Telescopic Wordformation

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

Principle of the Least Effort: Telescopic Wordformation

Ekaterine Keke Bakaradze, American University, USA

Abstract: The paper analyses process of formation and development of telescopic Wordformation in English and propose that one form of verbal economy law - “principle of the least effort” can be considered as one of the most significant events in linguistics within the last two decades. The focus is made towards the study and analysis of the following aspects of formation of telescopisms or blend words: Which part of speech makes the most frequent part of these coined words and what are the productive units? Which parts of two different words were used to blend in order to make one telescopic word? What is the aim of creation of such words? How are new hybrids (or words) given names? In which fields of life are such creations used? What are the popular blendings like? Are they colloquial or can we find them outside the boundaries of spoken language? According to the research and on the basis of analyzed data we drew relevant conclusions. It is interesting to investigate that part of such telescopic words the formation of which requires the minimum effort is accepted by the language and thus they are even registered in dictionaries.

Keywords: Wordformation, words, language, English

Introduction

The present paper aims at studying the morphological process in English that is commonly referred to as (lexical) telescopic wordformation or, in other words, portmanteau or blend words. According to Gries, blending is a frequent and one of the most productive word-formation processes that can be defined as follows: blending involves the coinage of a new lexeme by fusing parts of at least two other source words of which either one is shortened in the fusion and/or where there is some form of phonemic or graphemic overlap of the source words [Stefan Th. Gries ,forthcoming].

Telescopic wordformation, or blending, has been investigated in a variety of studies including Pound (191), Irwin (1939), Adams (1973), Bryant (1974), Algeo (1977), Ginzburg (1979), Bauer (1983), Cannon (1986), Kubozono (1990), Tekauer (1991), Stekauer (1991), Kelly (1998), Kaunisto (2000), Kemmer (2003). In linguistic literature this way of wordformation is also known as blends, blendings, fusions, portmanteau words, telescopy. Thus it can be concluded that the terms: blends, telescopic and portmanteau words denote the same process of word creation.

I propose that one form of verbal economy law - the “principle of the least effort” can be considered as the formation of telescopic or blend words, which is one of the most significant events in linguistics within the last two decades. This can be proved by the fact that in the first publication of Barnhart’s dictionary the number of blends comprised 4, 8%, in the second edition – already 8% and so on. 86

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

As was mentioned above, there is a significant difference in the definition of blending in the linguistic literature. One reason for this is probably the fact that subtractive word-formation is among the most understudied wordformation processes. For some scholars and in a variety of textbooks, they are not even part of regular derivational word formation process because, as we can observe, they are conscious processes that defy characterization by hard-and-fast productive morphological rules. Let’s review the definition of blend words by various linguists: Bauer (1983: 234) defines blends as “a new lexeme formed from parts of two (or possibly more) other words in such a way that there is no transparent analysis into morphs.” Later on, he adds that “blends normally take the first part of one word and the last part of another” (1983: 235) (examples include mocamp [motor +camp] and Amtrack [American + track]).

Kemmer (2003) adopts Bauer’s (1983: 234) definition of blends: “a new lexeme formed from parts of two or more other lexemes.” Like others, she comments on the role played by phonemic overlap and phonemic as well as phonological similarity emphasizing that these properties are not necessary conditions for lexical blends. She summarizes as follows: Blends combine parts of lexical source words, rather than whole source words; this distinguishes them from compounds. Morphological structure is not particularly relevant to blends. However, phonological properties prove to be highly relevant ; phonological similarity of the blend with a part or whole structure of the source word increases the likelihood or felicity [ . . . ] of the blend. (Kemmer 2003: 75) This brief characterization of the previous accounts of the distinction between blends and related/similar products of word-formation processes highlights the most important features figuring in the definition of blends. For a more thorough overview, the reader is referred to the comprehensive survey by Cannon (1986).

Along with the term “blending” we can freely use the word “telescopy”, which, as well as blending, implies the way of wordformation when words are formed by splicing or merging two other words together. The meaning of a new word partially or wholly describes the meaning of the components which were used for the creation of the word.

According to Ginzburg and his co-authors “Blendings are the result of conscious creation of words by merging irregular fragments of several words which are aptly called ‘splinters’. These splinters assume different shapes – they may be severed from the source word at a morpheme boundary as in transceiver < transmitter and receiver, or at a syllable boundary like cute (from execute) < electrocute or boundaries of both kinds may be disregarded as in brunch < breakfast and lunch (Ginzburg R.S. et al, 1979: 203).

Pennsylvania University professor Michael Kelly describes this process in a different way: “Some English words are formed by snipping components from existing words and either stitching the components together through simple concatenation or through concatenation coupled with overlap of shared phonological segments” (Kelly Michael H., 1998, 1).

From the above, we can define blendings as words where one part of a shortened word is connected to some part of another word. Despite the fact that the terms: “blending”, “portmanteau” and “telescopy” can be used interchangeably, in present-day linguistics it’s common to apply the term “blending” which will be mostly used in the present research.

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

Finally, it can be concluded, that a definition of blending to which many scholars would probably agree is the following: “Blending as a word-formation process that involves coining a new word out of already existing source words such that, typically, two words (rather than three or more) are merged; one or both of the words undergo shortening in the merger, which may be graphemic or segmental; if no shortening occurs, the words exhibit partial overlap, which may be graphemic or segmental [Stefan Th Gries, 2006]. We believe that this definition provides the most precise description of this word-formation process. In the following section we will discuss different kinds of blends that were proposed by various linguists.

