Abstract: The concepts denominative neology and stylistic neology are used to differentiate referential neologisms and expressive neologisms. According to descriptions published in the literature, the first type of neologisms are usually defined as necessary and transparent units, and consequently they tend to have a high usage frequency; while the second type of neologisms are described as unnecessary units that are created to carry out a recreational function, and they use transgressive structures to attract attention and tend to be ephemeral. Although some authors generally accept this typology, others authors question that it is a dichotomy at all and, in practice, we can observe that not all neologisms can be grouped into one of these two categories without raising some methodological doubts in some cases. In this article we present a bibliographical review of these two concepts from the perspective of different authors.
