A comment on English neologisms and programming language keywords

Authors:
Caroline M. Eastman
Affiliations:
Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX
Venue:
Communications of the ACM
Year:
1982

Citing 4
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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.