Lexis 29: Lexical Strangeness – Creativity, Deviance and Innovation in Neology

2026-02-28
Lexical Strangeness – Creativity, Deviance and Innovation in Neology

This issue of Lexis invites contributions that explore lexical strangeness in English – a variety of phenomena characterized by morphological creativity, deviance, and innovation that lies beyond conventional criteria of well-formedness. We welcome papers that investigate how speakers playfully subvert or extend lexicogenic norms to create novel lexical or phraseological items that demand attention, serve social functions, or push the boundaries of conventional lexical innovation.

While research on lexical creativity (Munat [2007], [2016]; Lalić-Krstin, Silaški & Renner [2025]) and extra-grammatical word-formation processes (Dressler [2000]; Mattiello [2013], [2017]) has provided frameworks for understanding non-standard word-formation, this issue of Lexis aims to open new discussions around the interface of morphological innovation and rhetorical strategies. We are particularly interested in diverse phenomena ranging from coded speech to punning, from internet innovations to anti-languages as “special forms of language generated by some kind of anti-society” (Halliday [1976]), and from playful formations to emergent morphological patterns. We welcome investigations of what Dressler [1981] has called “poetic audacity” and what, following Haspelmath [1999], Schmid [2020], and Eitelmann & Haumann [2022] describe as “linguistic extravagance”. Through their departure from expected patterns, these formations can serve as devices to seek attention (Lipka [1987]), or can result in salience, foregrounding or expressivity (Schmid [2020]).

We invite submissions addressing (but not limited to) the following thematic areas:

Socially marked lexicogenesis

This strand explores morphological innovation in contexts where strangeness serves identity construction (e.g., neopronouns and non-binary personal identifications), group boundary maintenance (e.g., orthographic alterations in Gen Z slang), or deliberate obscuration (e.g., character substitutions to avoid censorship). Morphological deviance in these contexts is not merely playful but functionally motivated, serving to create in-group solidarity, exclude outsiders, or evade surveillance and detection. The systematic nature of many coded formations raises questions about the boundary between creative violation and rule-governed pattern extension.

Topics may include:

  • Anti-languages and argots: morphological strategies in prison slang, criminal codes and subcultural registers (following Halliday [1976]), examining how these varieties systematically manipulate standard morphological processes to create opacity;

  • Algospeak: lexical formations designed to evade content moderation and algorithmic detection (unaliving, le dollar bean, seggs, corn, etc.), investigating the morphological, orthographic and typographical strategies employed and their diffusion across platforms;

  • l33T speak and gaming languages: systematic letter-number substitutions and their morphological extensions (1312, pwned, n00b, teh, etc.), exploring how initially orthographic play develops into productive morphological patterns;

  • Youth languages and peer group codes: ephemeral formations that mark generational or subcultural belonging, examining how morphological innovation functions as a marker of group membership and the life cycle of such innovations (e.g., rizz, delulu, -maxxing, etc.);

  • Digital platform-specific formations and their evolution across communities, tracking how morphological innovations migrate and transform as they move between different online spaces (e.g., -core in cottagecore, normiecore, darkcore, which started in early-2010s Tumblr communities and subsequently diffused to other platforms and mainstream use).

Playful and aesthetic formations

This strand examines morphological innovation motivated by playfulness, creativity, and the pursuit of various rhetorical effects. We invite papers exploring wordplay ranging from classical figures (paronomasia, spoonerisms) to phenomena like intentional malapropisms, portmanteau coinages, and punning neologisms. Topics may include creative formations in literature, advertising, journalism, social media, stand-up comedy, political satire, meme culture or other comedy practices such as roasting, playing the dozens or insult comedy, but also in everyday communication, examining how morphological strangeness achieves these diverse communicative goals.

Strangeness in these contexts may serve multiple functions:

  • Aesthetic purposes: creating pleasure through phonological, orthographic, or morphological patterning (Poix [2021]);

  • Rhetorical ends: enhancing memorability, impact, or persuasiveness in advertising, political discourse, and social commentary (e.g., the Heinz Beanz campaign);

  • Affective and emotional expression: intensifying sentiment, creating humor, or conveying attitude through morphological manipulation (Zwicky & Pullum [1987]);

  • Metalinguistic comments: using deviant formations to comment on language itself, linguistic norms, or contemporary usage (e.g., the use of frankenword to denote lexical blends or hybrid formations or truthiness to subvert the meaning of truth).

