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A version of this paper was delivered at the Global Art Forum at Art Dubai in March 2013 The abstract to which the author was invited to respond was: ‘Why must we make things up? Isn’t the world full of enough discourse and jargon already? What is the meaning of making more meanings? Are we bored of the words we’re using, or, is it just that reality’s gone further than the words we already have?’   Neologistics Lexical Tags: surgery, toddlers, aphasia, John 1:1, Sūrat al-‘Alaq The impulse to invent new words out of preexisting elements is a latent feature of language A neologism (from Greek néo-, meaning ‘new’ and logos, meaning ‘speech, utterance’) is a blend of existing fragments to forge anew I picture it as grafting inorganic matter to the organic If it sticks, the inorganic is fused to, and almost imperceptible from, the organic Should you tear your anterior cruciate ligament, for example, a replacement part from a juvenile pig or human cadaver may be used to reconstruct your knee You will walk as before Less streamlined and having acquired a prosthesis, a bionic patella So it goes with neologism According to modern psychiatry, the use of words that have meaning only to the person using them is common in children In adults, it can signal psychopathy, even schizophrenia, or it can be acquired through aphasia after a head injury The personal disposition to create a new vocabulary is for the most part related to youth, severe mental affliction, or temporary impairment   The neologistic toddler, not impaired, names anew and with childish abandon She becomes through naming without common meaning I imagine a fat, smiling statue of the Buddha, simultaneously babyish and wise (Also see: retrogression to baby-talk in Finnegan’s Wake)   John 1:1: ‘In the beginning was the word’ In the Qur’an, too, the command to submit was the first Revelation to be sent to the Prophet in Sūrat al-‘Alaq or ‘The Clot’: Iqra’ (‘read’) Al-’alaq is also a literal clot, the early stage of an embryo, that originary zygote that becomes a neologistic child   Human invention itself appears