Neology

The process of defining a word is perhaps most salient in the coining of a new term. So, let 'Neology' be 'the study of Definition', and, it seems as if Neology is self-exemplifying, as well. When a new term is coined, it usually serves to describe a pattern of activity that has hitherto gone unrecognized. In some cases, the pattern has been present, but undetected, e. g. Freud's 'Oedipus Complex', while in others, the pattern is novel, e. g. cell-phone 'texting'. Furthermore, in some of the latter cases, the discovery of a novel pattern illuminates previously existing, but hitherto either undetected or otherwise characterized, patterns. For example, Neologic Definition illuminates the process that has hitherto been characterized as 'stipulative definition', by revealing that the latter, usually regarded as the arbitrary taking of an already given term to be a foundation of further discourse, to be tantamount to the coining of a new term. Neologic activity is hence Idionomic--term-coining cannot be sufficiently explained as either Heteronomic, i. e. as a borrowed usage, or as Autonomic, i. e. as a free choice of a pre-given term.