One word for many words is called

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This article is about word-formation. For a method of teaching how to read, see synthetic phonics.

In linguistics, a blend (sometimes called blend word, lexical blend, portmanteau, or portmanteau word) is a word formed from parts of two or more other words. At least one of these parts is not a morph (the realization of a morpheme) but instead a mere splinter, a fragment that is normally meaningless. In the words of Valerie Adams:

In words such as motel, boatel and Lorry-Tel, hotel is represented by various shorter substitutes – ‑otel, ‑tel, or ‑el – which I shall call splinters. Words containing splinters I shall call blends.^{[1][n 1]}

Classification[edit]

Blends of two or more words may be classified from each of three viewpoints: morphotactic, morphonological, and morphosemantic.^[2]

Morphotactic classification[edit]

Blends may be classified morphotactically into two kinds: total and partial.^[2]

Total blends[edit]

In a total blend, each of the words creating the blend is reduced to a mere splinter.^[2] Some linguists limit blends to these (perhaps with additional conditions): for example, Ingo Plag considers «proper blends» to be total blends that semantically are coordinate, the remainder being «shortened compounds».^[3]

Commonly for English blends, the beginning of one word is followed by the end of another:

• boom + hoist → boost ^{[n 2]}
• breakfast + lunch → brunch ^{[n 2]}

Much less commonly in English, the beginning of one word may be followed by the beginning of another:

• teleprinter + exchange → telex ^{[n 2]}
• American + Indian → Amerind ^{[n 2]}

Some linguists do not regard beginning+beginning concatenations as blends, instead calling them complex clippings,^[4] clipping compounds^[5] or clipped compounds.^[6]

Unusually in English, the end of one word may be followed by the end of another:

• Red Bull + margarita → bullgarita ^{[n 2]}
• Hello Kitty + delicious → kittylicious ^{[n 2]}

A splinter of one word may replace part of another, as in three coined by Lewis Carroll in «Jabberwocky»:

• chuckle + snort → chortle ^{[n 2]}
• flimsy + miserable → mimsy
• slimy + lithe → slithy ^{[n 2]}

They are sometimes termed intercalative blends; these words are among the original «portmanteaus» for which this meaning of the word was created. ^[7]

Partial blends[edit]

In a partial blend, one entire word is concatenated with a splinter from another.^[2] Some linguists do not recognize these as blends.^[8]

An entire word may be followed by a splinter:

• dumb + confound → dumbfound ^{[n 2]}
• fan + magazine → fanzine ^{[n 3]}

A splinter may be followed by an entire word:

• Brad + Angelina → Brangelina ^{[n 2]}
• American + Indian → Amerindian ^{[n 2]}

An entire word may replace part of another:

• adorable + dork → adorkable ^{[n 2]}
• disgusting + gross → disgrossting ^{[n 2]}

These have also been called sandwich words,^[9] and classed among intercalative blends.^[7]

(When two words are combined in their entirety, the result is considered a compound word rather than a blend. For example, bagpipe is a compound, not a blend, of bag and pipe.)

Morphonological classification[edit]

Morphonologically, blends fall into two kinds: overlapping and non-overlapping.^[2]

Overlapping blends[edit]

Overlapping blends are those for which the ingredients’ consonants, vowels or even syllables overlap to some extent. The overlap can be of different kinds.^[2] These are also called haplologic blends.^[10]

There may be an overlap that is both phonological and orthographic, but with no other shortening:

• anecdote + dotage → anecdotage ^{[n 2]}
• pal + alimony → palimony ^{[n 2]}

The overlap may be both phonological and orthographic, and with some additional shortening to at least one of the ingredients:

• California + fornication → Californication ^{[n 4]}
• picture + dictionary → pictionary ^{[n 2]}

Such an overlap may be discontinuous:

• politician + pollution → pollutician ^{[n 5]}
• beef + buffalo → beefalo ^{[n 2]}

These are also termed imperfect blends.^[11][12]

It can occur with three components:

• camisade + cannibalism + ballistics → camibalistics ^{[n 6]}
• meander + Neanderthal + tale → meandertale ^{[n 6]}

The phonological overlap need not also be orthographic:

