Semantic and Formal Classification of Modern Georgian Neologisms

This paper presents a semantic and formal classification of Georgian neologisms based on the analysis of a dataset of 1,700 new lexical units extracted from the Corpus of Georgian Neologisms. These neologisms were identified in a previous study that developed a semi-automatic method for detecting neologisms in Modern Georgian (Laluashvili & Margalitadze 2025). New lexical units appear in various fields and typically reflect social, cultural, political, and other processes within a language community. In this study, a total of 14 thematic groups were identified, illustrating the diverse contexts in which new words emerge: technologies & internet; business and finance; society and social life; politics; arts and entertainment; media; education; healthcare / medicine; infrastructure; food and kitchen appliances; environmental protection; beauty and law. With regard to the formal classification of modern Georgian neologisms, four main classes were identified: borrowings (direct borrowings, morphologically adapted borrowings, and loan translations), word formation (compounding and derivation), shortening, and semantic change. These classifications help us understand how new words are formed in modern Georgian. They also show how the language changes and adapts to contemporary communicative needs.