Chinese Neologisms in the Field of Fandom: From a Rhetorical Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate Chinese neologisms in the field of fandom from a rhetorical perspective. Chinese fans either borrow existing expressions, sometimes Internet neologisms, and employ them in a novel approach, or create new expressions. Fandom neologisms may involve conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. Metaphor can be categorised into playful metaphors and visual metaphors, the former of which may be concerning war, food or sex. Sex-related metaphors in fan neologisms are expressed via euphemismby means of alphabetic words, homophones and altered characters, owing to social taboo and Internet language usage regulation. In terms of fandom neologisms involving metonymy, they may be accompanied by nominalisation, verbification and hyperbole. Moreover, my observation indicates that Chinese fandom neologisms normally demonstrate semantic opaqueness, which I presume might be correlated with recognition memory. As a subcategory of Internet neologisms generated from networked grassroots communication,fandom neologisms demonstrate an upward transmission direction, as well as a potential to enter the mainstream lexicon by means of being cited by the traditional media.