BLENDINGS

Definition Blending Blending is one of the most beloved of word formation processes in English. It is especially creative in that speakers take two words and merge them based not on morpheme structure but on sound structure. The resulting words are called blends. Usually in word formation we combine roots or affixes along their edges: one morpheme comes to an end before the next one starts. For example, we form derivation out of the sequence of morphemes de+riv+at(e)+ion. One morpheme follows the next and each one has identifiable boundaries. The morphemes do not overlap. But in blending, part of one word is stitched onto another word, without any regard for where one morpheme ends and another begins. For example, the word swooshtika 'Nike swoosh as a logo symbolizing corporate power and hegemony' was formed from swoosh and swastika. The swoosh part remains whole and recognizable in the blend, but the tika part is not a morpheme, either in the word swastika or in the blend. The blend is a perfect merger of form, and also of content. The meaning contains an implicit analogy between the swastika and the swoosh, and thus conceptually blends them into one new kind of thing having properties of both, but also combined properties of neither source. Other examples include glitterati (blending glitter and literati) 'Hollywood social set', mockumentary (mock and documentary) 'spoof documentary'. The earliest blends in English only go back to the 19th century, with wordplay coinages by Lewis Carroll in Jabberwocky. For example, he introduced to the language slithy, formed from lithe and slimy) and galumph, (from gallop and triumph Interestingly galumph has survived as a word in English, but it now seems to mean 'walk in a stomping, ungainly way'. Some blends that have been around for quite a while include brunch (breakfast and lunch), motel (motor hotel), electrocute (electric and execute), smog (smoke and fog) and cheeseburger (cheese and hamburger). These go back to the first half of the twentieth century. Others, such as stagflation (stagnation and inflation), spork (spoon and fork), and carjacking (car and hijacking) arose since the 1970s. Here are some more recent blends I have run across: mocktail (mock and cocktail) 'cocktail with no alcohol' splog (spam and blog) 'fake blog designed to attract hits and raise Google-ranking' Britpoperati (Britpop and literati) 'those knowledgable about current British pop music'  Clipping Clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the word. Clipping differs from back-formation in that the new word retains the meaning of the original word. For example:

advertisement – ad alligator – gator examination – exam gasoline – gas gymnasium – gym influenza – flu laboratory – lab mathematics – math memorandum – memo photograph – photo public house – pub raccoon – coon reputation – rep situation comedy – sitcom telephone – phone The four types of clipping are back clipping, fore-clipping, middle clipping, and complex clipping. Back clipping is removing the end of a word as in gas from gasoline. Fore-clipping is removing the beginning of a word as in gator from alligator. Middle clipping is retaining only the middle of a word as in flu from influenza. Complex clipping is removing multiple parts from multiple words as in sitcom from situation comedy.  Blending is the process of forming a word by combining parts of words.   examples: Breathalyzer (breath + analyzer) camcorder (camera + recorder) chexting (cheating + texting) clash (clap + crash) cosmeceutical (cosmetic + pharmaceutical) docudrama (documentary + drama) electrocute (electricity + execute) emoticon (emote + icon) faction (fact + fiction) fanzine (fan + magazine) flare (flame + glare) flirtationship (flirting + relationship) glimmer (gleam + shimmer) Globish (global + English) guitarthritis (guitar + arthritis) infotainment (information + entertainment) moped (motor + pedal) palimony (pal + alimony) pornacopia (pornography + cornucopia) pulsar (pulse + quasar) sexcapade (sex + escapade) sexploitation (sex + exploitation) sitcom (situation + comedy) slanguage (slang + language) smash (smack + mash) sportscast (sports + broadcast) stagflation (stagnation + inflation) staycation (stay home + vacation) telegenic (television + photogenic) textpectation (text message + expectation) workaholic (work + alcoholic)