37.1499, Calls: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology - "Special Issue: Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English" (Jrnl)
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Subject: 37.1499, Calls: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology - "Special Issue: Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English" (Jrnl)
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Date: 19-Apr-2026
From: Denis Jamet-Coupé [denis.jamet-coupe at univ-lyon3.fr]
Subject: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology - "Special Issue: Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English" (Jrnl)
Journal: Lexis - Journal in English Lexicology
Issue: Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English
Call Deadline: 30-Mar-2027
For its 20th anniversary, Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology – will
publish its 30th issue in 2028. It will be edited by Elisa Mattiello
(University of Pisa, Italy) and José A. Sánchez Fajardo (University of
Alicante, Spain) and will deal with the topic “Youth Slang and
Word-Formation in Digital English”.
Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English
Over the past two decades, the rapid expansion of social media
platforms has profoundly transformed linguistic practices,
particularly among younger speakers. Online environments such as
TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and messaging platforms have
become key sites for the creation, dissemination, and
institutionalisation of new lexical items. These forms, commonly
described as “internet slang” or “digital slang” (Eble [2009]; Crystal
[2011]) reflect the dynamic interplay between technological platforms,
youth identity practices, and linguistic innovation.
A growing body of research has documented the sociocultural dimensions
of online slang, examining its role in generational identity, digital
communities, and patterns of social media usage (e.g., Tagliamonte &
Denis [2008]; Androutsopoulos [2014]; Hilte, Vandekerckhove &
Daelemans [2021]). Studies have also highlighted how younger
generations – often described as “digital natives”, i.e. individuals
who have grown up immersed in digital technologies (Prensky [2001]) –
actively develop and disseminate novel lexical items and expressions
through online interaction (Dimock [2019]), such as rizz (< charisma),
touch grass, lurker. Much of this work approaches social media slang
primarily from sociological, cultural, or communication-oriented
perspectives.
This special issue of Lexis aims to shift the focus towards the
linguistic mechanisms underlying these innovations, with particular
attention to word-formation processes in contemporary English social
media slang. Digital communication provides fertile ground for lexical
creativity, including processes such as blending (vlog < video +
blog), clipping (rizz), compounding (doomscrolling), acronym formation
(GOAT < Greatest Of All Time), conversion (friend (n.) < friend (v.)),
semantic shift (cloud ‘data storage’), respelling and orthographic
play (smol < small; seggs < sex) (Mattiello [2008]; Crystal [2011];
Bauer, Lieber & Plag [2013]) These processes frequently interact with
multimodal and platform-specific constraints, as well as with the
rapid circulation of linguistic forms across online communities. For
instance, the 280-character limit on posts on X (formerly Twitter)
increases the use of abbreviated forms; also, on Reddit, users with a
higher number of upvotes are guaranteed that their content gains more
visibility and is more linguistically impactful.
Recent research has also noted that younger users, especially members
of Generation Z, display a high degree of familiarity with emerging
neologisms and internet slang, reflecting their intensive engagement
with digital platforms and their role in shaping new linguistic trends
(Jeresano & Carretero [2022]; Talle Vacalares et al. [2023]). These
trends are also believed to have an impact on mainstream language, as
young speakers tend to initially break established rules, before
becoming more standard-oriented as they grow older (Androutsopoulos
[2011: 151]). While generational dynamics and social media practices
remain important contexts for these developments, the present issue
seeks to explore how digital environments foster specific patterns of
morphological and lexical innovation in English slang. This innovation
has been associated with ‘linguistic manipulation’, a process through
which young speakers act as engineers of language change and
innovation (Yannuar et al. [2022: 9]). Consequently, with the rise of
digital platforms and shared virtual communities, it is indispensable
to study the extent to which young speakers ‘move’ and ‘shake’ English
linguistic standards (Eckert [1997: 1]).
In addition, recent linguistic research has begun to explore
evaluative and pejorative morphology in slang, including the emergence
and productivity of suffixes such as -y/-ie and -o, as well as
combining forms and suffixoids such as -holic, -itis, -head, -brain,
and related elements (Sánchez Fajardo [2022]; Mattiello [2024];
Mattiello & Sánchez Fajardo [2025]; Sánchez Fajardo & Mattiello
[2025]; Mattiello [2026]), such as blackie and weirdo (for the
suffixes), and screenaholic, scrollitis, gearhead, and wrinkle-brain
(for the combining forms and suffixoids) These forms contribute to the
expressive and often impolite character of slang vocabulary and
illustrate how evaluative meaning is encoded morphologically in
English. Although such formations are not limited to social media
contexts, digital communication has provided a particularly fertile
environment for their circulation and semantic development. While the
aforementioned studies on evaluative morphology in English indicate
that derivational patterns – particularly in diminutives and
approximatives – are often linked to specific slang forms, this volume
intends to broaden this scope. By exploring a wider array of
word-formation mechanisms, such as compounding and conversion (such as
clickbait and to ghost), we aim to provide a more comprehensive
account of the structural diversity within digital English.
Thus, we invite contributions that investigate the formation,
structure, diffusion, and linguistic properties of English social
media slang, with a particular focus on word-formation phenomena in
digital discourse.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Word-formation processes in English internet slang (affixation,
blending, clipping, compounding, acronyms, initialisms, etc.)
