is on the penultimate syllable. The stress assignment does not automatically become
desk’note in order to be equivalent to the stress of second source word „notebook. Similarly in du’ralumin, the stress falls on the antepenultimate
syllable. However, the stress assignment does not necessarily become „duralumin
or duralu‟min in order to be equivalent to the stress of SW1 „durable and SW2 alu‟minium. These evidences verify that the stress of blends is assigned from the
beginning, following the rule of stress assignment. Nonetheless, people are misguided by mentioning that stress of resulting
blends is inherited. The problem is that there is a tendency to resemble the stress of more familiar words, in this case, the stress of one of sourcewords. For
example, the primary stress of the blend bro’tato ‘brother x po’tato falls on the
penultimate teɪ. The stress of more familiar word po’tato also falls on the
syllable teɪ. Similarly, the blend floa’tel floating x hotel has similar stress as in
ho’tel. The same way occurs in the blends fra’tastic fra’ternity x fan’tastic and ,
stalke’razzi ‘stalker x ,papa’razzi since they resemble stress of the words fan’tastic and ,papa’razzi. All of these examples hold the last parts of SW2 which
contains primary stress. The remaining part of source words is preserved so that people become aware that the blends they read or hear are originally a
combination of words. In this regard, they can quickly guess the source words which make up a blend.
As a final remark, it is worth saying that the stress of English blends is assigned based on the stress placement rule of English. It is essential to put aside
the phonological features, such as syllable constituents and stress assignments which are brought by each source word. Therefore, they are adjusted following
the rule of stress assignment from the beginning. A blend, however, should be treated as a word which needs to undergo some restrictions before they can be
added to the lexicon of English.
2. Noncontiguous Blends
Blends with infixation is subject to prosodic morphology. It is due to the fact that in the process of inserting elements into the base inserting
“infixes”, it requires some consistency in applying prosodic properties, such as syllable size
and syllable weight. Therefore, they occur under phonological conditions which are going to discuss in this section.
As stated in the analysis section of the first research problem, blends with infixation include two processes, namely deleting and inserting elements. In
blends, deleting elements is obligatory since it is one of the characteristics of blends. As shown in Table 4.10
, SW1 becomes the base to which an “infix” attaches, while SW2 becomes the “infix” that interrupts the base.
Table 4.10 Phonological Properties of Blends with Infixation
No. Blends with
infixation deleting elements
inserting infixes Stress Placement
syll size syll weight
syll size syll weight
1. ambisextrous
ambidextrous x sex
dex 1 deks
heavy syll sex 1
seks heavy syll
,ambi‟dextrous ,ambi‟sextrous
2. adverteasement
advertisement x tease
tise 1 taɪz
heavy syll tease 1
tiːz heavy syll
ad‟vertisement ad‟verteasement
3. adorkable
adorable x dork dor 1
dɔː.r heavy syll
dork 1 dɔːk
heavy syll a‟dorable
a‟dorkable
4. diworsify
diversify x worse vers 1
v ː.s heavy syll
worse 1 w ːs
heavy syll di‟versify
di‟worsify
5. procrapstinate
procrastinate x crap
cras 1 kræs
heavy syll crap 1
kræp heavy syll
pro‟crastinate pro‟crapstinate
6. refirement
retirement x fire tire 2
taɪə heavy syll
fire 2 faɪə
heavy syll
re‟tirement re‟firement
7. ridonkulous
ridiculous x donkey
dic 1 dɪk
heavy syll donk 1
d ŋ heavy syll
ri‟diculous ri‟donkulous
8. engayed
engaged x gay gag 1
geɪdʒ heavy syll
gay 1 geɪ
heavy syll en‟gaged
en‟gayed
9. homosinuality
homosexuality x sin
sex 1 seks
heavy syll sin 1
sɪn heavy syll
,homo,sex
u‟ality
,homo,sin
u‟ality 10.
hypathenuse hypotenuse x
path pot 1
p t heavy syll
path 1 p ːθ
heavy syll hy‟potenuse
hy‟pathenuse
11. edvertorial
editorial x advertisement
edit 2 edɪt
advert 2 ədv ːt
,edi
‟torial
,edver
‟torial 12.
