LINGUIST List 11.1309

Sun Jun 11 2000

Qs: Earliest Lexical Blending, Lexical Synonymy

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

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Directory

  1. Suzanne Kemmer, How old is lexical blending?
  2. gezim gurga, Bibliography of Lexical Synonymy

Message 1: How old is lexical blending?

 Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 14:16:12 +0200
From: Suzanne Kemmer <kemmereva.mpg.de>
Subject: How old is lexical blending?


Does anybody know how old lexical blending is in English?
Besides the Lewis Carroll examples like _slithy_ and _chortle_,
which date from 1872, I have found one blend in George Eliot's Middlemarch
(_Corregiosity_) and then the next oldest I have are citations
in reference works : 1896 (_brunch_ ) and 1905 (_smog_). 

Has anybody collected any earlier lexical blends? I would have
thought Dickens might have created some but of course it's difficult to
search until you know a specific example. Shakespeare would
be another likely creator of blend neologisms.
(anybody know a Shakespeare list I can post this query to?).

Thanks for help.
Suzanne Kemmer
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Message 2: Bibliography of Lexical Synonymy

 Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 13:23:32 GMT
From: gezim gurga <gezim_gurgahotmail.com>
Subject: Bibliography of Lexical Synonymy

I am a lecturer of semantics at the University of Tirana (Albania) and a 
have a desperate need for a bibliography on lexical synonymy.
Can you help me, please?
Gezim
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