International Journal Of Language, Literature And Culture(IJLLC)

This study investigates the morphological processes of the political neologisms used during Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election. The study analyses the formation of new words that emerged before and after the election, and explores how they were created by combining existing morphemes. The research methodology used was a corpus-based analysis of political speeches, campaign slogans, social media messages, and news reports. This research considered words that were popular on Google sites, academic articles, Nigerian newspapers, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook during the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria. The study uses qualitative and quantitative methods for analysis by adopting the concepts of word formation processes in English by Krishnarmurthy (2010). Descriptive statistics was used in calculating the frequency of the use of the different types of neologisms. The types of neologisms commonly used are blending, compounding, derivation, and phonetic–orthographic translation. Blending and compounding are discovered to be the most distinct, while blending has the highest percentage of word formation. The neologisms also reflected linguistic, political, and cultural aspects of Nigeria, with some words being borrowed from local languages. The findings suggest that the creation of political neologisms during election campaigns is an important aspect of the Nigerian linguistic landscape and contributes to the dynamism of the Nigerian English. The study highlights the need for further research in this area and its significance in understanding language use in political contexts.