THE NEWEST TRENDS IN WORD-FORMATION AS A RESPONSE TO CURRENT SOCIETY REQUESTS (THE EXAMPLE OF JAPAN)

Abstract

The paper deals with the newest word-formation processes of the Japanese language, with whose help the language adapts to the challenges of modern society. The paper is concerned with the following aspects: 1) the morphological and lexical-syntactic methods of word formation that help to verbalize the category of political correctness as an important component of a civilized society; 2) the stylistic potential of the affixation method of word-formation, through which the speakers create colloquialisms of pejorative or petty coloration; 3) the models of hybrid word formation with borrowed English components, coming to Japanese because of the understanding of the English element as something “fashionable” and “modern”; 4) the tendency of abbreviation of language units fulfilling the purpose of acceleration of the communication tempo.