• back + acronym → backronym ^{[n 2]}
• war + orgasm → wargasm ^{[n 2]}

If the phonological but non-orthographic overlap encompasses the whole of the shorter ingredient, as in

• sin + cinema → sinema ^{[n 2]}
• sham + champagne → shampagne ^{[n 2]}

then the effect depends on orthography alone. (They are also called orthographic blends.^[13])

An orthographic overlap need not also be phonological:

• smoke + fog → smog ^{[n 2]}
• binary + unit → bit ^{[n 2]}

For some linguists, an overlap is a condition for a blend.^[14]

Non-overlapping blends[edit]

Non-overlapping blends (also called substitution blends) have no overlap, whether phonological or orthographic:

• California + Mexico → Calexico ^{[n 2]}
• beautiful + delicious → beaulicious ^{[n 4]}

Morphosemantic classification[edit]

Morphosemantically, blends fall into two kinds: attributive and coordinate.^[2]

Attributive blends[edit]

Attributive blends (also called syntactic or telescope blends) are those in which one of the ingredients is the head and the other is attributive. A porta-light is a portable light, not a ‘light-emitting’ or light portability; light is the head. A snobject is a snobbery-satisfying object and not an objective or other kind of snob; object is the head.^[2]

As is also true for (conventional, non-blend) attributive compounds (among which bathroom, for example, is a kind of room, not a kind of bath), the attributive blends of English are mostly head-final and mostly endocentric. As an example of an exocentric attributive blend, Fruitopia may metaphorically take the buyer to a fruity utopia (and not a utopian fruit); however, it is not a utopia but a drink.

Coordinate blends[edit]

Coordinate blends (also called associative or portmanteau blends) combine two words having equal status, and have two heads. Thus brunch is neither a breakfasty lunch nor a lunchtime breakfast but instead some hybrid of breakfast and lunch; Oxbridge is equally Oxford and Cambridge universities. This too parallels (conventional, non-blend) compounds: an actor–director is equally an actor and a director.^[2]

Two kinds of coordinate blends are particularly conspicuous: those that combine (near‑) synonyms:

• gigantic + enormous → ginormous
• insinuation + innuendo → insinuendo

and those that combine (near‑) opposites:

• transmitter + receiver → transceiver
• friend + enemy → frenemy

Blending of two roots[edit]

Blending can also apply to roots rather than words, for instance in Israeli Hebrew:

• רמזור ramzor ‘traffic light’ combines רמז √rmz ‘hint’ and אור or ‘light’.
• מגדלור migdalor ‘lighthouse’ combines מגדל migdal ‘tower’ and אור or ‘light’.
• Israeli דחפור dakhpór ‘bulldozer’ hybridizes (Mishnaic Hebrew>) Israeli דחפ √dħp ‘push’ and (Biblical Hebrew>) Israeli חפר √ħpr ‘dig'[…]
• Israeli שלטוט shiltút ‘zapping, surfing the channels, flipping through the channels’ derives from
  • (i) (Hebrew>) Israeli שלט shalát ‘remote control’, an ellipsis – like English remote (but using the noun instead) – of the (widely known) compound שלט רחוק shalát rakhók – cf. the Academy of the Hebrew Language’s שלט רחק shalát rákhak; and
  • (ii) (Hebrew>) Israeli שטוט shitút ‘wandering, vagrancy’. Israeli שלטוט shiltút was introduced by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in […] 1996. Synchronically, it might appear to result from reduplication of the final consonant of shalát ‘remote control’.
• Another example of blending which has also been explained as mere reduplication is Israeli גחלילית gakhlilít ‘fire-fly, glow-fly, Lampyris‘. This coinage by Hayyim Nahman Bialik blends (Hebrew>) Israeli גחלת gakhélet ‘burning coal’ with (Hebrew>) Israeli לילה láyla ‘night’. Compare this with the unblended חכלילית khakhlilít ‘(black) redstart, Phœnicurus’ (<Biblical Hebrew חכליל ‘dull red, reddish’). Synchronically speaking though, most native Israeli-speakers feel that gakhlilít includes a reduplication of the third radical of גחל √għl. This is incidentally how Ernest Klein^[15] explains gakhlilít. Since he is attempting to provide etymology, his description might be misleading if one agrees that Hayyim Nahman Bialik had blending in mind.»^[16]

