1What’s in a word – what’s a word in?

Integrational theory is a diverse field of research that deals with language and the social act of communication on the premise that “language presupposes communication” and the field conceptualizes communication as embedded in situations of people, time and space and therefore highly dependent on contextual factors. My study concentrates on neologism (i.e. the study of new words) and grammaticalization (i.e. the study of word change). From an integrationist’s framework, words do not obtain meaning outside the situational context. The results can include difficulties on how one can explain conventions, norms and social understanding from one situation to the next. But according to social psychologists, social network processes and procedures act as means for people to create identities and understandings of one another across time and space. The purpose of my study is thus by drawing upon integrationism and social psychology to create new insights to the communicational studies of new words. My study will rely on examples from three diverse qualitative data sets involving youngsters in social networks in and outside the Internet, analyzed according to integrational principles. Through these integrational studies of real communication situation and inspired by social psychology I propose a new way to conceptualize this complex matter of word formation and conventions. I call this new concept “the mirrored word” in order to capture: 1) dynamic sense 2) everchanging situations 3) the process of contextualization.

► My study concentrates on neologism and grammaticalization. ► I started by thinking: where do we encounter new words? ► I find that “new words” are created, acted and reacted upon all the time. ► A word changes according to how the people make sense of it in communication. ► I propose a new concept “the mirrored word’’ inspired by the “mirrored self” in psychology.