Blend Word Formation Process a. Affixation
lunch.
27
Another literature also classifies blends into two types, the right- headed where the first source word modifies the second, for the example
motel which the meaning is a kind of hotel, and coordinating where both have equal status, for the example spork which the meaning is equally
spoon and fork. However, there is one type of blends, the left-headed, as the example acceleread built by the word accelerate and read, which the
word accelerate is the head where the meaning is a kind of accelerate.
28
In spite of the semantic properties of blends, the next is about the prosodic properties of blends. The basic rule of words in the second type is
the first part of the first element combined with the second part of second element as quoted from Bauer. This can be formulated as a rule, with A,
B, C and D, referring to the respective parts of the elements involved:
29
Blending rule A B + C D
→ AD As evidenced by guesstimate, B or C can be null, one of the two
forms may appear in its full form. Taking the orthographic representation, guesstimate does not truncate the first element B is null while taking the
orthographic representation, the word estimate is not truncated, hence C is null. Similar examples can be found. There is only one veritable exception
27
Ingo Plag. Word-Formation in English. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.122.
28
Katherine Shaw, Andrew White, Elliott Moreto, and Fabian Monrose. Emergent Faithfulness to Morphological and Semantic Heads in Lexical Blends. United States: University
of North
Carolina, Chapel
Hill, 2014,
p.2, accessed
from http:journals.linguisticsociety.orgproceedingsindex.phpamphonologyarticleview4551
29
Plag, op. cit., p.123.
to this pattern in the dataabove, namely modem, where the blend structure AC instead of AD modulator-demodulator.
30
The rule of speaker cutting the base word to make a blend word is not arbitrary but constrained by prosodic categories. From the data above,
there are two types of restrictions. The first has to do with syllable structure the second with the size. Firstly, the syllable structure are
introduced. The structure of a syllable was described as having four constituents- onset, nucleus, coda, with nucleus and coda forming the so-
called rime. Applying this structural model to the data above, it can be seen that in the truncation process the constituents of syllables are left
intact. Only syllabic constituent as a whole can be deleted. In monosyllabic blends, for example, they take either the onset of the first
element and the rime of the second element, or onset and nucleus of the first element and the coda of the second. As the following example:
31
Combinations of syllabic constituents in monosyllabic blends, applying the blending rule AB + CD → AD
30
Ingo Plag. Word-Formation in English. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.123.
31
Ibid. p.123-124.
a. goat + sheep → geep Figure 1. Combination of syllable constituents in monosyllabic blends
Then, the polysyllabic blends treat the same constraints AB + CD → AD but the differences are that there are some more constituents that
can be combined with a number of possibilities sets, as the following:
32
Table 1. Combinations of syllabic constituents in polysyllabic blends
A D
A+D, examples
Onset penultimate rime and
ultimate syllable b + oatel
ch + unnel Onset and nucleus
ultimate syllable boa + tel
32
Ingo Plag. Word-Formation in English. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.124.
Onset and nucleus coda
and ultimate
syllable spa + nglish
Onset Syllable
g + estimate Syllable
ultimate rime boat + el
Syllable Syllable
com + pander guess+ timate
stag + flation
It can be seen that in prosodic constituent, syllabic constituent is the important role in limiting the type material to be deleted or combined.
The next type of restriction is the size of blends word by counting the number of base words’ syllables, as the following examples:
33
Table 2. The size of blends, measured in number of syllables.
Base words Blend
AB CD
AD
boat + hotel Boatel
1 2
2 boot + hoist
Boost 1
1 1
breakfast + lunch Brunch
2 1
1 channel + tunnel
Chunnel 2
2 2
compressor + expander compander
3 3
3 goat + sheep
Geep 1
1 1
guess + estimate guesstimate
1 3
3 sheep + goat
Shoat 1
1 1
smoke + fog Smog
1 1
1 Spanish + English
Spanglish 2
2 2
stagnation + inflation stagflation
3 3
3
According to explanation above, the two words combined to be blends words have the same size with the components of blends.
Nevertheless, there are some words that have the different size with the others such as brunch, boatel, and guesstimate, follow the size of second
element.
34
The structure of blends is restricted into three, semantic, syntactic,
33
Ingo Plag. Word-Formation in English. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.125
34
Ibid. p.125.
and prosodic. Blends act semantically and syntactically as copulative compound while they are described phonologically into three restrictions.
First, combining the first and the last part of word become one. Second, blends are made up by syllable constituents such as onset, nuclei, coda,
rime or complete syllables. Last, the size of blends words is determined by the second element.
35
Hence, blends are not only made up by blending two words but also determined the size of blends and the syllables of the component.
Moreover, the meaning of blend word can be one where the first element modifies the second, and share the properties of both elements.