«There are two possible etymological analyses for Israeli Hebrew כספר kaspár ‘bank clerk, teller’. The first is that it consists of (Hebrew>) Israeli כסף késef ‘money’ and the (International/Hebrew>) Israeli agentive suffix ר- -ár. The second is that it is a quasi-portmanteau word which blends כסף késef ‘money’ and (Hebrew>) Israeli ספר √spr ‘count’. Israeli Hebrew כספר kaspár started as a brand name but soon entered the common language. Even if the second analysis is the correct one, the final syllable ר- -ár apparently facilitated nativization since it was regarded as the Hebrew suffix ר- -år (probably of Persian pedigree), which usually refers to craftsmen and professionals, for instance as in Mendele Mocher Sforim’s coinage סמרטוטר smartutár ‘rag-dealer’.»^[17]

Lexical selection[edit]

Blending may occur with an error in lexical selection, the process by which a speaker uses his semantic knowledge to choose words. Lewis Carroll’s explanation, which gave rise to the use of ‘portmanteau’ for such combinations, was:

Humpty Dumpty’s theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all. For instance, take the two words «fuming» and «furious.» Make up your mind that you will say both words … you will say «frumious.»^[18]

The errors are based on similarity of meanings, rather than phonological similarities, and the morphemes or phonemes stay in the same position within the syllable.^[19]

Use[edit]

Some languages, like Japanese, encourage the shortening and merging of borrowed foreign words (as in gairaigo), because they are long or difficult to pronounce in the target language. For example, karaoke, a combination of the Japanese word kara (meaning empty) and the clipped form oke of the English loanword «orchestra» (J. ōkesutora オーケストラ), is a Japanese blend that has entered the English language. The Vietnamese language also encourages blend words formed from Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary. For example, the term Việt Cộng is derived from the first syllables of «Việt Nam» (Vietnam) and «Cộng sản» (communist).

Many corporate brand names, trademarks, and initiatives, as well as names of corporations and organizations themselves, are blends. For example, Wiktionary, one of Wikipedia’s sister projects, is a blend of wiki and dictionary.

See also[edit]

• Acronym and initialism
• Amalgamation (names)
• Clipping (morphology)
• Conceptual blending
• Hybrid word
• List of blend words
• Phonestheme
• Phono-semantic matching
• Syllabic abbreviation
• Wiktionary category:English blends

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

1)General
features of word-compounding.

2)Structural
and semantic peculiarities of English compounds.

3)Classification
of compounds.

4)The
meaning of compounds.

5)Motivation
of English compounds.

6)Special
groups of compounds.

Word-compounding
is
a way of forming new words combining two or more stems. It’s
important to distinguish between compound words and
word-combinations, because sometimes they look or sound alike. It
happens because compounds originate directly from word-combinations.

The
major feature of compounds is their inseparability
of various kinds: graphic, semantic, phonetic, morphological.

There
is also a syntactic
criterion which helps us to distinguish between words and word
combinations. For example, between the constituent parts of the
word-group other words can be inserted (a
tall handsome
boy).

In
most cases the structural and semantic centre of the compound word
lies on the second component. It shows what part of speech the word
is. The function of the first element is to modify, to determine the
second element. Such compounds (with the structural and semantic
centre “in” the word) are called endocentric.

There
are also exocentric
compounds where the centre lies outside (pickpocket).

Another
type of compound words is called bahuvrihi

– compound nouns or adjectives consisting of two parts: the first
being an adjective, the second – a noun.

There
are several ways to classify compounds. Firstly, they can be grouped
according to their part of speech. Secondly, compounds are grouped
according to the
way the stems are linked together:
morphological compounds (few in number); syntactic compounds (from
segments of speech, preserving articles, prepositions, adverbs).

The
third classification is according to the combinability of compounding
with
other
ways of word-formation:
1) compounds proper (formed by a mere juxtaposition of two stems);

2)
derived or derivational compounds (have affixes in their structure);

3)
converted compounds;

4)
contractive compounds (based on shortening);

5)
compounds based on back formation;

Beside
lexical meanings the components of a compound word have
distributional
and
differential
meanings.
By distributional
meaning
we understand the order, the arrangement of the stems in the word.
The differential
meaning
helps to distinguish two compounds possessing the same element.

