Chinese Neologisms and Its Pedagogical Implications: A Brief State of the Art.

Neologisms constitute a longstanding linguistic phenomenon that continues to pique the interest of scholars and users alike, with their significance previously acknowledged by esteemed linguists such as Lü Shuxiang (1984). Numerous studies have focused on their definition and classification, as well as their history, etymology, origin, and morphological and compositional structure. Other studies have examined the life cycle of neologisms, principles of standardization, and criteria for compiling dedicated thematic dictionaries. The emergence, popularity, use, and dissemination of neologisms, especially through internet channels, have increasingly made them part of daily conversations among netizens and beyond, resulting in many being officially included as entries in prestigious dictionaries such as the Xiàndài Hànyǔ Cídiǎn. However, concerning neologism teaching, studies produced internationally in the last twenty years have been relatively limited. Nonetheless, the issue of officially incorporating neologisms into the curriculum of Chinese as a foreign language (CLS) emerged over a decade ago (Gong and Hong, 2019). Neologisms, serving as a linguistic reflection of major social, economic, and technological events, could not only serve as a launching pad for teaching and learning cultural content but also further stimulate motivation in the study of the Chinese language. This contribution will focus on outlining a brief state of the art of the subject matter, with regard to the use of Chinese neologisms in Chinese pedagogy, both from a theoretical and practical perspective, leveraging the recent debate occurring in the western and the eastern academic circles to try and gauge the role that the teaching of Chinese neologisms may have in a society that nowadays produces language via various more means than in the past, therefore contributing to language change at a way faster pace. Such language, especially after it has consolidated and lexicalised as part of the lexicon, can become a key to unlock the understanding of a wider spectrum of texts, as well as a key to a more effective communication, possibly endowing the receiver with a deeper cultural understanding of social phenomena which are also conveyed through this type of language.