Emergent morphological patterns

This strand focuses on formations that occupy the space between lexical innovations with no clear morphological features (e.g., guap for money) and fully conventionalized morphological processes. We are particularly interested in tracking how initially deviant or playful formations may undergo routinization, developing into productive patterns that speakers can recognize and replicate while still retaining elements of their original strangeness.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

  • Libfixes and morphemized splinters: formations where parts of words (-tastic, -gate, -athon, -pocalypse, -splaining, -licious, -zilla, etc.) develop quasi-affixal status, examining the gradual emergence of productivity and the semantic-pragmatic constraints on these elements (Lehrer [1998], Marty [2022]);

  • Multimodal morphology: combinations involving emojis, special characters, or typographical elements that function morphologically (formations with @, #, etc.), investigating how non-alphabetic elements participate in word-formation processes (Storment [2024]);

  • Blending families and productive schemas: examining when individual blends spawn analogical formations (Brexit → Grexit, Megxit, etc.), exploring the conditions under which blending templates become generative (Mattiello [2023]).

References

Dressler, Wolfgang U. 1981. General principles of poetic license in word formation. In H. Weydt (ed.), Logos Semantikos, vol. II Berlin: De Gruyter. 423–431.

Eitelmann, Mathias & Dagmar Haumann (eds.) 2022. Extravagant morphology: Studies in rule-bending, pattern-extending and theory-challenging morphology. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.223

Halliday, M. A. K. (1976). Anti-languages. American Anthropologist 78(3). 570-584.

Haspelmath, Martin. (1999). Why is grammaticalization irreversible? Linguistics 37(6). 1043–1068. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.37.6.1043

Lalić-Krstin, Gordana, Nadežda Silaški & Vincent Renner. 2024. Language creativity. In Constant Leung & Jo Lewkowicz (eds.), The Routledge companion to English studies. 2nd edn, 95–106. London & New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003221265-9

Lehrer, Adrienne. 1998. Scapes, holics, and thons: The semantics of combining forms. American Speech 73. 3-28.

Lipka, Leonhard. 1987. Word-formation and text in English and German. In B. Asbach-Schnittker & J. Roggenhofer (eds.), Neuere Forschungen zur Wortbildung und Historiographie der Linguistik. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. 59–67.

Marty, Caroline. 2022. Caractérisation et délimitation de la catégorie des libfixes en anglais. Anglophonia. French Journal of English Linguistics 33.

Mattiello, Elisa. 2013. Extra-grammatical morphology in English. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110295399

Mattiello, Elisa. 2017. Analogy in word-formation: A study of English neologisms and occasionalisms. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110551419

Mattiello, Elisa. 2023. Transitional morphology: Combining forms in Modern English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009168274

Munat, Judith (ed.). 2007. Lexical creativity, texts and contexts. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.58

Poix, Cécile. 2021. Deviance in children’s literature as a form of creativity with a humorous effect. Lexis 17. https://doi.org/10.4000/lexis.5253

Schmid, Hans-Jörg. 2020. The dynamics of the linguistic system: Usage, conventionalization, and entrenchment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Storment, John David. 2024. Going✈️ lexicon? The linguistic status of pro-text emojis. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 9.1. https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.10449

Zwicky, Arnold M. & Geoffrey K. Pullum. 1987. Plain morphology and expressive morphology. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.

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

March 2026: Call for papers

October 30 2026: Deadline for submitting abstracts to Lexis via the journal’s submission platform

January 2027: Evaluation Committee’s decisions notified to authors

May 30 2027: Deadline for submitting papers via the journal’s submission platform (Guidelines for submitting articles: https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/1000

June and July 2027: Proofreading of papers by the Evaluation committee

August 1 to September 2027: Authors’ corrections

September 30 2027: Deadline for sending in final versions of papers