For my final paper, I wanted to discuss the analysis of word formation in Taylor Swift’s songs. Many artists today use slang words, compound words, and coinage of new words in their songs. Taylor Swift is one of these artists who has many examples in her songs. When writing this paper, I will begin by clearly stating the definitions of slang, compounding, and coinage so the reader will understand. Then, I will show these examples in the written lyrics of her songs. I have already begun analyzing some lyrics and have found a few examples. In her song titled “Welcome to New York” Taylor uses the term aglow. Aglow is another way to say “glowing” or “radiant”, but it is also an old-fashioned slang word. She also uses newer slang, for example in the song titled “…Ready For It?” stating “I see how this is gon’ go”. Gon’ is slang for “go on” or “going to”. I am going to discuss this comparison between newer slang words in her songs and older slang words. I also found an example of compounding in “Welcome to New York” with the word forevermore. It is a combination of the two words “forever” and “more”. Lastly, there is evidence of coinage in her song “End Game” because she uses the term A-team, which is a coined word from the Vietnam War. An issue I feel I might have is not having enough material to write about, but I feel an easy fix to this is to compare the slang Taylor Swift uses in her songs to the slang other artists use in theirs. For example, how Taylor Swift, as well as artists like Ariana Grande etc., use slang like “aye” and “yuh” in their songs.

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