Lexical Blending. Analysis of blends found in magazines according to the typology of Adrienne Lehrer and Elke Ronneberger-Sibol

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Potsdam, language: English, abstract: This research paper deals with the topic of lexical blending. There, newly created words through this process of word formation are called blends or hybrids or portmanteau words. The latter was popularized in Lewis Carroll's poem 'Through the Looking Glass' in which he, for example, describes a 'frabjous day', a day that is both fabulous and joyous. One of the first blends known of, which is still in our vocabulary is the word 'smash'. It is a blend of 'smack' and 'mash', which is known since early 1700. 'Smash' is a perfect example of a blend that is very well integrated into the modern Standard English. Therefore most likely most people would not have defined it as a blend. So this example indicates, that it is sometimes difficult to identify a word as a blend and moreover to identify its constituents.