Non-Morphematic Word-Formation Processes: a Multi-Level Approach to Acronyms, Blends, Clippings and Onomatopoeia
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Non-Morphematic Word-Formation Processes: A Multi-Level Approach to Acronyms, Blends, Clippings and Onomatopoeia Ingrid Mina Fandrych Non-Morphematic Word-Formation Processes: A Multi-Level Approach to Acronyms, Blends, Clippings and Onomatopoeia Ingrid Mina Fandrych A thesis submitted to meet the requirements for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor in the Faculty of the Humanities (Department of English and Classical Languages) at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein. Promoter: Prof. W.J. Greyling Date: May 2004 DECLARATION I, Ingrid Mina Fandrych, hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that it has not been submitted to another university for purposes of obtaining a postgraduate qualification. ____________________ Ingrid Mina Fandrych Table of Contents Acknowledgements v List of Abbreviations vi List of Illustrations ix Typographical Conventions x Abstract xi 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background to the Study 3 1.2 Word-Formation 5 1.3 Definition of the Field under Discussion 9 1.4 Morphematic versus Non-Morphematic Word-Formation Processes 10 1.5 Delimitation Problems and Overlaps 11 1.6 Necessity and Purpose of the Research 12 1.7 Structure of the Study 15 2. Non-Morphematic Word-Formation 17 2.0 Introduction 17 2.1 Terminology 17 2.2 Shortenings 18 2.2.1 Acronyms 19 2.2.2 Blends 25 2.2.3 Clippings and Clipped Compounds 29 2.3 Onomatopoeia 33 2.3.1 Imitation and Sound Symbolism 33 2.3.2 Reduplication 37 ii 2.4 Word, Lexeme, Lexical Unit 38 2.5 The Elements of Word-Formation 40 2.5.1 The Morpheme 41 2.5.2 The Formative 43 2.5.3 The Splinter 44 2.5.4 The Phonaestheme and the Expressive Symbol 45 2.6 The Context: South African English 46 2.6.1 English in Africa 47 2.6.2 English in South Africa 48 2.6.3 English in the New South Africa 49 2.6.4 The Vocabulary of the New South Africa as Reflected in South African English 51 2.7 International English: Communication in the Internet Age 54 2.8 Conclusion 58 3. The Literature: Taxonomies of Non-Morphematic Word- Formation Processes 59 3.0 Introduction 59 3.1 Baum (1955 and 1962): Acronyms 60 3.2 Berman (1961): Blends 61 3.3 Hansen (1963 and 1964): Blends and Onomatopoeia 62 3.4 Heller & Macris (1968): “Shortening Devices” 66 3.5 Schwarz (1970): Blends 67 3.6 Algeo (1975; 1977; 1978; 1980): Acronyms, Blends, and Taxonomic and Quantitative Considerations 68 3.7 Soudek (1978): Blends 72 3.8 Kreidler (1979, 1994 and 2000): Shortenings 73 3.9 Cannon (1986, 1987, 1989, 1994, 2000): Alphabet-Based Formations, Blends and other Neologisms 76 3.10 Jung (1987): Acronyms 79 3.11 McCully & Holmes (1988): Acronyms 80 3.12 McArthur (1988): Shortenings 80 3.13 Kobler-Trill (1994): “Shortenings” in German 82 3.14 Lehrer (1996 and 1998): Blends 84 3.15 Kelly (1998): Blends 87 3.16 Dienhart (1999): Stress in Reduplicative Compounds 88 3.17 López Rúa (2002): Acronyms and their “Neighbours” 90 3.18 Minkova (2002): Ablaut Reduplication 92 3.19 Summary and Evaluation 93 3.20 Other Studies of Non-Morphematic Word-Formation Processes 98 3.21 Comprehensive Taxonomies of Word-Formation Processes 100 3.22 New Taxonomies According to Structure and According to Motivation 103 3.22.1 Taxonomy According to Structure 103 3.22.2 Scale of Motivation 105 iii 3.22.3 Parabola 107 3.23 Conclusion 108 4. Methodology and Approach 110 4.0 Introduction 110 4.1 Case Study: Rhetorical Aspects: Non-Morphematic Word- Formation Processes in Advertising and Politics 111 4.1.1 Non-Morphematic Word-Formation in Advertising 112 4.1.2 Non-Morphematic Word-Formation in Politics 116 4.1.3 Conclusion 119 4.2 Criteria for the Description of Non-Morphematic Word-Formation Processes 121 4.2.1 Structural Aspects 121 4.2.2 Motivation 122 4.2.3 Word Class 125 4.2.4 Word-Formation Basis 126 4.2.5 Origin 126 4.2.6 Medium 127 4.2.7 Style 129 4.2.8 Internationalism 131 4.2.9 Semantics 131 4.2.10 Semiotics 133 4.2.11 Lexicalisation and Institutionalisation 135 4.2.12 Productivity and Creativity 138 4.2.13 Pragmatics 143 4.2.14 Textuality 144 4.2.15 Other Languages 146 4.3 The Criteria: Working Definitions and Comments 146 4.4 Conclusion 149 5. The Corpus: Genesis, Selection, Size, Character and Analysis 150 5.0 Introduction 150 5.1 Background: Genesis, Selection, Size and Character 151 5.1.1 Purpose, Selection and Character of the Corpus 151 5.1.2 Background Study to the Corpus 153 5.1.3 Other Studies 153 5.1.4 Pilot Study Pretest and the Genesis of the Final Corpus 156 5.1.5 Problems 158 5.1.6 Characteristics of, and Justification for, the Database ABCO.mdb 159 5.2 Format and Values 161 5.2.1 The Format 162 5.2.2 The Values 163 iv 5.2.3 Further Observations 165 5.3 Analysis 166 5.3.1 Quantitative Distribution in the