Conclusions and Theoretical Implications

Abstract

MSN, a source of lexical enrichment distinct from guestwords, foreignisms, loanwords (§1.2.1) and calquing (1.3) has had a vast impact across many languages. MSN, which usually goes unnoticed by speakers (especially those of generations following the original coinage), has introduced a substantial number of new sememes and lexemes in Israeli, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, pidgins and creoles, and other languages. In the case of Israeli, MSN reinforces the view that Israeli lexis has been covertly influenced by Germanic and Slavonic languages such as Yiddish, Russian, Polish, German and English. The hundreds of (polychronically analysed) examples presented in this book prove that PSM is significantly widespread, the extent being remarkable both in absolute terms (200 PSMs out of several thousand neologisms in Israeli) and in relative terms, i.e. taking into account the fact that the majority of SL words do not have a parallel TL (in the case of FEN) or co-SL (in the case of LC) element which may coincide on phonetic and on semantic levels. Such a constraint does not usually apply to calquing, morpho-phonemic adaptation and mere neologization. Therefore, 200 PSMs in Israeli (not allowing for their dozens of secondary derivatives, as well as for toponyms and anthroponyms) is a significant number.