A comment on English neologisms and programming language keywords

ABSTRACT

The choice of keywords in the design of programming languages is compared to the formation of neologisms, or new words, in natural languages. Examination of keywords in high-level programming languages shows that they are formed using mechanisms analogous to those observed in English. The use of mirror words as closing keywords is a conspicuous exceptions.

REFERENCES

• 1: Donald E. Knuth, Structured Programming with go to Statements, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), v.6 n.4, p.261-301, Dec. 1974 [doi>10.1145/356635.356640]
• 2: T. A. Kovats, Program readability, closing keywords and prefix-style intermediate keywords, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.13 n.11, p.30-42, November 1978 [doi>10.1145/953777.953781]
• 3: Peter Naur, Programming languages, natural languages, and mathematics, Communications of the ACM, v.18 n.12, p.676-683, Dec. 1975 [doi>10.1145/361227.361229]
• 4: Frederic Richard , Henry F. Ledgard, A reminder for language designers, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.12 n.12, p.73-82, December 1977 [doi>10.1145/954618.954623]
• 5: Samucls, M.L. Linguistic Evolution With Special Reference to English. Cambridge University Press, London, England, 1972.
• 6: Sturtevant, E.H. An Introduction to Linguistic Science. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1947.
• 7: van Wijngaarden, A., MaiUoux, B.J., Peck, J.E.L., Koster, C.H.A., Sintzoff, M., Lindsey, C.H., Meertens, L.G.L.T., and Fisker, R.G. Revised report on the algorithmic language ALGOL 68. Acta Informatica, 5, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, 1975, 1-236.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Control structures

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Languages

Keywords:
keywords, natural language, neologisms