LEXICAL

CHANGE
Prepared by: Joanna Ruth S. Paloma
MAEL
Borrowing
Acronyms
Blends
 Derivational
Compounding
Abbreviations
Analogy
Productivity
 Taboo,
Euphemism
Loss
 Borrowing
Loan-translation (calques) usually from
Classical or prestigious languages: Latin,
Greek, Sanskrit, Chinese, French; now
English is donor language to many others
 Calque

• A word or phrase in one

language whose
semantic components
(words or parts of words)
are translations from
another language
 Calque
• The English phrase "blue blood"
is a calque of the Spanish
phrase sangre
azul (sangre means "blood"
and azul means "blue"), which at
one time apparently referred to
the visible veins of fair-skinned
people.
 Calque

The Spanish rascacielo is

a calque of the English
"skyscraper" (rasca means
"it scrapes"
and cielomeans "sky
 Calque

• The English phrase "piña

colada," which is a simple
borrowing of the Spanish
phrase rather than a
translation of the words
(which mean "strained
pineapple").
• Some languages borrow
freely; others do not
Sometimes languages borrow
the same word twice
(`doublets;), or borrow a word
they already have,
 English `shirt, skirt';
`gauche, gawky', `castle,
chateau'; `nurse,
nourish'; `lance, launch';
`rancid, raunchy';
`pocket, pouch, poach'
(`triplets').
• English words for meat, `beef,
mutton, veal' are used only for
`animal meat as food', whereas in
French `boeuf, mouton, veau' are
the names of the live animal as
well as its meat.
Acronyms
 Acronyms
• Acronyms are made up
of initials of words,
combined into a
pronounceable 'word'.
 • Examples:

• DUMBO ('Down Under the

Manhattan-Brooklyn
Overpass')
asap, sop, scuba, radar, sonar,
laser, NATO, DOS, RAM,
ROM, WYSIWYG, CAUTION,
FNMA ('Fanny Mae'), GNMA
('Ginny Mae,').
 • Mflops, gigaflop
• [flop = floating operations
per second ], cat-scan, pet-scan,
PANS (pretty amazing new stuff)
Sometimes acronyms are combined
with other material, as in the case of
giga-flop, where 'giga' is an
abbreviation of gigantic.
• OMG (Oh my God), BTW (by
the way), AFAIK (as far as I k
now),
• LOL (laughing out loud), ROT
FL
• (rolling on the
floor laughing),
 • IMHO
• (in my humble opinion)
• FWIW (for what it’sworth), T
TYL (talk to you later), and bff
(best friends forever).
OMG!
Blends
 Blends
Shamnesty: blend of sham and
amnesty, meaning a fake
amnesty, or something that
pretends to be something other
than an amnesty, as in the
recent debate over immigration
'reform.'
 Blends
Lopomo: blend of low-
power mode, i.e., a setting for
electrical and other consumer
products that idle at a level that
consumes less power than
when being used in full-power
mode.
 Blends
Pedlock: blend
of pedestrian and
gridlock: Pedestrian
gridlock.
 Blends
Mockney: blend
of Mock and cockney. Mock
Cockney, a.k.a.
"Estuary English.“

–starchitect Blend of star and

architect An architect who is a
'star‘.
 Blends
– cosmeceutical Blend of
cosmetic(s) and pharmaceutical
A pharmaceutical product that
also has cosmetic uses, e.g.
Botox.
– Glamazon Blend of glamour and
Amazon The glamour of amazons,
Greeks heroes, etc. (as depicted in
recent movies such as "Troy" etc.)
 Blends
– toyetic Blend of toy + -etic 'suffix
used to make adjectives out of
nouns.' A character or thing found
in a movie that can easily be made
into a mass-marketed toy, used to
earn more profits for the
filmmaker.
 Blends
– Mobisode A blend of mobile and episode. A
brief episode of a video programme designed
to be viewed on a mobile phone.
– Premercial: A blend of Pre- and
commercial-- a commercial that pops up on
your computer screen before the website
you've intended to load comes on.
– Hatriot A blend of hate and patriot, i.e. a
person who fancies himself a patriot, but is full
of hate.
 Blends
Obamapaloosa A blend of Barack Obama the
African-American Senator from Illinois' and
lallapaloosa 'Something outstandingly good
of its kind'. here. 'Obamapaloosa' refers to the
extreme hype and publicity given to Mr.
Obama at the Democratic Convention in
Boston (July 2004).
infoganda: A blend of information +
propaganda.
 Blends
– humint Blend of human
+ intelligence; a term used by CIA
agents, etc. Contrasts with rumint,
a blend of rumor + intelligence,
which isn't worth much.
– Fortran (For[mula] Tran[slating]
[System]): a computer
programming language.
 Blends
– Ebonics (Ebon[y] + [Phon]ix);
– Wyotana (Wyo[ming] + [Mon]tana);
– racino (rac[etrack]+[cas]ino) a
racetrack with gambling machines
(slots etc.);
– movieoke (movie + karaoke)
 Blends
cyborg: cybernetic + organism.
Note how 'cyborg' is then
shortened to Borg in some usages
(e.g. StarTrek).
– gentlemandatory ('mandatory for a
gentleman'),
– 'Froogle' ( Frugal + Google);
– 'threepeat' (three + repeat)
--something repeated three times;
 Blends
'prebuttal' (preemptive +
rebuttal --a rebuttal made even
before the claims that are being
rebutted have been made);
–Quackupuncture (sham
acupuncture),
 Blends
-smog (smoke+ fog),
– modem (modulator/demodulator),
– mockumentary (mo[ck]+
[do]cumentary) (and from there we go
on to schlockumentary, rockumentary,
punkumentary),
– ficto-facto (a sort of half factual, half
fictitious account of something)
 Blends
– buscapade,
– sitcom (and Britcom [British
sitcoms] and now zitcom [teen-
themed sitcoms]),
– nibling (niece/nephew sibling);
– Tamil kiimii from abbreviation
of kii[loo]mii[TTar] `kilometer'.
 Blends
• . Here's one that blends an
acronym (W.A.P.
or wireless application
protocol ) with the
word apathy --
> wapathy `disappointment
with W.A.P.’
 Blends
• Here's a blend of three
• words: turducken which is a blend
of tur(key)+duck+chicken,
literally and lexically--turducken is
made by stuffing a (boned)
chicken into a duck and then
stuffing the duck into a turkey.
Reduplicative
Rhyming
Reduplicative Rhyming

