Lexis 30: Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English

2026-04-14
Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English

Over the past two decades, the rapid expansion of social media platforms has profoundly transformed linguistic practices, particularly among younger speakers. Online environments such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and messaging platforms have become key sites for the creation, dissemination, and institutionalisation of new lexical items. These forms, commonly described as “internet slang” or “digital slang” (Eble [2009]; Crystal [2011]) reflect the dynamic interplay between technological platforms, youth identity practices, and linguistic innovation.

A growing body of research has documented the sociocultural dimensions of online slang, examining its role in generational identity, digital communities, and patterns of social media usage (e.g., Tagliamonte & Denis [2008]; Androutsopoulos [2014]; Hilte, Vandekerckhove & Daelemans [2021]). Studies have also highlighted how younger generations – often described as “digital natives”, i.e. individuals who have grown up immersed in digital technologies (Prensky [2001]) – actively develop and disseminate novel lexical items and expressions through online interaction (Dimock [2019]), such as rizz (< charisma), touch grass, lurker. Much of this work approaches social media slang primarily from sociological, cultural, or communication-oriented perspectives.

This special issue of Lexis aims to shift the focus towards the linguistic mechanisms underlying these innovations, with particular attention to word-formation processes in contemporary English social media slang. Digital communication provides fertile ground for lexical creativity, including processes such as blending (vlog < video + blog), clipping (rizz), compounding (doomscrolling), acronym formation (GOAT < Greatest Of All Time), conversion (friend (n.) < friend (v.)), semantic shift (cloud ‘data storage’), respelling and orthographic play (smol < small; seggs < sex) (Mattiello [2008]; Crystal [2011]; Bauer, Lieber & Plag [2013]) These processes frequently interact with multimodal and platform-specific constraints, as well as with the rapid circulation of linguistic forms across online communities. For instance, the 280-character limit on posts on X (formerly Twitter) increases the use of abbreviated forms; also, on Reddit, users with a higher number of upvotes are guaranteed that their content gains more visibility and is more linguistically impactful.

Recent research has also noted that younger users, especially members of Generation Z, display a high degree of familiarity with emerging neologisms and internet slang, reflecting their intensive engagement with digital platforms and their role in shaping new linguistic trends (Jeresano & Carretero [2022]; Talle Vacalares et al. [2023]). These trends are also believed to have an impact on mainstream language, as young speakers tend to initially break established rules, before becoming more standard-oriented as they grow older (Androutsopoulos [2011: 151]). While generational dynamics and social media practices remain important contexts for these developments, the present issue seeks to explore how digital environments foster specific patterns of morphological and lexical innovation in English slang. This innovation has been associated with ‘linguistic manipulation’, a process through which young speakers act as engineers of language change and innovation (Yannuar et al. [2022: 9]). Consequently, with the rise of digital platforms and shared virtual communities, it is indispensable to study the extent to which young speakers ‘move’ and ‘shake’ English linguistic standards (Eckert [1997: 1]).

In addition, recent linguistic research has begun to explore evaluative and pejorative morphology in slang, including the emergence and productivity of suffixes such as -y/-ie and -o, as well as combining forms and suffixoids such as -holic, -itis, -head, -brain, and related elements (Sánchez Fajardo [2022]; Mattiello [2024]; Mattiello & Sánchez Fajardo [2025]; Sánchez Fajardo & Mattiello [2025]; Mattiello [2026]), such as blackie and weirdo (for the suffixes), and screenaholic, scrollitis, gearhead, and wrinkle-brain (for the combining forms and suffixoids) These forms contribute to the expressive and often impolite character of slang vocabulary and illustrate how evaluative meaning is encoded morphologically in English. Although such formations are not limited to social media contexts, digital communication has provided a particularly fertile environment for their circulation and semantic development. While the aforementioned studies on evaluative morphology in English indicate that derivational patterns – particularly in diminutives and approximatives – are often linked to specific slang forms, this volume intends to broaden this scope. By exploring a wider array of word-formation mechanisms, such as compounding and conversion (such as clickbait and to ghost), we aim to provide a more comprehensive account of the structural diversity within digital English.

Thus, we invite contributions that investigate the formation, structure, diffusion, and linguistic properties of English social media slang, with a particular focus on word-formation phenomena in digital discourse.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Word-formation processes in English internet slang (affixation, blending, clipping, compounding, acronyms, initialisms, etc.)

  • Morphological creativity in youth digital discourse (such as the use of new morphological elements (e.g., splinters) to coin new words (e.g., -zilla, -licious, etc.)

  • Neologism formation on social media

  • Platform-specific slang formation (e.g,. TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram)

  • Semantic shift and relexicalisation in online slang

  • Orthographic and phonological manipulation in digital slang

  • Memetic language and the morphology of viral expressions

  • The diffusion and lifespan of newly formed slang items

  • Cross-platform or cross-community circulation of slang forms

  • Corpus-based approaches to digital slang formation

  • Interactions between multimodality (texts, emojis, memes, GIFs) and lexical innovation

Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are welcome, including corpus-based studies, discourse-analytic approaches, and theoretical contributions addressing morphological change in digital contexts.

