
7+(:25)2507,212)6/17(50621
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Email:phuongttt@yersin.edu.vn
Received:05/08/2024
Revised:17/02/2025
Accepted:26/02/2025
DOI:10.59266/houjs.2025.532
EVWDFWKHVWGGHHGLQWRWKHRPDWLRQRVDQWHPVRQ(QLVKDQG9LHWQDPHVH
social media in 2023, utilizing a theoretical framework that combines the works of Yule
(2010),Meyer(2009),Schmid(2015),andLe(2023).Employingaquantitativemethodto
analyze thedata,the researchersdiscoveredseveralinstancesof variouswordformation
processesinbothlanguages.InEnglish,thisstudyfound14casesofmeaningextension,5of
acronyms,5ofcoinage,4ofclipping,3ofcompounding,1ofconversion,and1ofsyllable
change.Meanwhile,Vietnamesehad13casesofmeaningextension,8ofborrowing,8of
syllablechange,7ofcompounding,6ofmultipleprocesses,and2ofcoinage.Ultimately,this
researchaimstocontributetotheeldoflinguisticsbyexpandingourknowledgeofword
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YersinUniversityofDaLat
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Word-formation research aims
to uncover, categorize, and model the
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(Schmid,2015).However,thevarietyof
waysthatawordformsisstilldebatable.
For example, Bauer (1983, p. 1), stated
that “There is, at the moment, so single
‘theory of word-formation’, nor even
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relevant for the construction of such a
theory.”Asimilarideawasconveyedina
recentstudybySchmid(2015),whichsaid
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overthespecicsofhowword-formation
processes shouldbemodeled.Therefore,
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isneverabundant.
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of the vocabulary and the roleof social
media in replenishing it. According to
Arnold (1973), the lexical system is
adaptable,andvocabularychangestomeet
the ever-evolving demands of culture,
human communication, and otherneeds.
Rapidtechnologicaladvancementhasled
totheexpansionofthissystem,associal
media are believed to have contributed
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related to word formation types, which
isstatedbyFaradisaetal.(2019).Hence,
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of slang terms coined on social media.

Becauseofthis,wechosetoconductthe
study “The Word Formation of Slang
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Mediain2023”.
The study focuses on achieving
thesetwoaims:toinvestigateandcompare
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Vietnamesesocialmediaword-formation.
Based on the study’s objectives,
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follows:(1)Whataretheword-formation
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in 2023, and how do these processes
dieracrossthetwolanguages?(2)Are
thereanystrangeinstances?If so,what
newtheoriescanbedevelopedtoexplain
thesephenomena?
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ODQWHPV
According to Haspo and Rosa
(2018),slangisaformoflanguageused
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withasharedinterest.Le(2023)arguesthat
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patterns of users, potentially becoming
universal language components. The
prevalenceofsocialmediahascontributed
tothedevelopmentofslanglanguage,as
Prastikawatietal.(2021)noted.However,
some slang terms are popular briey
beforebecomingoutdated(Le,2023).
:RIRPDWLRQ
Kirtman (2005) provided a brief
description, stating that word formation
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vocabulary. To be more precise, Yule
(2010) denes word formation as the
processbywhichnewwordsarecreated,
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oldones, and then become a partof the
language.Schmid(2015)putoutthesame
concept,whichincludedthegoalofword
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ofgeneralizations.
2.3.Word-formationClassication
Yule (2010) divided word-
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coinage, borrowing, compounding,
blending, clipping, backformation,
conversion, acronym, derivation, and
multiple processes. Other researchers
proposedsimilarprocesses,includingtwo
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extension(Meyer,2009)andreduplication
(Schmid, 2015). With Vietnamese slang,
Le (2023) additionally proposed these
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change, homonyms, spoonerism, and
addingnewelements.
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toMeyer(2009),meaningextensionisa
commonprocessinEnglishthatinvolves
extendingthemeaningofexistingwords.
