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INFORMATIVENESS IN NONCE WORD FORMATION PROCESS (BASED ON TERRY PRATCHETT’S NONCE WORDS) // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2014. Issue 4 (6). P. 43-48

The article deals with the informativeness of a nonce word as the main principle of the nonce word creation process. The informativeness of a lexical unit is treated as the information which the sign contains (Galperin I.). The value of the information received from the lexical unit can be acquired from such parameters as its frequency of occurrence (the more unique the unit the more valuable the information is) (Martine A.), from its form (some models of word formation are more marked iconically than others, also from its semantics. According to those parameters nonce words can be considered of great informative value due to their uniqueness, combination of formal and semantic characteristics, expressiveness and axiological value. The nonce words under consideration are taken from the works of world-famous British writer Sir Terry Pratchett, who is widely known as a master of wordplay. The chosen nonce words can be examined as examples of word formation potential models dwelling specifically on the mechanism of their creation and functioning. Having analyzed some of the examples it can be suggested that the informative value of a nonce word is of great importance during the creation process. The nonce word can influence the Recipient through the uniqueness of its form which is often the violation of a certain norm (for example, the norm of combination of phonemes or morphemes). The nonce word may function as an expressive and emotional center of the utterance due to its originality and sometimes articulatory complexity as well as unnaturalness. The amalgamation of elements (formal as well as semantic) make the nonce word highly loaded semantically combining separate meanings of parts of a complex word and mixing them with enforced expressiveness and often ironic connotation due to iconically marked models of word formation. All those characteristics make a nonce word a valid choice for a Speaker to express a new idea which probably had no verbal equivalent so far on the one hand, and on the other hand this new creation possesses all the elements to influence and persuade the Recipient.

Keywords: word formation, nonce word, informativeness, model, expressiveness