Theoretical Background and the purpose of the study

The term “portmanteau word”, which is one of the terms denoting the process usually referred to as blendings, was first used by Lewis Carroll in 1872 in the sixth chapter of the favorite book of every English child “Through the Looking Glass”, to explain some words in the so called nonsense poem “Jabberwocky”: “Well ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’ … you see it’s like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word”, - says the author.

As can be seen, this can be classed as a double joke: first, a portmanteau is a suitcase, in which one would “pack” things, like the multiple meanings within portmanteau words; second, portmanteau is itself a compound word, similar to portmanteau words, in that it is derived from the French words for "carry" – porter – and "cloak" – manteau.

“Portmanteau words mash together the sounds and meanings of two other words, or as Humpty Dumpty tells Alice in "Through the Looking-Glass," they pack two meanings into one word” (Thurner Dick, 2003, 12). Despite the fact that many of the words being invented by L. Carroll are not used now, some of them, among which is the term “portmanteau” itself, entered the vocabulary of the language user. For example: galumph < gallop + triumph, chortle < chuckle + snort, frumious < fuming + furious, squiggle < squirm + wriggle, mimsy < flimsy + miserable. Although they were registered in the language before, but their definition by the author has changed the meaning. According to Michael Kelly, “Lewis Carroll may have chosen “mimsy” rather than “flimserable” because this blend of miserable and flimsy created a more euphonic rhythm for the line ‘All mimsy were the borogoves’.” (Kelly Michael H., 1998, 2) Many such words that were full of Carroll’s inspiration existed in the language before as well, for example: anecdotage < anecdote + dotage was first used in 1832 to describe talkative old people, squirl < squiggle + whirl - in 1843, snivelization < snivel + civilization, was created by Herman Melville in 1849 as one term for “civilization considered derisively as a cause of anxiety or plaintiveness”; squdge < squash + pudge was registered in 1870. “

Some linguists think that examples of blendings were observed in earlier times as well. For instance, the word bash can possibly be the blend of bang and smash, also clash < clang + crash. There are many such words in the language and it is difficult to identify which words were used in order to create them. It is also interesting that such words were created quite actively by the end of XIX century, and under the influence of L. Carroll. For instance, the blend word electrocute < electricity + execute was first observed in the language in 1889, prissy < prim + sissy - in 1895, travelogue < travel + monologue – in 1903, mingy < mean + 88

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

stingy – in 1911, scientifiction < science + fiction in 1916 which later became science fiction in 1929, seqspert < expert on sex - in 1924, sexational < sexational < sex + sensatonal - in 1925, Jacobethan < Jacobean + Elizabethan, invented by John Betjeman in 1933, guesstimate < guess + estimate – in 1936.

There are different viewpoints on the place blending occupies among other types of wordformation. Sometimes it is classed as composition. It is often thought to be somewhere in the middle between abbreviation and composition. Some linguists (e.g. Zabotkina, 1989) consider it to be a quite independent type of wordformation.

Such words as keypad, paintball, and townhouse are registered in dictionaries as compound words, as the elements which were joined for the creation of new words are separate words themselves. The terms megastore and hypertext are also compound words, as one element is an independent word and the other is a suffix. Faction is a blend word as it unifies parts of two independent words < fact and fiction. Portmanteau word Factoid was coined by Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe. Mailer described a factoid as “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper”, and created the word by combining the word fact and the ending -oid to mean "like a fact". The Washington Times described Mailer's new word as referring to "something that looks like a fact, could be a fact, but in fact is not a fact" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid).

As we can see, some portmanteau words can be considered as compound words as they consist of blending two different words, but we shouldn’t forget that difference between them is that blends combine the parts of lexical source words and not the whole words – the feature which is not characteristic to the compounds.

Classification of Portmanteau (or Blend) Words

In this section we will analyze the viewpoints of some linguists of Russian school (V.I. Arnold, V.V. Borisov, Z.A. Kharitonchik, U.A. Zhlutenko, T.R. Timoshenko) regarding portmanteau words, discuss the classification of the types of such shortened units. Our research will mainly focus on the following issues: What are the types of blend words? What is the classification of morphological shortening like? How productive is blending as a type of shortening and how it differs from other morphological shortenings? Can compounded shortenings be divided? Should the structure (expression) and semantics (consistence) of a blend word be foreseen during the research of wordformation? Which models are used for the formation of telescopic words? How many elements do the blend words comprise and which one is more active? And as a result of conducted research, we present our own classification of portmanteau words. According to V.I. Arnold blends can be divided into additive and restrictive types. Both types coexist in the vocabulary of a language. An additive type can become a phrase by adding the main parts of the words and conjunction ‘and’. For example: Vietnik < Vietnam and beatnik; abusak < abuse and musak; smog < smoke and fog.A restrictive type can become a phrase in which the first element is defining the other. For example: slanguage < slang + language; motel < motorist`s hotel; spam < spiced jam (Арнольд И.В., 1986).

V.V. Borisov classifies morphological shortening of blended type in such way: 1. Shortening created by the joining of initial abbreviation and clipped word; 89

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

2. Partially clipped word or words; 3. Contractions or those abbreviations in which some letters are omitted and are joined by initial and final letters; 4. Telescopic words. In the present case the last type is in the sphere of our interest and we intend to discuss it.

According to Borisov’s viewpoint blending should be considered as a significant way of creation of lexical units. The characteristic feature of present-day morphological abbreviation is telescopic words, blendings, which, as was explained by us are formed by joining parts of two words. Such shortened words can be produced by two grammatically different words, as well as by attributive word compounding.

