Identitary neology and youth speak. From the concept to the research methodology on the diffusion of lexical innovations in French

The paper aims to present an overview of linguistic investigation about anglicisms in French lexicology studies as well as chronological parallels between the French conception of neology and slang studies / sociolectology. It also presents the concept ofidentitary neology which is related to new forms or senses that usually quickly attract the researcher’s attention because of their high frequency, expressiveness and multicontextual use in peer discourses. A case-study of diffusion of one French lexical innovation with opaque etymology – the polysemous word bolos from a methodological point of view is then presented. The combination of quantitative and longitudinal methods of investigation to the life-cycle of concrete identitary word represents an innovative approach toward the dynamic conception of neology that enabled the systematization of a questionnaire survey methodsfor description of other borrowings, mainly anglicisms, in youth speak and allowed the reflection about two dichotomous concepts, the neological bang (diffusion of observed neologism between peers) and the media bang (diffusion in media).