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Blending
4.4 Blending
Blending
is the formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word
plus a part of another word. Words formed in this way are called blends
or pormanteau
words. For example, flush is the combination of
fl in the word flash and ush in the word blush. Similarly,
smog is the result of putting sm out of smoke and
og out of fog together.
Blending
is a very productive process and many coinages resulting from blending
have become well-established. Moreover, they even serve as models for
new formations. Hamburger is a popular fast food originating from
the German seaport Hamburg. Later people mistook it as a combination of
ham + burger and coined such words by analogy as beefburger,
cheeseburger, shrimpburger.
As
far as the structure is concerned, blends fall into four major groups:
1.
head + tail
autocide
from (automobile + suicide)
motel
from (motor + hotel)
slurb
from (slum + suburb)
cremains
from (cremate + remains)
chunnel
from (channel + tunnel)
2.
head + head
comsat
from (communications + satellite)
telex
from (teleprinter + exchange)
Amerind from (American + Indian)
sitcom from (situation + comedy)
FORTRAN from (formula + translator)
3.
head + word
medicare from (medical + care)
Eurasia from (Europe + Asia)
telequiz from (telephone + quiz)
autocamp from (automobile + camp)
4.
word + tail
lunarnaut from (lunar + astronaut)
bookmobile from (book + automobile)
workfare from (work + welfare)
tourmobile from (tour + automobile)
The
overwhelming majority of blends are nouns; very few are verbs and adjectives
are even fewer. The few verbs are: telecast from (television +
broadcast), guestimate from (guess + estimate), breathalyse
from (breath + analyse).
Blends
are mostly used in writing related to science and technology, and to newspapers
and magazines. Though many of them have already achieved currency in English,
they are still considered by serious-minded people to be slang and informal.
Therefore, it is advisable not to use such words too often, particularly
in formal writing.
●● Clipping
4.5 Clipping
Another
common way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part
off the original and using what remains instead. This is called clipping.
For example, omnibus has given way to its shortened form bus.
Similarly, plane and exam are often used in place of aeroplane,
and examination respectively.
In
modern times, people tend to be economical in writing and speech to keep
up with the tempo of new life style. To save time one is likely to clip
words that are frequently used, e.g. bike for bicycle, auto
for automobile, taxi for taximeter cabriolet. In
schools we use econ, gym, math, and trig for economics,
gymnastics, mathematics, trigonometry. In catering business, we eat
lunch instead of luncheon, have a burger instead
of a hamburger, and take a coke instead of cocoa cola.
There
are four common types of clipping:
1.
Front clipping
2.
Back clipping
3.
Front and back clipping
4.
Phrase clipping
In
some cases, clipping gives rise to alterations in spelling and pronunciation
as indicated by fridge, in which the letter d is inserted
between i and g to conform to the English ways of spelling
and pronunciation. More examples are bike from bicycle,
mike from microphone, coke from cocoa cola, pram
from perambulator, and telly from television. This
change in form and sound is possibly due to convenience and casualness
in speech. People often omit one or two syllables and then when is written
down new spelling forms are coined to suit the oral forms.
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