Telescopic or blend words quite differ from other morphological shortenings by the following viewpoints: 1. The specific of correlate as in zootique < zoo + boutique. This is the simple disposition of two grammatically different words; 2. Disposition of morphemes, their fusion in the words as in the following example: informercial < commercial information = a lengthy commercial chock-full of product information) (Борисов В.В., 163).

Z.A. Kharitonchik divides compounded shortenings into two parts: 1. Compounded shortening – which consists of initial syllable or syllables of the words, as in Interpol < international police, zedonk < zebra + donkey; 2. Blended words which consist of final parts of the words (especially of the second word) as in blaxploitation < black + exploitation, jargonaut < jargon + argonaut.

Among them there can also be singled out abbreviations, which are coined by the final part of one word and initial part of the second word. For example: Oxbridge < Oxford + Cambridge (Z.A. Kharitonchik., 1992, 190).

Two aspects should be foreseen during the research of wordformation – structure (expression) and semantics (consistence). The significant structure of a telescopic way of wordformation is that one of its components is represented by its clipped root, fragment “splinter”. This shows its main difference from composition, where the components are represented as the whole roots. The coinage of blends is carried out by linking two syntactically different words with the associated connection. For instance, paytriotism - it is a patriotism which you can sell (U. A. Zhlutenko, 1983, 103).

Formation of several models of telescopic words is possible, but from the present research it can be concluded that within the last decade blend words are created according to the four models: 1. These are telescopic words which consist of two or more elements of splinters and which are classed as a whole telescopism, e.g. chunnel < channel + tunnel; dinter < dinner + interview; biopic < biographical + picture; memberlect < remember + recollect; phonematic < telephone + automatic; rosetry < prose + poetry; stagflation < stagnation + inflation; skurfing < skating + surfing; snurfing < snow + surfing; slurb < slums + suburbs; spork < spoon + fork.

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

Whole telescopic units are formed by joining initial fragment of one word and final fragment of another word. This type is the most productive out of all four ways, e.g. swacket < sweater + jacket; transceiver < transmitter + receiver; radionics < radiation + electronics; scrapnel < scrap+shrapnel; motorcade < motorcar + cavalcade; tigon < tiger + lion; dawk < dove + hawk; hesiflation < hesitation + inflation.

The so called ‘splinter’ can represent the most part of the word or even include one or more letters of another word. Below is given examples of such blend words: stabex < stabilize + exports; zedonk < zebra + donkey; datel < data + telex; azchem < hazardous + chemical; marisat < maritime + satellite It should be noted that such formations are very close to acronyms, e.g. CARICOM < Caribbean Community; elint < electronic + intelligence. 2. These are telescopic words which are formed by joining the root of initial letters of one word and a fragment of another word. Such neologisms are: artmobile < art + automobile; boatel < boat + hotel; breathalyser < breath + analyser; oilberg < oil + iceberg; datamation < data + automation; neutercane < neuter + hurricane; dunemobile < dune + automobile; mediamorphasis < media + metamorphasis. 3. These are telescopic words which consist of a clipped root of the initial fragment of one word and a complete root of another word, as in the following examples: paraglider < parachute + glider; paradoctor < parachuter + doctor; teleplay < television + play; teleprinter < teletype + printer; peacoat < peajacket + coat; lansign < language + sign; educreation < education + creation; gravisphere < gravity + sphere; mocamp < motorcar + camp; vertiport < vertical + airport; containerport < containership + port; heliskiing < helicopter + skiing; dictabelt < dictation + belt; econiche < ecological + niche; ecopolitics < 1. economic + politics; 2. ecological + politics; 4. Creation of neologisms in which the disposition of phonemes takes place on each other is quite active nowadays and increases every day, which can be easily expressed in writing and speaking. Such telescopic words are called galpologic (the term was used by linguist T.R. Timoshenko in 1976). The characteristic feature of such blend words is that two words which were used to create the portmanteau word, have some elements in common. For example: slimnastics < slim + gymnastics; faction < fact + fiction; affluenza < affluence + influenza; anformercial < information + commercial; Singlish < Singapore + English; glasphalt < glass + asphalt; barococo < baroque + rococo; selectric < select + electic blandlubber < bland + landlubber; businesspeak< business + speak; replicar < replica + car; beefish < beef + fish; volcaniclastic < volcanic + clastic; jargonaut < jargon + argonaut.

As a rule, blend words consist of two elements but sometimes they can comprise three elements such as in the following examples: Euralpass < Europian + rail + pass; Bosnywash < Boston + New York City + Washington; Ameslan < American sign language ; Tercom < Terrain contour matching; Benelux < Belgium + Netherlands + Luxemburg; Fritelux < France + Italy + Benelux.

T.R. Timoshenko considers that each blend word wholly or partially contains meaning of every comprising part. Thus, the meaning of a telescopic word can be new (gerrymander < elbridge, Jerry + salamander), as well as old, but as we can observe, these words are compound (simulcast < simultaneous + broadcast).

