Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology. Youth Slang and Word-Formation in Digital English.
Deadline for contributions: 30 March 2027.
Issue edited by Elisa Mattiello (University of Pisa, Italy) and José A. Sánchez Fajardo (University of Alicante, Spain)
Issue presentation
Over the past two decades, the rapid expansion of social media platforms has profoundly transformed linguistic practices, particularly among younger speakers. Online environments such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and messaging platforms have become key sites for the creation, dissemination, and institutionalisation of new lexical items. These forms, commonly described as “internet slang” or “digital slang” (Eble [2009]; Crystal [2011]) reflect the dynamic interplay between technological platforms, youth identity practices, and linguistic innovation.
A growing body of research has documented the sociocultural dimensions of online slang, examining its role in generational identity, digital communities, and patterns of social media usage (e.g., Tagliamonte & Denis [2008]; Androutsopoulos [2014]; Hilte, Vandekerckhove & Daelemans [2021]). Studies have also highlighted how younger generations – often described as “digital natives”, i.e. individuals who have grown up immersed in digital technologies (Prensky [2001]) – actively develop and disseminate novel lexical items and expressions through online interaction (Dimock [2019]), such as rizz (< charisma), touch grass, lurker. Much of this work approaches social media slang primarily from sociological, cultural, or communication-oriented perspectives.
This special issue of Lexis aims to shift the focus towards the linguistic mechanisms underlying these innovations, with particular attention to word-formation processes in contemporary English social media slang. Digital communication provides fertile ground for lexical creativity, including processes such as blending (vlog < video + blog), clipping (rizz), compounding (doomscrolling), acronym formation (GOAT < Greatest Of All Time), conversion (friend (n.) < friend (v.)), semantic shift (cloud ‘data storage’), respelling and orthographic play (smol < small; seggs < sex) (Mattiello [2008]; Crystal [2011]; Bauer, Lieber & Plag [2013]) These processes frequently interact with multimodal and platform-specific constraints, as well as with the rapid circulation of linguistic forms across online communities. For instance, the 280-character limit on posts on X (formerly Twitter) increases the use of abbreviated forms; also, on Reddit, users with a higher number of upvotes are guaranteed that their content gains more visibility and is more linguistically impactful.
Recent research has also noted that younger users, especially members of Generation Z, display a high degree of familiarity with emerging neologisms and internet slang, reflecting their intensive engagement with digital platforms and their role in shaping new linguistic trends (Jeresano & Carretero [2022]; Talle Vacalares et al. [2023]). These trends are also believed to have an impact on mainstream language, as young speakers tend to initially break established rules, before becoming more standard-oriented as they grow older (Androutsopoulos [2011: 151]). While generational dynamics and social media practices remain important contexts for these developments, the present issue seeks to explore how digital environments foster specific patterns of morphological and lexical innovation in English slang. This innovation has been associated with ‘linguistic manipulation’, a process through which young speakers act as engineers of language change and innovation (Yannuar et al. [2022: 9]). Consequently, with the rise of digital platforms and shared virtual communities, it is indispensable to study the extent to which young speakers ‘move’ and ‘shake’ English linguistic standards (Eckert [1997: 1]).
In addition, recent linguistic research has begun to explore evaluative and pejorative morphology in slang, including the emergence and productivity of suffixes such as -y/-ie and -o, as well as combining forms and suffixoids such as -holic, -itis, -head, -brain, and related elements (Sánchez Fajardo [2022]; Mattiello [2024]; Mattiello & Sánchez Fajardo [2025]; Sánchez Fajardo & Mattiello [2025]; Mattiello [2026]), such as blackie and weirdo (for the suffixes), and screenaholic, scrollitis, gearhead, and wrinkle-brain (for the combining forms and suffixoids) These forms contribute to the expressive and often impolite character of slang vocabulary and illustrate how evaluative meaning is encoded morphologically in English. Although such formations are not limited to social media contexts, digital communication has provided a particularly fertile environment for their circulation and semantic development. While the aforementioned studies on evaluative morphology in English indicate that derivational patterns – particularly in diminutives and approximatives – are often linked to specific slang forms, this volume intends to broaden this scope. By exploring a wider array of word-formation mechanisms, such as compounding and conversion (such as clickbait and to ghost), we aim to provide a more comprehensive account of the structural diversity within digital English.
Thus, we invite contributions that investigate the formation, structure, diffusion, and linguistic properties of English social media slang, with a particular focus on word-formation phenomena in digital discourse.
Timeline
- May 2026: Call for papers
- March 30, 2027: Deadline for submitting abstracts to
Lexis 
via the journal’s submission platform - May-June 2027: Evaluation Committee’s decisions notified to authors
- November 15, 2027: Deadline for submitting papers via the journal’s submission platform (Guidelines for submitting articles: https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/1000)
- November and December 2027: Proofreading of papers by the Evaluation committee
- January 2028: Authors’ corrections
- February 1, 2028: Deadline for sending in final versions of papers
Website address
- https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/ (journal)
- https://journals.openedition.org/lexis/10480 (issue)
- https://ojs.openedition.org/index.php/lexis (submission of abstract and/or article)
Contact details: Prof. Denis Jamet-Coupé: 
lexis@univ-lyon3.fr
(Posted 22 April 2026)