ENEOLI receives COST funding

Joining a four-year international network on lexical innovation

The European Network on Lexical Innovation has been approved as COST Action CA22126.

The European Network on Lexical Innovation (ENEOLI) has been approved as COST Action CA22126. I am very pleased to be part of this new international network devoted to the study of neology: how new words and meanings emerge, circulate, and become established across languages and communities.

COST Actions differ somewhat from conventional research grants. Rather than financing a single research project or providing individual researchers with their own research budgets, COST supports the infrastructure required for international collaboration. This can include meetings, workshops, training schools, conference participation, short-term research visits, and communication activities.

That model is particularly well suited to neology. Researchers working on lexical innovation draw on different theoretical traditions, terminologies, datasets, and methods. These differences become especially visible when research conducted in different languages and national contexts is brought together. ENEOLI will provide a framework for comparing those approaches and developing shared resources.

The Action will run for four years and is organized around four main areas:

1. developing a multilingual glossary of neology;
2. examining methodologies, digital resources, and tools for studying lexical innovation;
3. conducting comparative diachronic and synchronic studies of neology; and
4. developing training in neology for researchers and language professionals.

I will participate in the working groups devoted to methodologies, digital resources, and tools and to comparative studies of neology. Both connect directly with my doctoral research on the linguistic and extralinguistic factors associated with the diffusion—and non-diffusion—of new words, as well as with my broader interest in corpus-based and computational approaches to language.

Being associated with a funded COST Action does not mean that I have personally received research funding through ENEOLI. It does, however, create opportunities to develop collaborations, participate in scientific activities, and potentially apply for support for specific networking and mobility initiatives.

Most importantly, it places my doctoral work within a much broader international community of researchers confronting many of the same conceptual and methodological problems. I am looking forward to seeing what those connections make possible as the network takes shape.