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

Taking into consideration the above-mentioned points of view, we propose the following classification of telescopic words: 1. Telescopic units in which the general meaning of comprising elements equals to each other. For example: Oxbridge< Oxford + Cambridge; colourcast < colour + broadcast; beefalo < beef + buffalo; helibus < helicopter + bus; talkathon < talk + marathon; smothercate < smother + suffocate; Fringlish /Franglish < French + English; fact < fact + fiction; yakow < yak + cow; demochristian < democratic + Christian. 2. Telescopic units in which the general meaning of comprising elements does not equal to each other though can be added to the sum of their roots. This meaning is comparatively new and complicated, and seldom bears additional information about a thing or a concept. For example: Hoovercrat < Hoover+ democrat; macon < mutton + bacon; Euratom < Europe + atom; meritocracy < merit + aristocracy; tralelcade < travel + cavalcade; cashomat < cash + automat; wasteplex < waste + complex; eldercare < elderly + care; auto-train < automobile + train; autopen < automobile + penmedibank < medical + bank. 3. Telescopic units in which one component defines the other and puts in emotional coloring. According to the examples we can say that in such blend words the second component is basic. For example: airgation < air + navigation; Americanimal < American + animal; atomaniac < atom + maniac; dopelomat < dope + diplomat; loxigen < liquid + oxygen; Norlina < north + Carolina. In the following examples it can be seen quite well that he first is less active and basic component: cinemusical < cinema+musical; criticualar < critical + particular; girlsical < girl + musical; jetomic < jet + atomic; superjet < supersonic + jet; turbocopter < turbine + helicopter; cablevision < cable + television; seaset < sea + sattelite; spacelab < space + laboratory; negabinary < negative + binary; keyphone < keyboard + phone.

Detailed analysis of all the issues regarding portmanteau or blend words will be conducted in the following section.

Case study

For the successful completion of our research, different resources were used, such as dictionaries, books, scientific and popular articles, internet resources, where, as was mentioned before, we found a great amount of shortened words as well as blend words. We included them in the present paper for empiric research and used them as examples.

During the study we tried to focus on several aspects of formation blend words and find an answer to them: 1. Which part of speech makes the most frequent part of these coined words and what are the productive units? 2. Which parts of two different words were used to blend in order to make one telescopic word? 3. What is the aim of creation of such words? 4. How are new hybrids (or words) given names? 5. In which fields of life are such creations used? 6. What are the popular blendings like? Are they colloquial or can we find them outside the boundaries of spoken language? We shall investigate all these issues and present the result of the research in the present paper.

The research was conducted on the basis of 120 newly coined blend words. These are most widely used blends in contemporary English language and the web site

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/WordFun/PortWords.htm which is specially designed for the record of the blend words helped us.

Table 1

# Blends parts of speech 1 acknowledgmention = acknowledgment + mention n +v=n 2 admirespect = admire + respect v+v=v 3 adolescentertainer = adolescent + entertainer n +n=n 4 adornament = adorn + ornament v+n=n 5 amusementertainment = amusement + entertainment n+n=n 6 angleaning = angle + leaning n+v=v 7 animale = animal + male n+n=n 8 applemon = apple + lemon n+n=n 9 arcticy = arctic + icy adj+adj=adj 10 artistudio = artist + studio n+n=n 11 atomicroscopic = atomic + microscopic adj+adj=adj 12 babblecture = babble + lecture n+n=n 13 badvantage = bad + advantage adj+n=n 14 barbariangry = barbarian + angry adj+adj=adj 15 beginaugurate = begin + inaugurate v+v=v 16 bespokengaged = bespoken + engaged adj+adj=adj 17 blog = web + log n+n=n 18 blogcast = blog + broadcast v+v=v 19 Bollywood = Bombay + Hollywood n+n=n 20 boomerangle = boomerang + angle n+n=n 21 braintelligence = brain + intelligence n+n=n 22 Brangelina = Brad (Pitt) + Angelina (Jolie) n+n=n 23 burnishine = burnish + shine v+v=v 24 cafetorium = cafeteria + auditorium n+n=n 25 camcorder = camera + recorder n+n=n 26 cameradar = camera + radar n+n=n 27 chooselect = choose + select v+v=v 28 churchapel = church + chapel n+n=n 29 clapplaud = clap + applaud v+v=v 30 combattle = combat + battle n+n=n 31 convictim = convict + victim n+n=n 32 coquetteaser = coquette + teaser n+n=n 33 correctify = correct + rectify v+v=v 34 corrosivenomous = corrosive + venomous adj+adj=adj 35 coverlap = cover + overlap v+v=v 36 craftrade = craft + trade v+v=v 37 crashipwreck = crash + shipwreck n+n=n 38 cryell = cry + yell v+v=v 39 culturefinement = culture + refinement n+n=n 40 cyberzine = cyberspace + magazine n+n=n

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

41 dadaddy = dada + daddy n+n=n 42 demonster = demon + monster n+n=n 43 desirequire = desire + require v+v=v 44 digestomach = digest + stomach v+n=n 45 dreambition = dream + ambition n+n=n 46 edutainment = education + entertainment n+n=n 47 enjoymentertainment = enjoyment + entertainment n+n=n 48 explainterpret = explain + interpret v+v=v 49 explodestroy = explode + destroy v+v=v 50 fablegend = fable + legend n+n=n 51 fanzine = fan + magazine n+n=n 52 fellad = fella + lad n+n=n 53 femaleader = female + leader n+n=n 54 filmovie = film + movie n+n=n 55 gaincrease = gain + increase v+v=v 56 gentlemankind = gentleman + mankind n+n=n 57 ginormous = gigantic + enormous adj+adj=adj 58 glidescend = glide + descend v+v=v 59 glimpsee = glimpse + see v+v=v 60 globearth = globe + earth n+n=n 61 godeity = god + deity n+n=n 62 haterrorist = hater + terrorist n+n=n 63 headministrator = head + administrator n+n=n 64 headversary = head + adversary n+n=n 65 homicideath = homicide + death n+n=n 66 honestraight = honest + straight adj+adj=adj 67 initialpha = initial + alpha n+n=n 68 invitempt = invite + tempt v+v=v 69 jobusiness = job + business n+n=n 70 joinfiltrate = join + infiltrate v+v=v 71 jumblend= jumble + blend v+v=v 72 jumpstartle = jumpstart + startle v+v=v 73 laborganization = labor + organization n+n=n 74 lifeeling = life + feeling n+n=n 75 lovenjoy = love + enjoy v+v=v 76 madame = madam + dame n+n=n 77 madmaniac = madman + maniac n+n=n 78 magazinewspaper = magazine + newspaper n+n=n 79 maleader = male + leader n+n=n 80 mamammy = mama + mammy n+n=n 81 moverturn = move + overturn v+v=v 82 narratell = narrate + tell v+v=v 83 natureligion = nature + religion n+n=n 84 needemand = need + demand v+v=v 85 needesire = need + desire v+v=v 86 newspaperiodical = newspaper + periodical n+n=n

