Emergent neologisms and lexical gaps in specialised languages

One of the characteristics traditionally attributed to neologisms is that they label new realities, which is particularly relevant in terminological studies because these are concerned with areas of intense denominative activity. This article proposes that, besides this well-known feature, the neologisms of specialised fields may also take a different role, more related to filling lexical gaps than to naming innovative concepts. This investigation examines the specialised vocabulary of modern olive oil agriculture and analyses a selection of neologisms before bringing forward a theoretical proposal concerning their linguistic use. Subsequently, this argument is illustrated by applying our model to the definitions of the terminological neologisms under study.