Lecture 6. Shortened words & minor types of lexical oppositions (2 hrs)

Objective. To inform the students of the key features of the causes of shortening of spoken words, & minor types of lexical oppositions; to raise the students’ awareness of the phonologically based word oppositions; to develop cognitive skills of analyzing & summarizing the information, distinguishing between major & minor aspects, categorizing & estimating relevant facts.

Glossary: clipping, substantivisation, ellipsis, curtailed words, poetical contractions, blending (blends, fusions, portmanteau words, additive and restrictive blends, graphical abbreviations, acronyms, sound interchange, ablaut, distinctive stress, homographic pairs, onomatopoeic words, back-formation (reversion)

Plan

1. Shortening of spoken words & its causes

2. Blending

3. Graphical abbreviations. Acronyms

4. Minor types of lexical oppositions. Sound

interchange

5. Distinctive stress

6. Sound imitation

7. Back-formation

6.1. Shortening of spoken words

The shortening of Ws = substituting a part for a whole. Shortening isn’t confined only to Ws; many W-groups also become shortened.

Shortened variants of Ws & phrases are used as independent lexical units. Some occur both in oral & written speech (bus, mike, phone), others only in oral colloquial speech (trig, math, sis). Shortened Ws are structurally simple Ws; in most cases have the same lexical meaning as the Ws from which they are derived (exam - examination). Exceptions: cab - наемный экипаж, cabriolet - кабриолет. The shortened unit is a W-variant of the W.

Shortening comprises: 1) transformation of a W-group into a W; 2) clipping = a change of the W-structure resulting in a new lexical item.

Transformations: ellipsis / substantivisation, initial letter / syllable abbreviations (acronyms), blendings.

Substantivisation = dropping of the final nominal member of a frequently used attributive W-group (a documentary film). The remaining Adj takes on the meaning & the syntactic functions of the N & develops into a new W changing its class membership & becoming homonymous to the existing Adj: the finals for the final examinations, an editorial for an editorial article; an orbital (Br. ‘a highway going around the suburbs of a city’), a verbal (‘a verbal confession introduced as evidence at a trial’, a topless: 1) a topless dress, bathing suit; 2) a waitress, dancer, wearing topless garments; 3) a bar, night-club featuring topless waitresses / performers.

Ellipsis always results in a change of LG meaning, the new W belongs to a different part of speech.

Substantivisation is often accompanied by productive suffixation (a one-winger from one-wing plane, a two-decker from two-deck bus / ship); clipping & productive suffixation: flickers (coll.) from flicking pictures, a smoker from smoking carriage.

Professional & other communities with a specialised sphere of common interests – the ideal setting for ellipsis. Open on for open fire on, put to sea for put ship to sea are of wartime & navy origin, bill for bill of exchange – from business circles; in a newspaper office daily paper, weekly paper were shortened to daily & weekly.

Other processes with ellipsis. Finals for final examinations – ellipsis + substantivation of the 1^st element; prelims for preliminary examinations – ellipsis, substantivation & clipping: perm :: permanent wave; pop :: popular music; prom :: promenade concert; pub :: public house ‘an inn / tavern’; taxi :: taxicab, formed from taximeter-cab.

Inside this group – a subgroup with prefixed derivatives as 1^st elements of prototype phrases: coed ‘a girl student at a coeducational institution’, prefab ‘a prefabricated house / structure’ (to prefabricate ‘to manufacture component parts of buildings prior to their assembly on a site’).

Clipping = the cutting off of 1 / several syllables of a W. Several types depending on which part of the W is clipped:

- Ws shortened at the end: ad -advertisement, lab - laboratory;

- Ws shortened at the beginning: car - motor-car, phone - telephone;

- Ws in which some syllables have been omitted from the middle: maths - mathematics, specs - spectacles;

- Ws that have been clipped both at the beginning & at the end: flu - influenza, tec - detective, frig - refrigerator.

It’s typical of W-clipping in ME that in most cases Ns are shortened.

There are very few clipped Adjs (jargonisms): ard - ardent, dilly - delightful. Clipped Vs are usually a case of conversion from clipped Ns: to taxi - taxi, to phone - phone, to perm - perm.

Curtailed Ws arise in various types of colloquial speech, have a pronounced stylistic colouring as long as their connection with the prototype is alive, they remain synonyms. When the connection is lost, the curtailed W may become stylistically neutral: brig, cab, cello, pram. Stylistically coloured shortened Ws are numerous in school, service, sport, newspaper slang. Familiar colloquial style: bobby, cabbie, mac, maxi, mini, movies. Nursery Ws: gran, granny; hanky from handkerchief; ma from mama; nightie from nightdress; pinnie from pinafore. Stylistic peculiarity often + emotional colouring (diminutives). School & college slang – reckless / ironical attitude: caf from cafeteria ‘self-service restaurant’, digs from diggings ‘lodgings’, ec, eco from economics, home ecs, lab, maths, prelims, prep, prof, trig, undergrad, vac, varsity. Service slang: demob v from demobilise; civvy n from civilian, op n from operator; non-com n from non-combatant; corp n from corporal; sarge n from sergeant.

The only type of clippings that belong to bookish style are the poetical contractions such as e'en, e'er, ne'er, o'er.