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87 noisensation = noise + sensation n+n=n 88 officenter = office + center n+n=n 89 opinionotion = opinion + notion n+n=n 90 originitiation = origin + initiation n+n=n 91 outrageousurious = outrageous + usurious adj+adj=adj 92 painfliction = pain + infliction n+n=n 93 pluot = plum + apricot n+n=n 94 pointent = point + intent v+v=v 95 polishine = polish + shine v+v=v 96 potatomato = potato + tomato n+n=n 97 pushove = push + shove v+v=v 98 recitell = recite + tell v+v=v 99 restop = rest + stop v+v=v 100 saintellectual = saint + intellectual n+n=n 101 screenigma = screen + enigma n+n=n 102 shamelancholy = shame + melancholy n+n=n 103 shortcutoff = shortcut + cutoff n+n=n 104 shoutcry = shout + outcry v+v=v 105 smallowly = small + lowly adj+adv=adv 106 spouseeker = spouse + seeker n+n=n 107 squarectangle = square + rectangle adj+adj=adj 108 stigmark = stigma + mark n+n=n 109 stupidiot = stupid + idiot adj+adj=adj 110 taxicabriolet = taxicab + cabriolet n+n=n 111 tobaccoffee = tobacco + coffee n+n=n 112 tradeal = trade + deal v+v=v 113 tributestimonial = tribute + testimonial n+n=n 114 umpireferee = umpire + referee n+n=n 115 washine = wash + shine v+v=v 116 widthickness = width + thickness n+n=n 117 wifemale = wife + female n+n=n 118 wincrease = win + increase v+v=v 119 wisensible = wise + sensible adj+adj=adj 120 worldomain = world + domain n+n=n

According to the data analyzed, we can conclude that out of the whole, there were 70 nouns, 34 verbs, and 11 adjectives. Five blend words were made out of mixed parts of speech: acknowledgmention = acknowledgment + mention (n+v=n), adornament = adorn + ornament (v+n=n), angleaning = angle + leaning (n+v=v), badvantage = bad + advantage (adj+n=n), smallowly = small + lowly (adj+adv=adv). The investigation once more proves that the most part of the blend words are nouns.

At the beginning of the study we aimed at dividing these blend words according to the part of the word which was curtailed for their coinage, but the research showed that 112 out of 120 blends were coined so that all parts of both words were used for their creation and it was difficult for us to classify these words in the group of apocopation or aphaeresis. We just bolded these parts of blend words which are the same for the both words as in the following 95

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

example: desirequire = desire + require. As we can see, the middle part of the blend ‘re’ is the element in common for both words. The material once more proved the fact that the creators use specific means for the coinage of the neologisms and the creation of blend words is not always spontaneous.

In the previous section we investigated the components of blend words and the way of their creation. The present research also studied the productivity and frequency of creation, registering in dictionaries of each abovementioned type of portmanteau words. According to the data analyzed by us, it can be concluded that among all types of blend or telescopic words most frequent is clipping of final part or apocopation of the first component-word. For example: Europlug < European plug; guppies < green yuppie; abend < abnormal/abortive end; advid < advertising video. In the given example we see the apocopation of first elements. Out of the total amount of the blend words having considered by us, there were such 577 words.

The units with both clipped final elements and the clipping of the final part of the second component are comparatively less, 112 words. For example: kidvid < kid + video; propas < professional parents; secdef < the secretary of defense, sitcom < situation + comedy; zedonk < zebra + donkey, in which we have apocopation of both elements.

In the last decade there are very few words with both clipped elements. More common is the final clipping of the first element or apocopation and initial clipping of the second element - or aphaeresis, as in the following examples: heliskiing < helicopter + skiing, glasphalt < glass + asphalt, blaxploitation < black + exploitation; disohol < diesel + alcohol; drizzerable < drizzling + miserable, chillaxing < chilling + relaxing; magalog < magazine + catalog; blaxploitation < black + exploitation; disohol < diesel + alcohol; drizzerable < drizzling + miserable. There were 391 such words.

Some processes take place in a language when the blend words themselves appear to be the creators of new suffixes and prefixes, for instance, the word motorcade, as is known was created by means of joining of words motor and cavalcade and as a result new suffix –cade was invented and was used for the creation of the following words: aerocade, aquacade, camelcade and also tractorcade. Other examples are Bimbette < bimbo + ette and Dysergy < dys + synergy. In the first example the ending was added to the word and in the second one – the prefix was added after the clipping of the initial syllable.

Similarly, with the help of the prefix info, creation of many words became possible. At the present moment, during the research, as well as for the linguists it is very difficult to prove whether the words like infoglut, Infobahn, infodump, infonaut, information are ordinary words or blend words. Other examples are: -thon < marathon, telethon, preachathon, operathon, stripperthon and so on.

