The Productivity and Emergent Meanings of the Prefix Post- in Contemporary English

Vocabulary flashcards covering the linguistic analysis of the prefix 'post-' in modern political and social contexts, based on the research of Ewelina Prażmo.

Post-truth

Named the 2016 word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, it describes a changing political landscape where facts are less influential than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

Productivity

Defined by Hockett (1960) as the capacity to say things that have never been said or heard before and yet to be understood by other speakers of the language.

Constructional schema

As defined by Ronald Langacker (2003), these are schematic symbolic assemblies that represent observed commonalities across complex expressions and serve as templates for novel expressions.

Radial model of categorisation

A model where category members are evaluated based on their similarity to a central meaning (prototype), allowing for the extension of meanings via mechanisms like metaphor and metonymy.

Truthiness

A term first used by Stephen Colbert in 2005, defined as the quality of being considered true because of what the believer wishes or feels, regardless of the facts.

Trumpiness

A neologism coined by Stephen Colbert in 2016 describing the quality of being considered true in spite of facts or beliefs, specifically because supporters may not care if the claims are true.

Mathiness

A term introduced by Paul Romer in 2015 to describe a type of mathematical reasoning intended to mislead rather than clarify.

Spatial meaning of post-

A word-forming element from Latin meaning 'behind,' used to describe physical location, such as in the terms postabdominal or postocular.

Temporal meaning of post-

A prefix use meaning 'after' the period named in the root, such as in postwar reconstruction or post-doctoral research.

Revised version meaning

An extended sense of the prefix post- where the derivative is a reaction against, critique of, or improved version of the root theory, such as poststructuralism or postfeminism.

Conceptual integration

Proposed by Fauconnier and Turner (2003), this four-domain model involves two input spaces integrated onto a generic space to create a new quality in a blended space.

Post-fact

Often used interchangeably with post-truth, it refers to a world or era dominated by levels of lies, half-truths, and fabrications, particularly in political campaigning.

Post-trust

A political environment where trust is no longer a value in itself and the default attitude is to remain skeptical about every source of information.

Post-shame

An environment or era where individuals, including public figures, no longer feel shock or shame when caught lying, and where the concept of 'sense' is distorted.

Post-national

Defined as relating to a time or society in which national identity has become less important; a term used by Justin Trudeau in 2015 to describe Canada.

Analysability

According to Taylor (2002), this is the flipside of productivity; a word is analysable to the degree it can be brought under a salient schema.

Valence

The restriction of a morpheme's use, such as its requirement to attach to stems with specific semantic content or phonological structures.