 Economic Factors - 12 -

5.2 Scientific and Technological Factors - 12 -

5.3 Political Factors - 13 -

5.4 Psychological Factors - 14 -

6. Conclusion - 15 -

Works Cited - 16 -

  1. Introduction 

The development and change of language is closely related to the age. After entering the 21st century, the rapid development of science and technology, the changing world political pattern and people’s changing psychological concepts are all exerting impacts on every aspect of our life. Subsequently, language has been inevitably undergoing great changes, a very important part of which is the appearance of large numbers of neologisms that describe new things or phenomena. As a result, varies of kinds of neologisms are sprouting in the English world, which have been promoting the development and change of the language.