We think that the difference between the viewpoints and approaches can be explained by the fact that blending of words or telescopy is a comparatively new way of word creation. Most part of these words appeared only in XX century and since then its productivity has increased. As is generally known, first words of such type appeared in the XV century. They were created to give the words humorous meaning and only in the XX century turned it into

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one of the types of wordformation, which can make serious and significant changes in the vocabulary of English.

The conducted research also gives us reason to conclude that sometimes blend words are created for the purpose of naming new hybrids. Such units are created in order to give more emotional coloring and expression to the concept they denote. Examples of such units are: citringe < citron + orange; yakow < yak + cow; beefalo < beef + buffalo, Rogernomics. The latter, a blend of Roger and economics, was created by analogy with Reaganomics to describe the economic policies followed by New Zealand Finance Minister Roger Douglas from his appointment in 1984. The policies included cutting agricultural subsidies and trade barriers, privatizing public assets and the control of inflation through measures rooted in monetarism, and were regarded in some quarters of Douglas's New Zealand’s Labour Party as a betrayal of traditional Labour ideals. The Labour Party subsequently retreated from pure Rogernomics, which became a core doctrine of ACT. It should be admitted here that the morpheme –nomics started to obtain the status of suffix when the portmanteau Nixonomics was created with its participation. Nixonomics was a trend in American economic policy, elaborated in August, 1971 at Camp David, where President Richard Nixon has convoked the advisors to overcome the inflation. Lately, -nomics was successfully used to create bimbonomics, flexinomics, lawsonomics. Nowadays, in economic and political terminology blend words Clintonomics or Bushonomics are very familiar. The latter was coined by John Cassidy, who used this word as a headline for his article in ‘New Yorker’, on May 12, 2003.

Many blend words are created by the productive units which are the basis of a huge number of telescopic words with different meaning. For example, component –thon is used in blend words with additional meaning - indicating a large-scale event or operation of a specified kind as in: telethon < television + marathon; walkhaton; talkathon; dancethon; cleanathon and so on.

Telescopic words, being modeled by the second element are quite often: maticashomat , laundromat, Lawn-a-mat, Akustomat. Also: -tron: magneton, partron, laddertron, cyclotron, bevatron; -topia: autopia, subtopia, pornotopia; -mobile: artmobile, airmobile, batmobile, motelmobile, dishmobile, youngmobile, taxmobile; -versity: poliversity, megaversity, multiversity; -tel: motel, boatel, airtel. -rama: aromarama, ride-o-rama, infinit-o-rama, sonorama; -naut: aquanaut, lunarnaut, oceanaut, jargonaut, migronaut; -urfing: skurfing, snurfing; -napping: petnapping, carnapping, horsenapping.

Blend words modeled by joining initial components of both elements are rare and we included the most part in the present paper: heli-: helisport, helipad, helilift, helibone, helitrap, heliskiing, helihop; para-: parawing, parakite, parafoil, paraglider, parasailing;. surf-: surfink, surftoon; perma-: permacrease, permapress, permasaized;

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

eicico-: ecomone, ecotage, ecotecture, ecofallow, econut, econiche, ecopolitics, economic. Such is the word ecodevelopment < economic /ecological + development in which the first component ‘eco’ unifies both concepts. Similar to this is syn-:synjet, synoil, syncron, synsize, syfuel, syngas.

Many blend words partially coincide with the pronunciation of letters, vowels, parts, syllables or words which it substitutes. This mechanism is used for word play, e.g. foolosopher < fool + philosopher, which sounds like a philosopher; affluenza < affluence + influenza, which resembles to influenza; icecapade < ice + escapade, which is a specially designed show on ice and sounds almost the same way as escapade; baloonatic is a blend of balloon and lunatic.

It’s easy to remember blends as the creators try to coin them in that way to resemble them to the similar words. Some words are created by analogy. On the whole, analogy has a great significance in the wordformation process. For example, blaxploitation was created in 1970- ies by joining the words: black and exploitation. It was coined by analogy of sexploitation - sex < exploitation, which was created in 1942.

Also, babynap was coined by analogy of kidnap; Narcodollars – from petrodollars; autochondriac was created on the basis of hypochondriac. American author and journalist R.D. Rosen used the word sociobabble for the title of his book in 1975 (psychbabble, Fast talk and quick cure in the age of feeling). He had coined the term in 1975, and the term became a cover story in New Times Magazine, titled "Psychobabble: the new language of candor". The book Psychobabble explores an explosion of psychological treatments and terminology, in both professional and non-professional settings. It is a form of prose using jargon, buzzwords and highly esoteric language to give an impression of plausibility through mystification, misdirection, and obfuscation. The term implies that the speaker lacks the experience and understanding necessary for proper use of a given psychological term.

A blend word workaholic describes a person who is addicted to work. The phrase does not always imply that the person actually enjoys their work, but rather simply feels compelled to do it. Although the term "workaholic" usually has a negative connotation, it is sometimes used by people wishing to express their devotion to one's career in positive terms. A workaholic in the negative sense is popularly characterized by a neglect of family and other social relations. The term was apparently coined by psychologist Richard I. Evans, currently professor of psychology at the University of Houston. Dr. Evans may have originated the term workaholic in an interview with him, published in the house publication for oil company Esso, in the 1960s, and widely distributed throughout the world. In response to a question by the Esso interviewer regarding the concern by the corporation for workers who were often overworked, Evans replied that such individuals can almost be likened to alcoholics and might be described as "workaholics." Evans' coinage also prompted the widespread use of the -holism suffix for popular compulsions. The origin of the phrase is often also attributed to psychologist Wayne Oates because of his 1971 book, "Confessions of a Workaholic." It should be admitted that Americans used to call this way their former president, Bill Clinton. It gained more widespread use in the 1990s, when the term shopaholic was coined. It is a slang term for oniomania or compulsive shopping (Shopaholic - novels, a series of books written by Madeleine Wickham under the pseudonym Sophie Kinsella). Chocoholic - one that is addicted to or compulsively in need of chocolate. With the help of - aholic also were 98

International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(16): 86-105 (2010) CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 © InternationalJournal.org

coined the following telescopic words: bookoholic, clothesaholic, creamaholic, milkaholic one who exhibits an obsessive need for or interest in books, clothes, cream, milk, etc. It’s interesting that all these newly coined words show excessive interest towards some kind of meal.