enculturement enlightenment x
culture lighten
2 laɪtən
culture 2
kʌl.tʃə r en‟lightenment
en‟culturement
13. baseketball
basketball x baseball
bas 1 b ː.s
heavy syll base 1
beɪs heavy syll
„basketball „baseketball
14. janky junky x
stank unk 1
ʌŋk heavy syll
ank 1 æŋk
heavy syll
„junky „janky
15. chortle chuckle x
snort uck 1
ʌk heavy syll
ort 1 ɔːt
heavy syll „chuckle
„chortle
16. autopath‟ography
bi 1 baɪ
path 1 p ːθ
,autobi
‟ography
autobiography x pathology
heavy syll heavy syll
,autopath
‟ograph y
17. reintarnation
reincarnation x tarnish
car 1 k ː
heavy syll tar 1
t ː heavy syll
,reincar
‟nation
,reintar
‟nation
The phonological characteristics of blends with infixation which can be observed in this research are related to the syllable size, syllable weight, and stress
placement. The syllable size refers to the number of syllable, while syllable weight refers to the number of X-positions in rhyme. As mentioned by Giegerich
1992: 146, one which has two-X rhyme is called a heavy syllable, while one which has a single-X rhyme is called a light syllable. The following paragraphs
present three phonological characteristics of blends with infixation. First, the syllable size of deleted segments is equivalent to the syllable size
of infixes. In this regard, the number of syllables in infixes and deleted segments is always the same as presented in Table 4.10. Furthermore, the data may belong
to either monosyllabic element having a single syllable or bisyllabic element having two syllables. Examining the data presented in the table, most syllables
in infixes and deleted segments are monosyllabic. It occurs in ambisextrous, adverteasement, adorkable, diworsify, procrastinate, ridonkulous, engayed,
homosinuality, hypathenuse, baseketball, janky, chortle, autopathography, and reintarnation. In ambisextrous ambidextrous x sex, the infix sex is monosyllabic
so is the deleted segment dex. Another example is adverteasement advertisement x tease. The blend adverteasement has monosyllabic infix tease and
monosyllabic deleted segment tise. In adorkable adorable x dork, both infix dork and deleted segments dor are monosyllabic. The blend homosinuality
homosexuality x sin has a monosyllabic infix sin and monosyllabic segments sex.
In addition to monosyllabic elements, bisyllabic elements occur in refirement, edvertorial, and enculturement. In refirement retirement x fire, the
deleted segments tire consist of two syllables which is the same as those in fire. Another example which has two syllables can be seen in edvertorial editorial x
advertisement. In edvertorial, both edit and advert are both bisyllabic. The blend enculturement enlightenment x culture also have lighten and culture in which
each of them consists of two syllables. Second, the syllable weight of deleted elements is equivalent to the syllable
weight of infixes. The data in Table 4.10 shows that the number of X-positions in rhyme in deleted syllables is the same as those in infixes. In diworsify diversify x
worse, the deleted element verse v ː.s and the infix worse w ːs contain heavy
syllable. In refirement retirement x fire, the deleted element tire ta ɪə contains a
heavy syllable, so does the infix fire fa ɪə. The blend engayed which combine
engaged and gay contains heavy syllables for deleted element gag ge ɪdʒ and the
infix gay ge ɪ.
Third, the stress of blends with infixation is likely to follow the stress of the base as long as the substituted elements deleted segments and infixes have the
same number of syllables syllable size and more specifically have the same number of X-positions in rhyme syllable weight. Otherwise, the stress will be
assigned from the beginning. According to the data, the infixes are put right on the stressed syllables.
More specifically, the stressed syllable of the base is then omitted and substituted
for infixes. For that reason, the syllable of infixes must be heavy in order to maintain the stress placement of the base. It is due to the fact that stressed syllable
is always heavy, so a heavy syllable is needed for infixes as the substitute. Otherwise, the stress placement will be different from those in base, meaning that
it is needed to assign stress from the beginning. Now that all data in Table 5.5 have the same syllable size and syllable weight, the stress placement will remain
the same as the base. As shown in Table 4.10, ,
ambi’sextrous is the combination of ,
ambi’dextrous and „sex. The SW1 ,ambi’dextrous is the base, while sex is the infix which must be put in the middle of base. The stressed syllable dex is deleted
and substituted for the infix sex. The stressed syllable dex deks is heavy and monosyllabic, thus the substitute must be heavy and monosyllabic in order to
maintain the stress placement of the base. The infix sex seks is both heavy and monosyllabic so that it is suitable as the substitute of dex. Finally, the resulting
blend becomes ,ambi’sextrous.
D.Meaning Identification of English Blends
The meaning patterns of blends are identified according to the relation between two source words. In terms of the meaning construction, blends are
similar to compounds due to the fact that for some extents blends may be understood as shortened compounds. Therefore, this study will apply four types of
meaning used by compounds such as endocentric, exocentric, copulative, and appositional to identify the meaning of blends.
