PARADIGM SHIFTS IN ROMANIAN NEOLOGY IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
TL;DR
The main conclusion is that contemporary neology is evolving toward a hybrid model, in which human expertise and AI-based tools must work in tandem to ensure both the speed of monitoring lexical changes and the rigor of their validation and standardization.
Abstract
The article examines the impact of digitization and artificial intelligence on contemporary neology, with a focus on the Romanian language. A significant paradigm shift has occurred in the digital age with regard to neology and terminology – fields that are closely intertwined – involving changes both in the emergence and circulation of new terms and in the methods used to study them. Whereas in the traditional, classical paradigm of neology, the identification, description, and validation of lexical innovations depended on the specialist’s observation and the compilation of dictionaries or specialized studies, in recent years all these processes have undergone a radical transformation, an epistemological one, as methods based on digital corpora, natural language processing, and large-scale linguistic models are radically changing everything related to neologisms. In this study, not only are the main categories of lexical innovations associated with digital technologies analyzed, but also the mechanisms of lexical adaptation to the Romanian language system, the role of artificial intelligence as a driver of lexical change, and the methodological, ethical, and institutional challenges arising from these transformations. The study brings to light the new roles of the researcher in the field of neology and lexicography, which today lies at the intersection of research, science communication, and cultural mediation. The analysis draws on examples from modern Romanian, together with references to initiatives by leading international organizations in the field of neology (EAFT, REALITER, EFNIL) and major projects investigating these issues (for example, ENEOLI). The main conclusion is that contemporary neology is evolving toward a hybrid model, in which human expertise and AI-based tools must work in tandem to ensure both the speed of monitoring lexical changes and the rigor of their validation and standardization. For all this we need language policies adapted to the current context.