Cultural conceptualizations of neologisms and coinages in Nigerian multicultural discussion on <i>Nairaland Forum</i>

Abstract How do multicultural groups communicate to reflect common cultural understanding in online discussion forums? How do they engage coinages and neologisms in discussion forums to reflect their common understanding of conceptualizations of ideas? These are the issues interrogated in this study. This study investigates the cultural conceptualizations of coinages and neologisms in Nairaland Forum . Eliciting fifty coinages and neologisms from Nairaland Forum through purposive sampling method between 2003 and 2004 and subjecting them to analysis using Cultural Linguistics, findings showed that coinages and neologisms emerge in the context of online self-presentation, as well as in contemporary social and political contexts in Nigeria. The coinages and neologisms derive from collective cognition of Nigerian internet users, which could be English, Nigerian Pidgin, and indigenous language expressions. This study concludes that the emergence of these new forms in cyberspace within the context of English as a second language is an indication of the speakers’ expression of ownership of English within their domain. It is also their own contribution to the expansion of English vocabulary, as some of these new expressions have found their ways into standard English dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary .