Abstract

The purpose of this document is to study the use of neologisms, particularly with respect to the environment, and specifically, water. New, complex scenarios of water governance and conservation, combined with global water scarcity, climate change, and sustainability issues, call for new concepts. This study employs neologism addressing and terminography to identify, analyze, and assess these new concepts. This study focuses on the terms water-energy nexus, hydro politics, and blue economy, and analyzes how they entered and assimilated new environmental discourses and gained prominence in policy-making. The study examines the existing academic literature, policy documents, and popular discourses to illustrate how their language adapts to changing and emerging environmental issues. The results indicate that discourse and policy-making shifted to incorporate new neologisms, suggesting that these are no longer purely academic or technical constructs and have instead entered policy-making discourse and broader society. The neologisms introduced into the lexicon of environmental policy show that new, more integrated, or holistic approaches to water management are needed. Also, the study reveals gaps in the current terminological landscape, which can be addressed to provide coherence and consistency in environmental communication. The study is an addition to the expanding field of ecological linguistics by offering insights into the dynamics between language and environmental action, which serve as a basis for future research on the role of language in supporting the global water governance and sustainability endeavor.

Keywords: Neologisms, Water management, Environmental discourse, Lexicography, Terminography, Sustainability, Water governance