Blending is a type of word formation in which two or more words are merged into one so that the blended constituents are either clipped, or partially overlap

BLENDING

Blending is a type of word formation in which two or more words are merged into one so that the blended constituents are either clipped, or partially overlap. An example of a typical blend is brunch, in which the beginning of the word breakfast is joined with the ending of the word lunch. In many cases such as motel (motor + hotel) or blizzaster (blizzard + disaster) the constituents of a blend overlap at segments that are phonologically or graphically identical. In some blends, both constituents retain their form as a result of overlap, for example, stoption (stop + option). These examples illustrate only a handful of the variety of forms blends may take; more exotic examples include formations like Thankshallowistmas (Thanksgiving + Halloween + Christmas). The visual and audial amalgamation in blends is reflected on the semantic level. It is common to form blends meaning a combination or a product of two objects or phenomena, such as an animal breed (e.g., zorse, a breed of zebra and horse), an interlanguage variety (e.g., franglais, which is a French blend of français and anglais meaning a mixture of French and English languages), or other type of mix (e.g., a shress is a type of calothes having features of both a shirt and a dress).
Blending as a word formation process can be regarded as a subtype of compounding because, like compounds, blends are formed of two (or sometimes more) content words and semantically either are hyponyms of one of their constituents, or exhibit some kind of paradigmatic relationships between the constituents. In contrast to compounds, however, the formation of blends is restricted by a number of phonological constraints given that the resulting formation is a single word. In particular, blends tend to be of the same length as the longest of their constituent words, and to preserve the main stress of one of their constituents. Certain regularities are also observed in terms of ordering of the words in a blend (e.g., shorter first, more frequent first), and in the position of the switch point, that is, where one blended word is cut off and switched to another (typically at the syllable boundary or at the onset/rime boundary). The regularities of blend formation can be related to the recognizability of the blended words.
1. Blends in Word Formation: An Overview
Brexit (Britain + exit), Trustafarians (trust fund + rastafarians), affluenza (affluent + influenza), and other blends were listed among top words of the first fifteen years of the 21st century, according to the Global Language Monitor (2015). These and other numerous blends in advertisements, headlines, blogs, and various other media, illustrate that blend words occupy an important niche in contemporary vocabulary. This is not to say that blending is a new phenomenon in word formation. Examples of early attested blends are rebuse (rebuke + abuse) from Early Modern English (Pound, 1914, p. 6), écornifler ‘to nose about and steal’ (écorner ‘to cut off’ + nifler ‘to sniff’) from Middle French, and pstrokaty ‘motley’ (pstry ‘multicoloured’ + srokaty ‘piebald’) from Middle Polish (Renner, Maniez, & Arnaud, 2012, p. 1).

Blends underwent a boost in popularity in the late 19th century. The novel Through the Looking Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll, containing the now classical blends like mimsy (miserable + flimsy) and galumph (gallop + triumph), catalyzed the use of blends, particularly in English. Carroll’s work also gave rise to the term ‘portmanteau word’, which is used in morphological studies either as a synonym of ‘blend’, for example, in Pound (1914) and Thurner (1993), or as its hyponym, denoting a certain type of blend, for example, in Algeo (1977), Piñeros (2004), or Tomaszewicz (2012) (see section 2.2 for details).

It is worth noting that the academic works of the late 19th century utilized the term ‘blend’ mainly for speech errors. For example, in Meringer and Mayer (1895) the term ‘blend’ labels slips of the tongue such as evoid, a blend of phonologically and semantically similar words avoid and evade. However, in early-20th-century literature the term ‘blend’ acquired the meaning it has in contemporary morphology, that is, to name a new word formed by fusing two known words into one. Blends listed in Wood (1911), such as brunch (breakfast + lunch) and canoodle (canoe + paddle), suggest intentional formation of blends to convey a specific meaning (e.g., a meal that includes both breakfast and lunch), or to use one word for a complex action (paddle a canoe). The distinction between speech errors

and intentional blends is discussed in Kelly (1998), and a comprehensive summary of phonological and semantic differences between speech errors and intentional blends is provided in Gries (2004b, 2012). Henceforth, the distinction between error blends and intentional formations will not be pursued here, the main focus of this article being on blending as a morphological phenomenon.This visible phenomenon of creating new words is a word – formation process called blending. Blending belongs to a “class of complex words”[3] which links two or more words together. They are formed by deleting parts from one or both of the original words and these are composed to a new word which is called blend. Blending is a common and especially a creative word – formation process nowadays.

A classic definition given by Laurie Bauer is: “A blend may be defined as a new lexeme formed from parts of two (or possibly more) other words in such a way that there is no transparent analysis into morphs.”[4]
As a part of this term paper I will show how the blends are classified into modified and meaningful blends and how they are categorized, including the categorization of their source words.
I am going to answer the question how blends are structured and what kind of rules there are for their formation. The term paper will answer all these questions by analyzing blends and their source words and this will show that blending is a word – formation process.
Categories of Blends and their source words

Mostly both source words belong to one semantic category like the formed blend.