It should be noted that seajack and shipjacer were coined by analogy of hijack, when in 1985, one public figure was hijacked in the ship. Generally, such kind of violence takes place in a plane and so skyjack was coined firstly in 1961, then was followed by seajack and shipjacker.

Babushkaphobia is an interesting coinage. The element -phobia is frequent in numerous medical terms such as aviophobia, agoraphobia etc. The inner structure of the word is “fear of something” and literally babushkaphobia is fear of grandmother, but in fact it means dislike or aversion to grandchildren. It sounds strange, and as Astrakhan State Pedagogical University linguist Maya Ryashchina (1998) says, “Russian grandmothers are known for their devoted love for their grandchildren”. Analogically was coined no mozging from Russian word мозг (or brain) and negative particle no, meaning brainless person. The same way, Italian word tre was added to gnum (from the word magnum) and new blend word tregnum was created. It is a Bottle of wine in the port wine trade containing 2.25 litres of fluid, three times the volume of a standard bottle.

In present-day Georgian teenagers use Georgian-English blend word tsavletsgovdet (wavlet’sgovdeT), the meaning of which is very easy to understand. Georgian word “tsavidet” (or let’s go) was joined to the same meaning in English and is very popular telescopic word to use.

Coinage of s’n’f < shopping and fucking is used to describe high class society women as well as the following blend words: I&I < intercourse and intoxication; S&D < search and destroy; B&B < beavis and butt-head’ T&A < tits and ass; S&S < swords and sorcery; S&J < sentence and judgement; R&R < rest and relaxation. As we can conclude, this is additive type of correlate, in which two words are joined with the conjunction ’and’.

The brand name of Adidas is quite often, almost all of us use Adidas sportswear, which also produces other products such as bags, shirts, and other sports and clothing related goods. The company is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second largest sportswear manufacturer in the world. But does anyone know that it is the blend of name and surname of brand initiator Adi Dassler - "Adi" (a nickname for Adolf) and "Das" (from "Dassler"). Adidas, famous for its three-striped logo, has become known the world over for its involvement in nearly every type of sporting competition, from the Olympics to Wimbledon. Recently it obtained quite new explanation:”All Day I Dream about Sport”, which is a retronym (modification of the original name of an object or concept to differentiate it from a more recent version of the object, which acquired a modifier or adjective through later developments of the object or concept itself). Telescopic word sportoons < sports + cartons is also used in sports terminology.

Blends are widely used in mass media, in creative advertisements and due to quite new and unexpected forms they attract attention of a reader or a listener and make some pragmatic impact on them. For instance:“every single girl, every single day, has one hour of tennis, one hour in the pool, one hour of slimnastics”. People working in television actively use blend 99

word informercial < information + commercial. These are television commercials that run for one minute or for as long as a typical television programme. Infomercials are also known as teleshopping < television + shopping. As in any other form of advertisement, the content is a commercial message designed to represent the viewpoints and to serve the interest of the sponsor. Similar to these are storymercials or commercial stoties, infortainment < information + entertainment, in teenagers speech usage of dancercise < dance + exercise; jazzercise < jazz + exercise; lesbigay < lesbian + gay; abusak < abuse + musak; fanac < fan activity; fanzine < fanatic’s magazine; propas < professional parents is quite usual (Algeo John and Adele, 1992; Thurner Dick, 2003).

For the research we identified a lot of portmanteau words which have been invented for many different areas of life. Here is the list of most widely used telescopic words:

Entertainment Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood Brad (Pitt) + Angelina (Jolie) = Brangelina cyberspace + magazine = cyberzine education + entertainment = edutainment fan + magazine = fanzine glitter + literati = glitterati fiction + commercial = fictomercial rock + documentary = rockumentary

Locations Channel + Tunnel = Chunnel Oxford + Cambridge = Oxbridge North (of) + Little Italy = NoLIta (area of New York City) South (of) + Houston (Street) = SoHo (area of New York City) Triangle + Below + Canal (Street) = TriBeCa (area of New York City)

Weather smoke + fog = smog

Events talk + marathon = talkathon telephone + marathon = telethon happen + circumstance = happenstance

Government medical + care = Medicare parachute + troops = paratroops

Food beef + buffalo = beefalo breakfast + lunch = brunch clam + tomato = Clamato plum + apricot = pluot tangerine + pomelo = tangelo 100

dry + ice = drice

Place cafeteria + auditorium = cafetorium motor + hotel = motel

Adjective gigantic + enormous = ginormous man + fantastic = mantastic breath + analyzer = breathalyzer attractive + captivating = attractivating bold + audacious = boldacious fantastic + fablous = fantabulous swell + elegant = swellegant

Technological Equipment camera + recorder = camcorder picture + element = pixel mobile (generated) + blog = moblog