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of metaphors,where new words take on
themeaningofexistingones.Examplesof
thisphenomenon include“heart” in“the
heartofthecity”and“head”in“thehead
of a university “. Just about any word,
ifitisaroundlongenough,willhaveits
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life,” Meyer also underlined in his book
(2009,p.178
5HGSOLFDWLRQFFRULQJR6FKPLV
(2015) proposition, the phenomenon of
reduplication can be perceived as a
word-formation process that involves
the repetition of a given word, word-
like element, or a segment of the word
in its original form (hush-hush), often
accompanied by a modied vowel (hip-
hop) or an alternate consonant (boogie-
woogie).

&RLQDJHAccordingtoYule(2010),
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becomesagenericphrase.Meyer(2009)
referred to the process with a dierent
name, “root creation,” and considered
“echoic”wordssuchas“cuckoo”or“zap”
toalsobetheproductsofthiscreation.
%RUURLQJAs per Yule’s (2010)
explanation,borrowingreferstoincorporating
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languages.Unlikesomelanguagesthatare
hesitant to adopt vocabulary from foreign
languages, English has a history of being
receptivetosuchlinguistictransfers(Meyer,
2009). On theother hand, loan translation
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wheretheindividualcomponentsofaword
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language(Yule,2010).Itisbelievedthatthe
Englishword“superman”isanexampleof
loan translation derived from the German
word“Übermensch.”
&RPSRQGLQJ FFRULQJ R O
(2010),compoundingisthemergingoftwo
distinct words to create a single form. In
English,compoundingisthemostecient
methodforcreatingnewwords(Plag,2003).
AccordingtoMeyer(2009),compoundscan
takeonvariousforms,suchastwoseparate
words(e.g.“policeocer”),asingleword
(e.g. “policeman”), or a hyphenated word
(e.g.“word-formation”).
%OHQGLQJ FFRULQJ R O
(2010), blending is fusing two distinct
forms to create a new term, which is
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anotherword.Occasionally,wemayalso
blend the rst syllables of both words,
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likemodem(modulator/demodulator)and
telex(teleprinter/exchange)(Yule,2010).
&OLSSLQJAccordingtoYule(2010),
clippingisshorteningawordbyremoving
oneormoresyllables,whichistypically
done in informal speech. Additionally,
Yule (2010) highlights another type of
reduction known as hypocorisms, where
alongerwordsuchas“movingpictures”
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thenappendedwith-yor-i.e.,resultingin
thecommonlyusedterm“movie.”
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(2015), backformation is the removal of
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element.
&RQYHUVLRQ Yule (2010) stated
thatconversionisthetermforashiftina
word’sfunction,suchaswhenanounstarts
to be employed as a verb (without any
reduction). Meyer (2009) referred to this
processasa“functionalshift.”Yule(2010)
noted that Modern English conversion is
highlyproductive,resultinginnewusesof
wordsbeingcreatedonaregularbasis.
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(2010),anacronymisanewwordcreated
from the rst letters of a group of other
words, which can be pronounced as a
wordorsequencesofletters.Additionally,
Meyer (2009) proposes that acronyms
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(acronyms) and those that require letter-
by-letterenunciation(abbreviations).
HULYDWLRQAsdenedbySchmid
(2015),derivationisaxinganewterm
toanexistingone.Wordsmaybeformed
by adding components like “nhà, giả,
sĩ,...”toexistingones,asstatedbyTac&
Huy(2016).
6OODEOH&DQJH Le (2023) listed
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thewaystocreateslang.
+RPRQPV Le (2023) mentioned
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thephenomenaofhomonyms,whichare
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dierentmeanings.

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regardedbyLe(2023)asoneoftheways
tocreateslang.
GGLQJ1H(OHPHQWVLe(2023)
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createslang.
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Yule (2010), it is feasible to track the
collaborationofmanyprocessesinvolved
informingagivenword.
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Sari (2018) concentrated on
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platforms like Instagram and Twitter.