(4.) science + fiction = sci – fi
science = noun fiction = noun sci – fi = noun
(13.) boat + hotel = boatel
boat = noun hotel = noun boatel = noun
(14.) breakfast + lunch = brunch
breakfast = noun lunch = noun brunch = noun
(17.) Spanish + English = Spanglish
Spanish = noun English = noun Spanglish = noun
(24.) car + barbecue = carbecue

car = noun barbecue = noun carbecue = noun

In the given examples the original words and the resulting blends belong all to the category of nouns. But of course, there are examples which deviate from the rule:
(5.) binary + digit = bit
binary = adjective digit = noun bit = noun
(6.) guess + estimate = guesstimate
guess = adjective, noun, verb estimate = noun guesstimate = verb, noun
In (5.) the first source word binary is an adjective, the second source word digit is a noun and the resulting blend bit is a noun. In (6.) the first source guess can be defined as an adjective, a noun or a verb. The second source word estimate is a noun as well as the blending guesstimate which can be a verb, too.
First Rule for Blending – Formation
Plag defines a rule for Blending – Formation by combining “the first part of the first element [ . . . ] with the second part of the second element.
Questions

1.When and how does blending take place?

2.What is portmanteau?
3.How do you form blending words?
4.How do you find the blend of a word?
5.What is the rule of blending?
6.What are lexical patterns?
7.What are some examples of blending words?
8.How do you use blend in a sentence?
9.How the word "brunch" was born?
10.Are there strict rules for blending?

Exercises (My own exercises)

Exercise 1.
Fill in the gaps with appropriate blended words.
1.A bicycle with a motor is a ……………
2. If you ……….. something, you shatter it.
3. Helicopters land and take off from a …………….
4…………… is a meal that combines breakfast and lunch.
5. A………… is a hotel for motorists.

Exercise 2.

Write the blend formed from each pair of words .
1.Breakfast and lunch
……………………………………………………………….
2. Chuckle and short
………………………………………………………………...
3.Twist and whirl
………………………………………………………………..
4. Motor and pedal
………………………………………………………………..
5.Helicopter and airport
………………………………………………………………...

Exercise 3.

Use blends to complete each sentence.
1.We slept late on Saturday, so our first meal was…………………
2.Heavy ………………..hung over the city and made everything gray.
3.The driver stopped for the night at a…………along the highway.
4.Alice let out a …………..as she watched the comedy.
5.The pilot went to the …………..for his flight.

Exercise 4.

Read each question . Choose the best answer.
1.Which one is a vehicle ?
#motel #moped
2.Which one is a sound?
#smash #smog
3.Which one can you see?
#telecast #chortle
4.Which one is a meal?
#brunch #branch

Exercise 5.

Write a traffic report. Use at least two vocabulary ( blend words).

PUZZLE
Across Down

1.more than fog 1. A noisy crash
3.more than a hamburger 2. More than breakfast
6.what a dancer does 4. A pad for copters
7. a chuckle 5. A place to park and sleep
8.more than a bike
9. on the air

Multiple choice tests

1.What are “zoodles”?
a. Zoo + cradles
b. Zero + oodles: not a lot of something
c. Zucchini + noodles:a pasta alternative that uses zucchini
2.What is a “chugger”?
a. charity + mugger:someone who stops people on the street to get them to give money to charity
b.charity +hugger : someone who exchanges hugs for donations to charity
c. chum + digger : an affectionate term for a fellow archeologist

3. What is a”Vlog”?

a. vacation + blog
b. virtual +log
c.video + blog
4.What is “plogging”
a. picking +litter+jogging:picking up litter while jogging
b. plodding + lugging: pulling or carrying an object slowly and with difficulty
5.What is a “felfie”
a.far + selfie: a selfie taken with a telescopic selfie stick
b. fun + selfie : a selfie taken while having fun
c. family + selfie: a selfie taken with your family
6.What is a”theyby”?
a.they +fly-by; a fly-by involving multiple aircraft or spacecraft
b.they+baby: a baby who is not outwardly identified as a boy or a girl
c. they + wallaby : a group of wallabies
7.What is a “mook”?
a.male + cook: a male cook or chef
b. magazine + book: a publication that’s somewhere between a magazine and a book
c.moo+ book : a book about cows or farming in general
8. What is a “smombie”?
a. smartphone +zombie
b.smart+ zombie
c. smooch + wombat
9.What is a “lunner”?
a.long-distance + runner
b. lunar + runner
c. lunch + dinner

10. What is “Singlish”?

a.sin +English: English in religious confession
b. Singapore + English: dialect in Singapore
c. sing + English : when a sentence is sung in a conversation
Worksheets ( from Internet)