University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2017 Lexical Blending in Ukrainian: System or Sport? Winters, Svitlana Winters, S. (2017). Lexical Blending in Ukrainian: System or Sport? (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26753 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3756 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Lexical Blending in Ukrainian: System or Sport? by Svitlana Winters A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN LINGUISTICS CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2017 © Svitlana Winters 2017 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the formal, semantic, and syntactic mechanisms involved in the formation and processing of blends in Ukrainian. The objectives pursued in this research are (i) to provide a comprehensive definition of blending, (ii) to determine whether there are any formal, semantic, and syntactic regularities in the formation of blends in Ukrainian, and (iii) to learn what factors facilitate recognition of source words, as well as interpretation of meanings of Ukrainian blends. The objectives are achieved by critically analyzing the relevant literature, conducting an analysis of a corpus of Ukrainian blends, and running three psycholinguistic experiments with native speakers of Ukrainian. Based on the analysis, a comprehensive definition of blending is proposed, which establishes the boundaries between blends and other complex words that resemble them (for example, clipped compounds). The analysis of the corpus of Ukrainian blends compiled in the course of this research reveals a number of regularities in blending. Based on these regularities, a system of formal, semantic and categorial rules which account for the formation of blends in Ukrainian are proposed. Finally, the results of the psycholinguistic experiments reveal that the following factors affect the likelihood of recognition of the source words and accurate understanding of the meaning of blends: the structure of the blend, the modality of presentation of the blend, and the amount of time allotted for its processing. ii To my fantabulous family iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I dare disagree with the statement made by Charlie Chaplin in his Oscar speech in 1972: “Words seem so futile, so feeble.” This icon of silent film had an occupation very different from mine. My work has demonstrated to me on many occasions how important and powerful words can be (an idea which will appear as a leitmotif throughout my dissertation). Therefore, I would like to express in words my deep gratitude—which so far often remained silent—to the people who helped me in working on this dissertation. First of all, my deepest appreciation goes to my supervisor, Dr. Amanda Pounder. Dr. Pounder has been a perfect supervisor for me, as she is kind, knowledgeable, demanding, fastidious, has high moral principles and a brilliant sense of humour. She has greatly influenced the researcher that I am today by constantly encouraging me to think critically, analyze, pay attention to detail, and always dig deep. I attribute my obvious growth within the last few years to Dr. Pounder’s wise guidance. Most importantly, Dr. Pounder is the kind of supervisor who cares. Throughout the years of my doctoral studies, she cared not only about my academic progress, but also about my physical and emotional well-being, as well as my future. When over five years ago Dr. Pounder believed in me and agreed to be my supervisor, she changed my life in many ways, for which I will be forever grateful to her. I owe a part of the success of this project to the members of my supervisory committee, Dr. Darin Flynn and Dr. Elena Bratishenko. I am grateful to Dr. Flynn for his shrewd comments on my research, his help in searching for new blends, and his contagious excitement about my project, as well as about linguistics in general. I would like to thank Dr. Bratishenko for her positive energy in many discussions of various issues pertinent to my dissertation and for her constructive feedback. My external examiners helped me look at some issues from a different perspective, which greatly improved my analysis. I am very grateful to Dr. Elke Ronneberger-Sibold for her thought-provoking questions during my oral examination and her open-mindedness to my analyses. I would like to thank Dr. Ozouf Sénamin Amadegnato for his deep questions, genuine interest in my research and very interesting suggestions for future research. I would like to thank a number of professors at the School of Language, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures, whose courses I took and who I worked with as a Teaching Assistant, namely (in alphabetical order), Dr. Susanne Carroll, Dr. Carlos de Cuba, Dr. Robert Murray, Dr. iv Elizabeth Ritter, Dr. Julie Sedivy, and Dr. Dennis Storoshenko. These professors taught me to conduct linguistic analysis and to clearly present my research, as well as giving me confidence in my abilities as a linguist, all of which facilitated my work on the dissertation. My dissertation would not have included the experimental studies if it weren’t for the help of Dr. Julie Sedivy and Dr. Steve Winters. Julie’s lectures and books awakened my interest in experimental psycholinguistics, which inspired me to conduct experiments in my research. Julie also provided me with tremendous help in working on the design of my experiments. Steve, who is referred to by other students as “stats guru” and “programmer extraordinaire”, provided me with invaluable assistance in conducting statistical analysis of the data, as well as allowing me to use the resources of the Phonetics Laboratory at the University of Calgary. I am immensely grateful to Julie and Steve for enabling me to experience this exciting side of linguistic research. My heartfelt gratitude goes to the supervisor of my MA thesis, Dr. Anatoliy Oleksiyovych Khudoliy. He was the first person to spark my interest in linguistics and to teach me some fundamental skills of linguistic analysis. Anatoliy Oleksiyovych also taught me the importance of having a clear plan in achieving my goals, which has ever since greatly helped me in my professional life. I will always be grateful for everything he taught me and for his faith in my abilities. I would also like to thank our Graduate Program Administrator Biljana Arnautovic and our Department Administrator Francey Pisicoli. These are the people who know answers to a million program-related questions, who are always friendly and supportive, and who create warm atmosphere at the department for students and professors alike. I was lucky to study with a group of wonderful people, from whom I learnt a lot and who made my studying at graduate school an enjoyable experience. The knowledge I gained from them in classes, during after-class group discussions, in Brown Bag Lunch presentations, and in conferences shaped my interests in linguistics and helped me succeed in getting my degree. The fun activities which we organized and enjoyed together—department hikes and snowshoeing, talent shows, Ultimate Frisbee games on the best-spirited team “Flinguists”, trivia contests, etc.—helped me stay happy and sane during the arduous journey through graduate school. Special thanks go to the following people (in alphabetical order): Aysun, Danica, Duaa, Jeong- Eun, Joey, Kelly, Lindsay, Salma, Sarah and Vinny. v My Mom and my Sister have always been the two pillars which gave me support throughout my life. They give me the courage to dare. This courage stems from their faith in my ability to succeed in anything my mind is set on and from my understanding that even if I do not succeed, I will always have a home full of love, kindness, support, and sympathy that I can return to. Having dared cross the ocean in order to pursue a doctoral degree in linguistics, I found dedicated research assistants in my Mom and my Sister. My Mom spent hours on skype talking to me about my research, which helped me distil my “stream of consciousness” into a coherent analysis and clarify many questions pertaining to my dissertation. My Sister assisted me in producing the stimuli for the psycholinguistic experiments, and—together with her husband, my brother-in-law—greatly extended my corpus with Ukrainian blends which they encountered in newspapers, books and on television. I owe much of the success of this project to my family and will always be grateful for their help and, even more so, for their wholehearted support and love. Above all, I would like to thank my husband Steve for making me so happy. When a person is this happy, every academic challenge is exciting, any criticism is constructive, every lexeme in the corpus is amusing, every professor is friendly, every linguistic paper is inspiring, conferences are informative, scientific discussions are deep and lively, no door is impassible, nothing is impossible. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract................................................................................................................................ii