Neology is one of the many
translation problems that have no standardized solutions. In journalism neologisms occur
very often for their ability and power of information condensation and their expressive effect. Translators have to render them in the target language by using quite complicated reasoning, which involves many factors, such as text type, creative traditions, literary norms and conventions that are familiar to the reader of a certain society.
Various theorists have addressed the problem of neology, although the focus of each of them is different. Some have attempted to explain the reasons that enable the occurrence of neologisms in a language system. For Aichison (1991:89) their occurrence is justified by three causes: “fashion, foreign influence and social need”. Wardhaugh (2002:188), on the other hand, states that new lexicon can eventuate either by utilization of elements already present in the language (internal process) or by borrowing lexicon from another language (external process). Other theorists, like Cabré, Newmark and Rey have been focusing on the
classification of neologisms according to type or function as well as on the proposal of strategies for dealing with the problem.
The theorists who have addressed the problem have agreed on the skills that translators need to occupy when they are called to deal with neologisms (i.e. creativity, curiosity, intuition, ingenuity, reflection and resourcefulness), but they have not yet come to a common theory on what kind of strategies and solutions are appropriate for translating different types of neologisms. Furthermore, literature seems to be in favour of general rules and guidelines that apply to neologisms in most language pairs. Only journals and short articles address the issue of translating neologisms from a specific language to another specific language, while there is almost a total absence of research concerning the language pair English-Greek. Therefore, this issue allows for further investigation.