THE FORMATION AND SEMANTIC TRANSFORMATION OF NEW ENGLISH WORDS IN DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

This article examines the formation of new English lexical items and the semantic transformation of existing words in digital communication. The rapid development of digital technologies, social media platforms, and internet-mediated interaction is considered an important factor influencing the expansion of contemporary English vocabulary and the restructuring of lexical meanings. The primary aim of the study is to identify the mechanisms through which new words emerge in digital discourse, describe their semantic development, and examine their communicative functions. The proposed research framework incorporates descriptive, contextual, componential, and comparative methods of linguistic analysis. Lexical items such as doomscrolling, ghosting, unfriend, viral, post, and story serve as illustrative examples for examining word formation, semantic broadening, metaphorical extension, and context-dependent meaning development. Particular attention is given to the relationship between lexical innovation, users' communicative needs, online interaction, and sociocultural change. The article also considers how digital environments encourage linguistic creativity and facilitate the rapid circulation of emerging expressions across online communities. Beyond their informational function, digital lexical items may convey emotional evaluations, establish interpersonal relationships, and signal membership in particular virtual communities. The study seeks to contribute to a clearer understanding of the interaction between language change and digital communication. Its findings may be relevant to English lexicology, lexical semantics, corpus linguistics, and digital discourse studies, while also providing a foundation for further empirical research into contemporary English vocabulary.