• This process has been around for

a long time in English, but is very
productive, adding new ones all
the time.
 Reduplicative Rhyming
• ticky-tacky, slo-mo (actually a
blend of slo[w]+mo[tion]),
• fro-yo (blend of fro[zen]
yo[gurt]), ding-dong, clickety-
clack, wing-ding,
 Derivational
Compounding
Derivational Compounding

– -athon: (marathon, danceathon,

telethon, phonathon, runathon,
sleepathon)
– -orama: (panorama, diorama,
sellorama, shmoozerama)
– -burger (Cheeseburger,
Fishburger (fishwich),
Suicideburger)
Derivational Compounding

– -gate (Water-gate (scandal),

Korea-gate, Irangate, Contragate,
etc.)

– (McDonalds leads to) McNuggets,

McKids, Egg McMuffin, McFood,
MacWrite, McJobs, McMansions ...
Derivational Compounding
-ster: An old suffix meaning 'someone
who does something' (or 'something that
serves as something') has been around
in the language for some time, with
words like 'spinster' (one who spins),
'webster' (one who weaves), 'baxter'
[bak-ster] (one who bakes), etc. Some
of these have become proper names.
Derivational Compounding
• In the more modern usages, there is
sometimes an implication of negativity or
pejorativity: 'roadster,
gangster, shyster, mobster' etc. and now
some very modern usages (some
pejorative, some not): 'dumpster, pollster,
tipster, scamster, spamster, and shamster
, blogster, and last but not least:
napster.
Abbreviations
 Abbreviations
• a shortened or contracted form
of a word or phrase, used to
represent the whole, as Dr. for
Doctor, U.S. for United States,
lb. for pound.
Analogy
 Analogy
Sometimes speakers take an existing
• word as a model and form other words
using some of its morphemes as a fixed
part, and changing one of them to
something new, with an analogically
similar meaning.
Cheeseburger was formed on the analogy
of hamburger, replacing a perceived
morpheme ham with cheese. carjack and
skyjack were also formed by analogy.
 Analogy
• Computer Hard ware,
then `software,
shareware,
vaporware, liveware,
dreamware'.
 Analogy
• Compare: `men's wear,
ladies' wear, underwear,
sleepwear, eyewear,
legwear, sportswear,
skiwear;
 Analogy
• alimony (palimony,
galimony); candelabra,
from which we get
`scandalabra' (char. of
the Clinton admin.?)
 Taboo,
Euphemism
 Taboo, Euphemism
Some items may acquire taboo, because of
vulgarity (4-letter words in English.), `magic'
(shamanism, religion, etc.) The Indo-
European word for `bear' is fraught with many
problems because in Slavic, e.g. the bear
was taboo; was referred to as `honey-eater'
[med'ved'] to avoid the taboo. In many
languages `dying, to die' can not be
discussed openly, must use euphemisms:
`pass on/away, go to h. reward, lose (s.o.)'
etc.
Loss
 Loss
• Many words go out of fashion, or
the technology associated with
them is replaced with new
technology. Words become
archaic or obsolete. What is a
`snood', a 'swale', a `thane', a
`quidity'?
Word from Names
 Eponym
is a word derived
from the proper
name of a person or
place.
 Fourth Earl of Sandwich
• sandwich, for instance--
famously consumed (if not
invented) by John Montagu,
Fourth Earl of Sandwich, who
put his food between two
slices of bread so that he
could eat while he gambled.
 Louis Pasteur

• pasteurization, from the

name of the fearless French
chemist who invented the
process.
 St. Valentine
• valentine, from the
saintly name of not
one but two early
Christian martyrs.
 Don Quixote
• quixotic, from the
windmill-tilting hero of
Cervantes' great
romance, Don
Quixote.
 Gargantuan
• Named for Gargantua,
the creature with a
huge appetite created
by Ravelais
 Jumbo
• After an elephant
brought to the United
States by P.T Barnum.(“
Jumbo olives” need
as an elephant not
however.)
Signor Paparazzo
• Paparazzi “ a freelance
photographer who
doggedly pursues
celebrities,” a little-known
word until the death of
Princess Diana in 1997
 Amp and Ampere
• Ampere (from André Marie Ampère,
1775-1836)
•
The term for a unit of electric current was
named after the French mathematician
who's credited with the discovery of
electromagnetism.
 Leotard
• (from Jules Leotard, 1830-1870)

French aerialist Jules Leotard not

only had a tight-fitting garment named
after him but also had a popular song
written about him--"The Daring Young
Man on the Flying Trapeze."
 Salisbury steak
• from James H. Salisbury, 1823–
(

1905)
•
American physician James
Salisbury invented this cafeteria
staple as part of his highly
questionable all-meat diet.
 The End
•Thank You Very
much.