Final Database and Structural Aspects 166 5.3.2 Motivation, Semantics, Semiotics 172 5.3.3 Lexicalisation, Productivity 174 5.3.4 Style, Pragmatics, Text Linguistics 175 5.4 Discussion 181 5.5 Conclusion 183 6. Conclusions, Recommendations and Future Research 185 6.0 Introduction 185 6.1 Summary of Findings and Outcomes 185 6.2 Relevance to Word-Formation in General 187 6.3 Recommendations and Future Research 188 Bibliography 190 Appendices 200 Appendix 1: The Full Database (‘Mother Corpus’) 200 Appendix 2: Permissible Values in the Full Database 225 Appendix 3: The Final Database (items only) 232 Appendix 4: The Complete Final Corpus 236 v Acknowledgements First of all, I need to express my gratitude to my promoter Professor Willfred Greyling (University of the Free State, Bloemfontein), who took over the supervision and guidance of this project under difficult circumstances, made himself available for consultations and advice whenever I needed them, and assisted me in the procurement of some of the literature. Furthermore, this project would not have been possible without the generous assistance of, in particular, two people: Christian Fandrych (King’s College, University of London) and Birgit Ebersperger (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich), who assisted me in securing some of the literature which I would otherwise not have been able to get hold of. Both of them responded promptly and reliably to my e-mailed requests for help and sometimes went to great lengths to locate and send me the texts I needed. Similarly, my friend M. found the last elusive text. In addition, Birgit also volunteered as my very thorough test reader and knowledgeable critic, and so did Wolfgang Falkner (Department of English, University of Munich). Hans-Jörg Schmid (Department of English, University of Bayreuth) made valuable comments on the draft and let me have his manuscript on English morphology and word-formation. Chris Dunton, friend, colleague and – most of the time – Head of Department (National University of Lesotho, Roma), understood my need to free some time for the finalisation of this project, and lent me some of his. Finally, special thanks are due to my mother for moral and material support, especially in the form of a laptop computer. vi List of Abbreviations1 0 zero (morpheme) A, a adjective abbr abbreviation acro acronym admin administration adv adverb advert advertising aff affix Afr African; Africa allit alliteration AmE American English ARD Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (radio and television broadcaster) Austr Australia AustrE Australian English AZ Abendzeitung (newspaper) B5 Bayern 5 (radio news channel) baby baby talk back backformation BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BMW Bayerische Motorenwerke (car company) BrE British English BT British Telecom CALD Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary on CD-Rom Can Canadian; Canada cf confer COD8 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 8th edition coll colloquial; colloquialism comb form combining form const constituent cont contain conv conversion cpd compound Dan Danish; Denmark DDS Die Demokratische Schule (teachers’ union magazine) derog derogatory DGfS Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft dm determinatum dt determinant 1 The reader will notice that I propose a new terminology for abbreviations and acronyms in this study. However, as the convention is to call sections such as this one lists of ‘abbreviations’, I have decided to follow this practice. vii e electronic E English eCOD The Concise Oxford Dictionary (electronic edition) edu education end end-clipping euph euphemism F French; France fin final fml formal fore fore-clipping G German; Germany GDR German Democratic Republic I Italian; Italy imit imitation infml informal ini initial inst institutionalised; institution internat international IPA International Phonetic Alphabet IT information technology Jap Japanese; Japan joc jocular L1 first language LASU Linguistics Association of SADC Universities LDCE3 Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 3rd edition Lesnet Lesotho Net (mailing list) lex lexicalised lg language lit literature Ls Lesotho lx linguistics mid middle mot motivated; motivation MS manuscript N, n noun n/d no date neutr neutral NYC New York City NZ New Zealand NZE New Zealand English OALD4/5/6 Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, 4th, 5th, 6th editions respectively obfusc obfuscatory obs obsolete org organisation particl particle phonet phonetic phr phrase viii play playful prfx prefix prod productive pron pronoun; pronunciation redupl reduplication REINLES Renewable Energy Information Network in Lesotho RSA Republic of South Africa Russ Russian SABC South African Broadcasting Corporation SADC Southern African Development Corporation SAE South(ern) African English SAPOD The South