Morphological profile of contemporary Greek neologisms
Morphological profile of contemporary Greek neologisms

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the morphological profile of contemporary Greek neologisms documented in volumes 16–17 of the Bulletin of Scientific Terminology and Neologisms (DEON), a monitored press-based record covering the period 2013–2022. The analysis is qualitative and diagnostics-based, distinguishing the extent to which a formation type is represented in the record from the degree of classificatory security with which it can be analysed. Focusing on lexical innovations attested in journalistic sources, the article argues that the dataset is characterized above all by formations whose morphological structure is comparatively explicit and whose form–meaning relations are relatively amenable to analysis. Based on an item-by-item examination of the 1,042 DEON entries, the study gives particular attention to the distinction between securely identifiable word-formation mechanisms and formations requiring more cautious treatment. Within this qualitative profile, derivation and compounding emerge as the most consistently diagnosable mechanisms. Within compounding, subordinative and attributive formations are more clearly recoverable than coordinative ones. By contrast, multi-word lexical units at the morphology–syntax interface and formations with bound initial elements are treated separately because their classification is less straightforward. No DEON entry examined here was classified as a blend on the basis of the diagnostic criteria adopted in the study. The article argues that the recovered profile reflects both the word-formation resources of Modern Greek and the selection criteria used in monitored neological recording. Particular attention is given to the role of public circulation, semantic stability, and structural recoverability in shaping which innovations become available for description.

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