Formation Models of Prefixal Neologisms in Modern Uzbek

Abstract

The article examines the formation models of prefixal neologisms in modern Uzbek. Although Uzbek belongs to the agglutinative type in which suffixation is the dominant word-formation technique, the vocabulary of the last three decades shows a steady increase of units built with preposed formatives such as anti-, mikro-, makro-, kiber-, eko-, super-, post-, no- and be-. The study identifies five recurrent models: transplantation of a ready-made foreign prefixal word, the hybrid model combining a borrowed prefix with a native or long-assimilated stem, the calque model in which a native preposed formative renders a foreign prefix, the analogical-serial model in which one successful formation generates a whole paradigm, and the occasional model typical of journalism and advertising. Each model is described in terms of its input, its degree of productivity and its orthographic behaviour. The material is drawn from press texts, information-technology terminology, economic and medical vocabulary. The paper argues that the traditional grammatical claim that Uzbek has no prefixes needs to be reformulated: the language has no inherited prefixes, but it has an expanding inventory of borrowed prefixal formatives whose behaviour is regular enough to be described in word-formation terms.