The
structural
meaning
of a compound may be described through the interrelation of its
components. e.g. N + Adj (heart-sick
– the relation of cpmparison).

In
most cases compounds are
motivated.
They can be completely motivated, partially motivated, unmotivated.
In partially motivated compounds one of the components (or both) has
changed its original meaning. The meaning of unmotivated compounds
has nothing to do with the meanings of their individual parts.

As
for special groups of compounds, here we distinguish:

a)
reduplicative compounds;

b)
ablaut combinations;

c)
rhyme combinations.

There’s
a certain group of words that stand between compounds and derived.
These are words with so called semi-affixes:
kiss proof
(about
lipstick), fireproof,
foolproof.

Conversion

1)General
problems of conversion in English.

2)Semantic
relations between conversion pairs.

3)
Sources and productivity of conversion.

In
linguistics conversion
is
a type of word-formation; it is a process of creating a new word in a
different part of speech without adding any derivational element. The
morphemic shape of the original word remains unchanged. There are
changes in the syntactical function of the original word, its part of
speech and meaning.

The
question of conversion
has been a controversial one in several aspects. The term conversion
was first used by Henry Sweet at the end of the 19^th
century. The nature of conversion has been analyzed by several
linguists. A number of terms have been offered to describe the
process in question.

The
most objective treatment of conversion belongs to Victoria Nikolaevna
Yartseva. According to her, it is a combined morphological,
syntactical and semantic way of word-formation.

The
process was called “non-affixal
derivation”
(Galperin) or “zero
derivation”.
These terms have drawbacks, because there can be other examples of
non-affixal or zero derivation which are not connected with the
process described at the beginning of the lecture.

The
term “functional
change”
(by Arthur Kennedy) also has short-comings. The term implies that the
first word merely changes its function and no new word appears. It
isn’t possible.

The
word conversion
we
use talking about this way of word-formation is not perfect as well.
It means the transformation of something into another thing, the
disappearance of the first word. But the old and the new words exist
together.

The
largest group
related through conversion consists of verbs
converted from nouns.
The relations of the conversion pair in this case can be of the
following kind:

1)
instrumental relations;

2)
relations reflecting some characteristic of the object;

3)
locative relations;

4)
relations of the reverse process, the deprivation of the object.

The
second major division of converted words is deverbial
nouns
(nouns converted from verbs).

They
denote:

1)
an instance of some process;

2)
the object or the result of some action;

3)
the place where the action occurs;

4)
the agent or the instrument of the action.

Conversion
is not only a highly productive but also a particularly English way
of word-building. There are a lot of words in the English language
that are short and morphologically unmarked (don’t indicate any
part of speech). By short words we mean monosyllables, such words are
naturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables.

In
English verbs and nouns are specially affected by conversion.
Conversion has restrictions. It’s impossible to use conversion if
verbs cannot represent some process as a succession of isolated
actions. Besides, the structure of the first word shouldn’t be
complicated.

Conversion
is typical not only of nouns, verbs and adjectives, but other parts
of speech as well, even such minor elements as interjections and
prepositions or shortened words.

Shortening

1.
General problems of shortening.

2.
Peculiarities of shortenings.

Shortening
stands apart from other ways of word-formation because it doesn’t
produce new words. It produces variants of the same word. The
differences between the new and the original word are in style,
sometimes in their meaning.

There
are two major groups of shortenings (colloquial and written
abbreviations). Among shortenings there can be polysemantic units as
well.

Shortenings
are classified a) according to the position of the shortened part of
the word (clipped words), b) into shortened word combinations, c)
into abbreviations, d) into blendings.

Among
clipped words there are cases of apocope, aphaeresis, and syncope.
Abbreviations can be read as in the alphabet, as one word.

The
Semantic Structure of English Words

1.General
problems of semasiology. The referential and the functional
approaches to the meaning of English words.

2.Types
of meaning.

3.Change
of meaning.

4.Polysemy.

5.Homonymy.

