Rhyme between constituent1 and constituent2

Rhyme with an already existing compound

Often, creative compounds rhyme with an already existing (creative) compound. It is hypothesized here that this analogy serves two functions: 1) helps the hearer/reader to uncover the meaning of the novel expression by foregrounding the source compound; and 2) brings forth conceptual (dis)similarities between the referents of the source compound and the novel expression, hence accentuating the inherent humour of the novel coinage. An example for the first case is grass ceiling (‘a set of social, cultural, and discriminatory barriers that prevent or discourage women from using golf to conduct business’; source: Wordspy): when coming across the expression, it is inevitable that the more lexicalized compound glass ceiling (‘an unofficial or unacknowledged barrier to personal advancement, esp. of a woman or a member of an ethnic minority in employment’) also comes to mind, thanks to the close phonological resemblance between the two. Such a phonological “prompt” is not that surprising in light of De Cara and Goshwami’s (2002) results, who, in an analysis of the Celex database, have found that the majority of phonological neighbours in English are rhyme-based (i.e., hat and cat).

Glass ceiling is an instantiation of the CAREER IS AN UPWARD JOURNEY metaphor: reaching a socially higher position is understood as upward physical movement in the course of a journey (see Kövecses, 2010, p. 252). The compound brings forth the idea that the journey has an end point for women, the “ceiling”, while no such end point exists for men – therefore, their career path is unlimited. The fact that the ceiling is made of glass implies that women are able to “see” the possible path that their careers might follow (but, due to the limiting “ceiling”, they are, nevertheless, unable to go ahead and do so). The novel coinage of grass ceiling ties into the meaning of the source compound, as it also refers to the limited opportunities in business for women as opposed to men, but it places this limiting factor unto the golf course. This specification of meaning is accomplished by the modifying element, grass, which metonymically stands for the golf course (via the MATERIAL CONSTITUTING AN OBJECT FOR THE OBJECT metonymy).

Phonological analogy to an already existing compound might also be able to bring forth conceptual similarities between the source compound and the novel coinage, thereby enhancing the humorous effect of the novel expression. One such example is knee-mail (‘a prayer, especially one said while kneeling’; source: Wordspy). The compound is formed on the phonological analogy of e-mail (Benczes, 2006, pp. 148–149), where the first constituent (e) represents the type of mail that is denoted by the construction as a whole (i.e., ‘electronic mail’). The first constituent of knee-mail is metonymical: via the INSTRUMENT FOR ACTION metonymy, the knee (i.e., the instrument) stands for praying while kneeling (i.e., the action). The real creativity of this compound lies in the metaphorical nature of mail, which is probably based upon the CONDUIT metaphor, according to which IDEAS ARE OBJECTS, LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS and COMMUNICATION IS SENDING (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, pp.

10–13). In the case of knee-mail, the prayer is what we send (“mail”) to God (the “addressee”), who “reads” our message. The humorous effect of the expression rests on the (conceptual) similarities between knee-mail and e-mail. E-mails are much faster than surface mail, and they are less prone to get undelivered. Thus the compound knee-mail suggests that the prayer definitely reaches God, and does so swiftly. Thanks to the phonological analogy to e-mail, all of these implications surface in the case of knee-mail (as opposed to the word prayer, which is the more conventional term that is used for sending God a “message”).

All in all, rhyme with an already existing compound can enhance the comprehension of a creative compound; at the same time, it can also help to expose its inherent ingenuity. The idea that the meaning of a novel compound is reached via accessing a more lexicalized expression is in full agreement with the commonplace claim within cognitive linguistics that word meanings are encyclopaedic (for a discussion, see Langacker, 1987, pp. 155–158; Kovács, 2011). As Langacker points out, “concepts presuppose other concepts and cannot be adequately defined except by reference to them” (Langacker, 1987, p. 147). Indirect psycholinguistic evidence also seems to support the above claims. As argued by Gibbs (1992), even conventional metaphorical linguistic expressions are able to evoke metaphorical images

– i.e., the metaphorical imagery of glass ceiling is not lost even after lexicalisation has taken place (and thus it can serve as a basis for further metaphorical expressions such as grass ceiling). Furthermore, as demonstrated by Thibodeau and Durgin (2008), conventional metaphors can considerably help in the comprehension of novel ones based on the same conceptual metaphor. Such evidence indicates that we routinely and automatically search for connections between words, and make use of these in the comprehension of novel ones.