Limits and Delimitations of Portmanteau Words in Composition by Blending

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the issue of portmanteau words, lexical forms that phonetically and semantically combine at least two words to create a new term. Initially, the focus is on the terminological diversity and the limitations of these processes. This first part aims to clarify the definition of the portmanteau word within the broader blending processes, by analysing the criteria for their formation and the constraints of their definition, often centred around clipping or phonetic modification. In the second part, a specific corpus of portmanteau words selected from Wiktionary is presented. This corpus illustrates their representation and treatment in general language dictionaries and serves as the basis for a quantitative analysis. The context of their use and lexicographic integration is also taken into consideration.

Keywords:

blending, portmanteau words, Wiktionary, clipping, homophony



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Roczniki Humanistyczne · ISSN 0035-7707 | eISSN 2544-5200 | DOI: 10.18290/rh
© The Learned Society of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin & The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

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