Lecture Stylistics as a science. Problems of stylistic research. Plan

Conversion, derivation and change of meaning may be registered as means by which literary-bookish coinages are formed. These three means of word-building are mostly used to coin new terms in which new mean­ings are imposed on old words. Among coinages of this kind the word accessories may be mentioned. It has now become an important word in the vocabulary of feminine fashion. It means gloves, shoes and handbag, though jewellery and other ornaments are sometimes included. Mary Reifer’s “Dictionary of New Words” notes a verb to accessorize meaning ‘to provide with dress accessories, such as handbag, gloves, shoes, etc.’
The new meaning co-exists with the old ones. In other words, new meanings imposed on old words form one system in which old and new meanings are ranged in a dictionary according to their rate of frequency or to some other underlying principle. But there are cases when new mean­ings imposed on old words drive out old meanings: thus, the word admire, which, as in Latin, first meant ‘to feel or express surprise or astonishment’, has today lost its primary meaning and now has acquired a new one which, however, still contains a shade of the old, viz. ‘to regard with wonder and approval, esteem or affection, to delight in’.
Word-building by means of affixation is still predominant in coining new words. Examples are: ‘orbiter—‘a spacecraft designed to orbit a celestial body’; lander—‘a spacecraft designed to land on such a body’; missileer—‘a person skilled in ‘missilery, or in the launching and control of missiles’; fruitologist and wreckologist which were used in a letter to the editor of The Times from a person living in Australia.
Among new creations those with the suffix -ize seem to be the most frequent. The suffix -ize gives a strong shade of bookishness to new words: ‘detribalized (Africans)’; ‘accessorize’; ‘moisturize’; ‘villagize’.
Some affixes are themselves literary in character and naturally carry this property to derivatives formed with them. Thus, for example, the prefix anti- has given us a number of new words which are gradually be­coming recognizable as facts of the English vocabulary, e.g.: ’anti-world’, ‘anti-emotion’, ‘anti-hero’, ‘anti-trend’ and the like.