- Morphological creativity in youth digital discourse (such as the
use of new morphological elements (e.g., splinters) to coin new words
(e.g., -zilla, -licious, etc.)
- Neologism formation on social media
- Platform-specific slang formation (e.g,. TikTok, Twitter, Reddit,
Instagram)
- Semantic shift and relexicalisation in online slang
- Orthographic and phonological manipulation in digital slang
- Memetic language and the morphology of viral expressions
- The diffusion and lifespan of newly formed slang items
- Cross-platform or cross-community circulation of slang forms
- Corpus-based approaches to digital slang formation
- Interactions between multimodality (texts, emojis, memes, GIFs) and
lexical innovation
Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are welcome, including
corpus-based studies, discourse-analytic approaches, and theoretical
contributions addressing morphological change in digital contexts.
By focusing on the linguistic structure of emerging slang forms, this
special issue aims to contribute to a better understanding of how
digital communication environments shape contemporary processes of
lexical innovation in English.
References:
Androutsopoulos, Jannis (ed.). 2014. Mediatization and sociolinguistic
change. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter.
Androutsopoulos, Jannis. 2011. Language change and digital media: A
review of conceptions and evidence. In Nik Coupland & Tore Kristiansen
(eds.), Standard languages and language standards in a changing
Europe, 145–159. Oslo: Novus Forlag.
Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle Lieber & Ingo Plag. 2013. The Oxford reference
guide to English morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crystal, David. 2011. Internet linguistics: A student guide. London:
Routledge.
Dimock, Michael. 2019. Defining generations: Where Millennials end and
Generation Z begins. Retrieved from
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/
Eble, Connie. 2009. Slang and the internet. In New challenges in
language and literature, 81–96. Faculdade de Letras da UFMG. Retrieved
from
https://www.letras.ufmg.br/site/e-livros/New%20Challenges%20in%20Language%20and%20Literature.pdf
Eckert, Penelope. 1997. Age as a sociolinguistic variable. In Florian
Coulmas (ed.), The handbook of sociolinguistics, 151–167. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Hilte, Lisa, Walter Daelemans & Reinhild Vandekerckhove. 2021.
Interlocutors’ age impacts teenagers’ online writing style:
Accommodation in intra- and intergenerational online conversations.
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 4. 738278.
Jeresano, Eliza M. & Marigrace D. Carretero. 2022. Digital culture and
social media slang of Gen Z. United International Journal for Research
& Technology 3(4). 11–25.
Mattiello, Elisa. 2008. An introduction to English slang: A
description of its morphology, semantics and sociology. Monza:
Polimetrica.
Mattiello, Elisa. 2024. A morphosyntactic and morphosemantic analysis
of English slang suffixoids. Studi e Saggi Linguistici 62(1). 9–41.
Mattiello, Elisa. 2026. Impolite suffixoids in English slang. In
Daniel Van Olmen, Marta Andersson, Jonathan Culpeper & Riccardo Giomi
(eds.), The grammar of impoliteness, 31–60. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
Mattiello, Elisa & José A. Sánchez Fajardo. 2025. The evaluative
suffixoid -head and its Spanish and Italian equivalents. Folia
Linguistica. 1–26.
Prensky, Marc. 2001. Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the
Horizon 9(5). 1–6.
Sánchez Fajardo, José A. & Elisa Mattiello. 2025. From spearhead to
crackhead: Unraveling the morphosemantic development of English -head
through a network of constructions. Word Structure 18(1–2). 119–148.
Tagliamonte, Sali & Derek Denis. 2008. Linguistic ruin? LOL! Instant
messaging and teen language. American Speech 83(1): 3–34.
Talle Vacalares, Sophomore, Angel Faith R. Babac Salas, Bherna Jane S.
Cagalawan, Analyn L. Calimpong & Christine D. Calimpong. 2023. The
intelligibility of internet slangs between millennials and Gen Zers: A
comparative study. International Journal of Science and Research
Archive 9(1). 400–409.
Yannuar, Nurenzia, Helma M. Pasch, Jacomine Nortier, Nico Nassenstein,
Ellen Hurst-Harosh, Andrea Hollington & Cynthia Groff. 2022. Youth
language research: Changing perspectives, international trends and
emerging themes. In Cynthia Groff, Andrea Hollington, Ellen
Hurst-Harosh, Nico Nassenstein, Jacomine Nortier, Helma M. Pasch &
Nurenzia Yannuar (eds.), Global perspectives on youth language
practices, 1–26. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
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:
- May 2026: Call for papers
- March 30, 2027: Deadline for submitting abstracts to Lexis via the
journal’s submission platform
- May-June 2027: Evaluation Committee’s decisions notified to authors
- November 15, 2027: Deadline for submitting papers via the journal’s
submission platform (Guidelines for submitting articles:
https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/1000)
- November and December 2027: Proofreading of papers by the
Evaluation committee
- January 2028: Authors’ corrections
- February 1, 2028: Deadline for sending in final versions of papers
Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
Morphology
Pragmatics
Sociolinguistics
Text/Corpus Linguistics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
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