In the end, inection emerged as the
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process, followed by compounding and
acronyms. In order to shed light on the
word generation processes discovered
on Instagram, Faradisa et al. performed
astudyin2019.Thethreemostcommon
procedures were discovered to be
acronyms, borrowing, andabbreviations.
Sihombing(2021)conductedresearchon
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WorldEconomicForuminJanuary2021.
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2023. The scope of these terms spans
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had been previously created but were
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research year. These terms correspond
to a wide range of topics, including but
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personalmoodindicators.Itisimportantto
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popularity in 2023 have been excluded
fromthestudy,astheydonotfallunder
thepurviewofwordformationtheories.
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upon a diverse array of contemporary
socialmediacharts,ablog-basedsurvey,
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primary data sources. Regarding social
mediacharts,theresearchreliedonYounet
Media,CoccocYearinSearch2023,and
WechoiceZ-slang.Asurveyconductedby
preply.comwasemployedtocollectdata
oncontemporary slang.Additionally,the
studydrewonanumberofothersources,
including dantri.vn, voh.com.vn,ef.com,
andstudyusa.com.
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RegardingmodernEnglishslang,a
surveycarriedoutbypreply.comin2023
servesasthemainreference.Thesurvey
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havechildrenaged12to18andcovered
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commonly used slang terms in 2023.
Additionally,sourcessuchasef.comand
studyusa.comwereconsulted.
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Thepaperemploysthequantitative
method. After identifying the word
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term using the theoretical framework,
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for analysis and comparison. To provide
abetterillustrationofthestatistics,charts
wereutilizedfordataanalysis,followedby
acomprehensiveanalysisofthendings.
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4.1.1.Word-FormationProcessesin
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In 2023, 33 English social media
slang terms were identied through 7
distinct word formation processes. The

appendixanalyzestheseinstances,anditis
discoveredthatmeaningextensionwasthe
mostfrequentlyusedmethod,accounting
for 14 outof the33 terms(42.4%).The
terms“Era”and“Extra”aretwoexamples
ofthisword-formationtechnique,whereby
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describenewconceptsandexperiences.
Figure1.Word-formationprocessesin
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second most commonly used methods,
appearing in 5 out of 44 cases (15.2%
total).Acronymssuchas“Iykyk”(Ifyou
know,youknow)and“DTB”(don’ttrust
boys or don’t trust b**) were prevalent,
as were coinages such as “Sheesh” and
“Oof,” which convey admiration and
unease,respectively.
Clipping and compounding were
popular word formation methods,
accounting for 12.1% and 9.1% of
instances,respectively.Clippingexamples
include “Sus” (suspicious) and “Rizz”
(charisma)whilecompoundingexamples
include “Finna” (xing + to) and
“Situationship”(situation+relationship).
Lastly, conversion and syllable
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wordformationmethods,eachaccounting
for 3% of the total instances. The term
“Slay” was changed from a verb to an
adjective, meaning ‘awesome, lovely,
or cool,’while “Turnt” isanexampleof
syllablechange(turned/turn),meaning‘to
becomeenthusiasticaboutsomething.’
4.1.2. Word-Formation Processes
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ItisnoteworthythatinVietnam,as
oftheyear2023,thereare44socialmedia
slang terms, which are believed to have
been created using six identied word
formation processes. These processes
are specied in the appendix, witheach
instance being clearly outlined. From
amongthetermsstudied,itwasobserved
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extension, makingit themost frequently
used word formation method, with a
frequency of 29.5%. Examples of such
extensions include “Cà nhính” and “Xịt
keo,” which originally meant ‘to eat
little by little’ and ‘spraying a cosmetic
used tostyle hair’ respectively, buthave
now come to mean ‘expressing interest
and excitement’ and‘expressingsurprise
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unabletospeak’.
Figure2.Word-formationprocessesin
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Borrowing and syllable change
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wordformationmethods,with8outof44