6.Synonyms,
antonyms and other semantic groupings.

The
branch of linguistic which specializes in the study of meaning is
called semantics or semasiology. The modern approach to semantics is
based on the fact that any word has its inner form which is called
the semantic structure.

There
are two main approaches to the meaning of a word: referential and
functional.

The
referential approach is based on the notion of the referent (the
object the word is devoted to). It also operates the notions of the
concept and word. The word and the referent are related only through
the concept. The drawback of the approach is in the fact that it
deals with psychology mostly.

According
to the functional approach the meaning of a word depends on the
function of the word in a sentence. The approach is not perfect
because it can help us only to compare the meanings of words.
Speaking about the meaning of a word both approaches should be
combined.

The
meaning of a word can be divided into grammatical
and
lexical.
The latter is divided into denotational
and
connotational
meanings. The denotational meaning gives the general idea which is
characteristic of a certain word. The connotational meaning combines
the emotive colour and the stylistic value of a word.

The
smallest elements of meaning are called semes.

There
are words with either only the denotational or the connotational
meaning.

Causes
of semantic changes can be extra
linguistic and
linguistic.
Extra linguistic causes are historical in their nature. Among
linguistic causes we distinguish discrimination of synonyms,
ellipsis, linguistic analogy.

As
for the nature of semantic changes, it is connected with some sort of
association between the old and the new meanings. These associations
can be of two types: of similarity (linguistic metaphor), of
contiguity (linguistic metonymy).

The
result of semantic changes can be seen in denotational and
connotational meanings. The denotational meaning can be generalized
or specialized. The connotational meaning can be worsened or
elevated.

Most
words are polysemantic. Monosemantic words are usually found among
terms and scientific words. The ability of words to have more than
one meaning is called polysemy.
Polysemy exists only in the language system.

The
semantic structure of a polysemantic word may be described as a
combination of its semantic variants. Each variant can be described
from the point of view of their denotational and connotational
meaning.

Polysemy
is closely connected with the notion of the context
(the minimum stretch of speech which is sufficient to understand the
meaning of a word). The main types of context are lexical and
grammatical.

Homonyms
are words identical in sound and spelling or at least in one of these
aspects, but different in their meaning. According to Profesor
Smirnitsky homonyms can be divided into two groups: full homonyms
(represent the same part of speech and have the same paradigm),
partial homonyms (don’t coincide either in their spelling or
paradigm).

Another
classification of homonyms deals with homophones
and homographs.

The
sources of homonyms are phonetic changes, borrowing, word-building
(especially conversion), shortening.

There
are several classifications of various word groups. The semantic
similarity and polarity are connected with synonyms and antonyms.

Synonyms
are words different in sound-form but similar in meaning. According
to Vinogradov synonyms can be divided ideographic, stylistic and
absolute. A dominant
synonym
(in any row of synonyms) is more frequent in communication and
contains the major denotational component of the synonyms in
question.

Antonyms
are words belonging to the same part of speech with some opposite
meaning.

As
for other groups of words, there are hyponyms, hyperonyms, semantic
fields, thematic groups.

The
development of the English vocabulary

1.The
development of the vocabulary. Structural and semantic peculiarities
of new vocabulary

units.

2.Ways
of enriching the vocabulary.

If
the language is not dead, it’s developing all the time. The items
that disappear are called archaisms.
They can be found among numerous lexical units and grammatical forms.

New
words or expressions, new meanings of older words are called
neologisms.
The introduction of new words reflects developments and innovations
in the world at large and in society.

Apart
from political terms, neologisms come from the financial world,
computing, pop scene, drug dealing, crime life, youth culture,
education.

Neologisms
come into the language through

1)productive
ways of word formation;

2)ways
without any pattern;

3)semantic
changes of old words;

4)borrowing
from other languages.

There
are numerous cases of blending, compounding, conversion. Borrowed
words mostly come from French, Japanese, the American variant of the
English language.