By focusing on the linguistic structure of emerging slang forms, this special issue aims to contribute to a better understanding of how digital communication environments shape contemporary processes of lexical innovation in English.

References

Androutsopoulos, Jannis (ed.). 2014. Mediatization and sociolinguistic change. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter.

Androutsopoulos, Jannis. 2011. Language change and digital media: A review of conceptions and evidence. In Nik Coupland & Tore Kristiansen (eds.), Standard languages and language standards in a changing Europe, 145–159. Oslo: Novus Forlag.

Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle Lieber & Ingo Plag. 2013. The Oxford reference guide to English morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crystal, David. 2011. Internet linguistics: A student guide. London: Routledge.

Dimock, Michael. 2019. Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/

Eble, Connie. 2009. Slang and the internet. In New challenges in language and literature, 81–96. Faculdade de Letras da UFMG. Retrieved from https://www.letras.ufmg.br/site/e-livros/New%20Challenges%20in%20Language%20and%20Literature.pdf

Eckert, Penelope. 1997. Age as a sociolinguistic variable. In Florian Coulmas (ed.), The handbook of sociolinguistics, 151–167. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hilte, Lisa, Walter Daelemans & Reinhild Vandekerckhove. 2021. Interlocutors’ age impacts teenagers’ online writing style: Accommodation in intra- and intergenerational online conversations. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 4. 738278.

Jeresano, Eliza M. & Marigrace D. Carretero. 2022. Digital culture and social media slang of Gen Z. United International Journal for Research & Technology 3(4). 11–25.

Mattiello, Elisa. 2008. An introduction to English slang: A description of its morphology, semantics and sociology. Monza: Polimetrica.

Mattiello, Elisa. 2024. A morphosyntactic and morphosemantic analysis of English slang suffixoids. Studi e Saggi Linguistici 62(1). 9–41.

Mattiello, Elisa. 2026. Impolite suffixoids in English slang. In Daniel Van Olmen, Marta Andersson, Jonathan Culpeper & Riccardo Giomi (eds.), The grammar of impoliteness, 31–60. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.

Mattiello, Elisa & José A. Sánchez Fajardo. 2025. The evaluative suffixoid -head and its Spanish and Italian equivalents. Folia Linguistica. 1–26.

Prensky, Marc. 2001. Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon 9(5). 1–6.

Sánchez Fajardo, José A. & Elisa Mattiello. 2025. From spearhead to crackhead: Unraveling the morphosemantic development of English -head through a network of constructions. Word Structure 18(1–2). 119–148.

Tagliamonte, Sali & Derek Denis. 2008. Linguistic ruin? LOL! Instant messaging and teen language. American Speech 83(1): 3–34.

Talle Vacalares, Sophomore, Angel Faith R. Babac Salas, Bherna Jane S. Cagalawan, Analyn L. Calimpong & Christine D. Calimpong. 2023. The intelligibility of internet slangs between millennials and Gen Zers: A comparative study. International Journal of Science and Research Archive 9(1). 400–409.

Yannuar, Nurenzia, Helma M. Pasch, Jacomine Nortier, Nico Nassenstein, Ellen Hurst-Harosh, Andrea Hollington & Cynthia Groff. 2022. Youth language research: Changing perspectives, international trends and emerging themes. In Cynthia Groff, Andrea Hollington, Ellen Hurst-Harosh, Nico Nassenstein, Jacomine Nortier, Helma M. Pasch & Nurenzia Yannuar (eds.), Global perspectives on youth language practices, 1–26. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.

How to submit

Please clearly indicate the title of the paper and include an abstract between 3,000 and 6,000 characters (including spaces) as well as a list of relevant keywords and references. All abstract and paper submissions will be anonymously peer-reviewed (double-blind peer reviewing) by an international scientific committee composed of specialists in their fields. Papers will be written preferably in English or occasionally in French.

Manuscripts may be rejected, accepted subject to revision, or accepted as such. There is no limit to the number of pages.

Submissions (abstracts and articles, in Word document) will be submitted via the journal’s submission platform. If you encounter any problem, please send a message to Lexis.

Deadlines

May 2026: Call for papers

March 30, 2027: Deadline for submitting abstracts to Lexis via the journal’s submission platform

May-June 2027: Evaluation Committee’s decisions notified to authors

November 15, 2027: Deadline for submitting papers via the journal’s submission platform (Guidelines for submitting articles: https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/1000)

November and December 2027: Proofreading of papers by the Evaluation committee

January 2028: Authors’ corrections

February 1, 2028: Deadline for sending in final versions of papers