Analyzing the Creativity of English Blends: a Corpus Study

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Analiza kreativnosti engleskih sraslica: studij korpusa
• Author: Jakob Glavak
• Mentor: Marina Grubišić (komentor)
• Mentor: Janja Čulig (komentor)
• Committee member: Marina Grubišić (član povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Janja Čulig (član povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Irena Zovko Dinković (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2023-07-05, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Information and Communication Sciences; Lexicography and Encyclopedics
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

Despite their long history, blends are often seen as peripheral in the English language. Compared to other language phenomena, they get very little attention by researchers. Linguists cannot agree on what makes a true blend; some say that overlap between the source words is necessary and some say that clipping is enough. They also cannot agree on what makes a blend more or less conventional.
The enTenTen20 corpus had a rich collection of English blends. They had a variety of structures, sizes, ages and origins. There were even cases of blends inspiring or being used to create new blends. The semi-official rules were frequently bent or broken. There were even a few cases where a term’s status as blend was uncertain. The way the common people use a language can have a strong impact on it.

• Keywords: blending; source word; fracto-lexeme; overlap; conventional; corpus
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:853845
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2023-07-13 08:43:35