Abstract

Changes in a language at the level of vocabulary are often triggered by sociolinguistic causes, most significant being language contact and need. In language contact, lexical borrowing has proved inevitable, and, currently, it has advanced through the mass media and electronic channels of data transfer. On the other hand, the need for new lexical items which carry specific denotative or connotative meaning, as in terminological systems, jargon and slang, contributes largely to the expansion of a vocabulary. Specifically, a corpus of words produced and established in English since 1990, in both standard and nonstandard varieties of the language, demonstrates that the development of the vocabulary has been stimulated to a great extent by the two abovementioned factors, which, moreover, incorporate speakers as essential inciting force in the process