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CAMBRIDGE
ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE ADVANCED

UNIT 91

One word, many meanings

A

Polysemy A great many words in English have more than one meaning. Linguists call this aspect of vocabulary polysemy. Look at these sentences and think about how you would translate the words in italics into your own language. fair It’s only fair that we should share the housework. The Frankfurt Book Fair is a very important event for most publishers. The forecast is for the weather to stay fair for the next week. I’ve got fair skin and burn easily in the sun. His marks in his final exams ranged from excellent to fair. flat The firefighters managed to save the children from the burning third-floor flat. The countryside round here is terribly flat and boring. To join the Fitness Club, you pay a flat fee of £500. The sonata is in B flat minor. She finished the exercise in five minutes flat. capital Fill in the form in capital letters. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. You need plenty of capital to open a restaurant. Capital punishment has been abolished in many countries. mean What does ‘coagulate’ mean? I didn’t mean to hurt you. He’s far too mean to buy her flowers. The mean temperature for July is 25oC. You shouldn’t be so mean to your little sister. You probably need a different word to translate fair, flat, capital and mean in each sentence. Sometimes the meanings are clearly related – flat as in countryside has a connection with flat as in apartment in that they both include an idea of being on one level. Sometimes, however, there is no connection at all. For example, the meaning of fair as in Book Fair has no obvious connection with any of the other meanings of fair. Words like this can be called homographs (words with the same spellings but different meanings).

B

Being aware of polysemy It is useful to be aware of polysemy in English for several reasons. • You need to remember that the meaning you first learnt for a word may not be the one that it has in a new context. • You need to be aware that in English, words can sometimes be used as different parts of speech. Flat with its apartment meaning, for instance, can become an adjective, e.g. a set of flat keys. • Learning about the range of meanings that a word can have can help you to learn several meanings for the price of one. • It will also help you to understand jokes in English, as these are often based on polysemous words. Language help The context of a word with multiple meanings will usually make it absolutely clear which of the word’s possible meanings is intended. So you can understand what, for example, the noun drill probably means in (a) a dental context, (b) an army context, (c) a road-building context, or (d) a languagelearning context.

EXERCISES

91.1	Find the example sentence in A opposite in which fair, flat, capital or mean has the following meaning. 1 intend 2 exactly 3 proper, just 4 city with the seat of government 5 light in colour 6 unkind 7 fixed 8 neither very good nor very bad 9 money 10 unwilling to spend money
91.2	What part of speech is the italicised word in each of the example sentences in A? Write a synonym or explanation for each of the examples not used in 91.1.
91.3	Here are some more examples of polysemous words in English. Which word can fill all the gaps in each group of sentences? 1 He struck a ____________ and we slowly began to look around the dark cave. The teenage cooks in the competition were a ____________ for any of the adults. Their marriage has been called a ____________ made in heaven. 2 That bird has an unusually long ____________. Don’t forget to keep the receipt when you pay your hotel ____________. Parliament is currently discussing a ____________ proposing changes to copyright legislation. 3 Hannah gave us a lovely ____________ of glasses as a wedding present. Let’s now try and ____________ a date for our meeting next week. My father has very ____________ opinions about how people should behave. 4 I’ve applied for a ____________ in our company’s Paris office. The end of the race is indicated by a ____________ with a flag on it. Why not ____________ your query on an online forum? You’re bound to get a quick response. 5 I didn’t get my assignment back because the teacher hadn’t had time to ____________ it. Sales have already passed the million ____________. You’ve got a red ____________ on your cheek. It looks like lipstick. 6 You need to be a special kind of person to ____________ a successful business. Do you fancy going for a ____________ this evening? Thanks to the hot weather, our shop has had a ____________ on ice cream.
91.4	Look at the Language help box. What does drill mean in each of the four contexts suggested?
91.5	What would the given word be most likely to mean in each of the contexts suggested? Use a dictionary if necessary. 1 register: a a primary school b a post office 2 interest: a people planning a festival b a bank 3 dice: a a kitchen b people playing a board game 4 service: a people playing tennis b in a restaurant 5 case: a in a lawyer’s office b at an airport 6 cue: a people playing snooker b in the theatre
91.6	Explain these one-line jokes. They are all based on polysemy. 1 I wondered why the tennis ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me! 2 Smaller babies may be delivered by a stork but the heavier ones need a crane. 3 Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. 4 You know prices are rising when you buy a winter jacket and even down is up.

ANSWER KEY