Internet Use web + log = blog iPod + broadcasting = podcasting blog + broadcast = blogcast blog + spam advertising (or) marketing = blam blog + beg (for contributions) = bleg blog + biosphere = blogosphere fake + blog = flog forage + video (on the Internet) = vorage school (friends) + Google = Schoogle knowledge + database = knowledgebase

Everyday Use need + necessity = needcessity diabetes + obesity = diabesity dizzy + dotty = ditsy dumb + confound = dumbfound economist + bureaucrat = econocrat against + say = gainsay gleam + shimmer = glimmer pain + tin = pang slop + slush = slosh slovenly + language = slang day + nightmare = daymare, beginning + commencement = begincement, angry + rageous = angrageous

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Such “ordinary”, widespread words like because, fortnight and goodbye belong to the category of blend words.( because comes from by + cause; similarly, fortnight < fourteen + nights; goodbye < God + be (with) + ye.). It’s interesting to note that there are too many similar words which are settled in the vocabulary of language that language users can not even imagine that they may be blends of some words.

As is known, most parts of blend words have colloquial coloring and are very easy to remember. At the same time, many blend words have the so called “partially situational” features and are not registered in dictionaries. The significant property of these words is their dependency on the source words. Most of these words are not easy to decode without the additional interpretation and their definitions in texts. When the word is first introduced in the article, the definition is given so that the reader can guess its meaning. For instance: He is supervising the construction of Carriage House of Roslyn. It is a suburban subdivision of 104 colonials, ranches and “splanches”, a splanch being a cross between a split-level and a ranche house. Similarly, when during the news some newly coined words are introduced, they are followed by the definition. However, as the language changes daily, it’s difficult to follow every change. There are different sites devoted to the definition of new words, such as wordspy.com, www.worldwidewords.org and others which help us to understand the meaning of specific words.

As was mentioned above, blendings belong mainly to the colloquial layer of the language. For example: bit < binary digit; breathalyzer < breathe + analyzer; Eurovision < European + television; vodkatini < vodka + martini, happenstance < happen circumstance, swimsation < swim + sensation. But telescopic words, as we can see, break the boundaries of morphology and are original components of the language. They mostly have colloquial coloring. Their usage in scientific and technical terminology is not rare as well in coining new names, brands, advertisements. Part of such portmanteau words is accepted by the language and they are registered in dictionaries. In the process of the permanent change of the language many such units loose their original meaning and function but nevertheless, such coinages are very popular among different users of the language.

Conclusion The present paper was an attempt of studying a morphological process in English that is commonly referred to as (lexical) telescopic wordformation or, in other words, blending. The origin of the word portmanteau was defined, different viewpoints on the place of clipping among various types of wordformation was discussed. As a lot of processes take place in a language where the blend words appear to be the creators of new suffixes and prefixes, examples of coined words such as -thon < marathon, telethon, preachathon, operathon, stripperthon and so on were analyzed. Different viewpoints of linguists, such as Adams, Arnold, Borisov, Kharitonchik, and others were discussed. According to the research and on the basis of analyzed data it is possible to draw several conclusions:

Firstly, a significant characteristic of the telescopic way of wordformation is that one of its components is represented not as a whole, but by the clipped root, by its fragment “splinter”. This is its main difference from composition, where the components are represented as whole roots. The coinage of blended words is carried out by linking two syntactically different 102

words with associated connection. For instance, paytriotism - it is a patriotism which you can sell.

Secondly, as the study showed, the formation of several models of telescopic words is possible, but it can also be concluded that within the last decade blend words are created by the three models discussed above. Thirdly, we could observe that as for the productivity and frequency of creation, registering in dictionaries of each of the abovementioned type, according to the data analyzed, it can be concluded that a) among all types of blend or telescopic words most frequent is the clipping of final part of the first component-word. For example: Europlug < European plug; guppies < green yuppie; abend < abnormal/abortive end; advid < advertising video, Out of the total amount of the blend words having considered by us, there were such 577 words; b) the units with both clipped final elements and the clipping of the final part of the second component are comparatively less, 112 words. For example: kidvid < kid + video; propas < professional parents; secdef < the secretary of defense, sitcom < situation + comedy; c) In the last decade there are very few words with both clipped elements. More common is the final clipping of the first element or apocopation and initial clipping of the second element - or aphaeresis, as in the following examples: heliskiing < helicopter + skiing, glasphalt < glass + asphalt, blaxploitation < black + exploitation; disohol < diesel + alcohol; chillaxing < chilling + relaxing; magalog < magazine + catalog; disohol < diesel + alcohol; drizzerable < drizzling + miserable. There were 391 such words.

Fourthly, the study revealed that most part of telescopic words are nouns, verbs and adjectives: gigantic + enormous = ginormous; man + fantastic = mantastic, dynetic < dynamic + magnetic; computistical < computer + statistical; variomathematic < variable + automatic; scuzzy < scummy + fuzzy.

The study also shows that the creators use specific means for the coinage of the neologisms and the creation of blend words is not always spontaneous, great part of blend words are created for naming new hybrids, such as citringe < citron + orange; yakow < yak + cow; beefalo < beef + buffalo, Rogernomics.

Finally, the conducted research has revealed that aaccording to the analyzed examples with affixes such as -aholic, -nomics, -phobia, and many others it can be concluded that telescopic words break the boundaries of morphology and become original components.

Despite the fact that blend words mostly have colloquial coloring, their usage in scientific and technical literature is not rare for the coinage of new names, brands, advertisements. Part of such portmanteau words is accepted by the language and thus they are registered in dictionaries. As a result of a permanent change of the language many such units lose their original meaning and function but nevertheless such coinages are very popular among different users of the language.

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