Longman Dictionary of

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Often neologisms are the result of the opening up of new areas of art, science
or technology. For example, the field of computer science brought
about a large range of neologisms such as user-friendly, software, floppy
disk.
network n
a group of people within a larger community who are in a relatively fixed
relationship to one another and who communicate among themselves in
certain more or less predictable ways, e.g. a family group, a tutorial group
at a university, the staff in an office. Recognition of networks and their
structures is of importance for studies of language variation, language
use, and language learning. There are two differences between a network
and a PEER GROUP:
a in a peer group all members have equal STATUS, but in a network members
may be of unequal status (e.g. parents and children in a family)
b in a network all members know one another, but in a peer group this
need not be so. For example, a lexicographer may consider all lexicographers
to be his or her peer group without knowing them all personally
Nevertheless, most peer groups are networks and many networks are peer
groups.
neural networks n
see CONNECTIONISM
Neuro-linguistic Programming
Neuro-linguistic Programming n
also NLP
a training philosophy and set of training techniques first developed by
John Grindler and Richard Bandler in the mid-1970s as an alternative
form of therapy. Grindler (a psychologist) and Bandler (a student of linguistics)
were interested in how people influence each other and in how
the behaviours of very effective people could be duplicated. Grindler and
Bandler developed NLP as a system of techniques therapists could use in
building rapport with clients, gathering information about their internal
and external views of the world, and in helping them achieve goals and
bring about personal change. The principles of NLP have been applied in
a variety of fields, including management training, sports training, communications
sales and marketing, and language teaching and have had
some appeal within language teaching to those interested in humanistic
approaches, i.e. those which focus on developing one’s sense of selfactualization
and self-awareness, as well as to those drawn to New Age
Humanism.
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