Representation of lexical innovations in different spheres of social life of the English-speaking society

• Olga A. Shurygina

  Olga A. Shurygina. Vladivostok. Branch of the Russian Customs Academy. Vladivostok. Russia

This study examines lexical innovations (neologisms)—words perceived by English speakers as new, referring to newly emerging objects or concepts and possessing an element of novelty in their seman tics or structure. The research aims to analyze lexical innovations in terms of their dissemination across vari ous spheres of social life in English-speaking societies. The methodological framework of the study combines general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, classification) with linguistic approaches such as random sam pling and observation, lexical-semantic and contextual analysis, and the interpretation of dictionary defini tions. The subject of the research is lexical innovations from the past decade, while the object is their struc tural-semantic, paradigmatic, and cognitive features.The novelty of the study lies in its sys-tematic examina tion of the mechanisms and means by which the English lexi-con expands, integrating both linguistic and so ciolinguistic analysis. Lexical innovations are explored in relation to their prevalence in key areas of social life, including modern information technologies, social media, the economy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of empirical data revealed that the primary methods of lexical innovation include affixation, prefixa tion, anal-ogy, telescoping, abbreviations, and compound word formation. The find-ings indicate that the most prevalent mechanisms are the telescoping method combined with analogy (≈40%) and compound word for mation (≈40–45%). The practical significance of this study lies in the potential application of its results in the development of lecture courses, teaching materials, and methodological recommendations on lexicology, cog nitive linguistics, and in-tercultural communication, as well as in practical English language instruction. Keywords: lexical innovations, neologisms, word formation, affixation, prefixation, analogy method, telescoping, compound word formation, abbreviations.