An Optimality Analysis Of Constraints On Element Ordering In English Blends

First invented as a word game for the sake of humor or banter,blending has occupied the mainstream status in word formation with delicate and creative forms.Foreign scholars have done a great deal of research on English blends in the fields of phonology,morphology and semantics,while domestic research is hardly concerned with phonology.Moreover,the definition,delimitation and classification of English blends are still fuzzy in linguistics.Taking Rice University Neologisms Database and Oxford English Dictionary(online edition 2017)as a major corpus source,this study firstly reconsiders the definition,delimitation and classification of English blends.Then,on the basis of Optimality Theory,this thesis adopts the corpus-based and data-driven approach,exploring the constraints on element ordering in English blends from the fields of phonology and semantics,so as to disclose the reason why blend presents the structure in that way.The five constraints involved are: Syllable Number,Stress,Semantic Headedness,Experimental Closeness and Temporal Iconicity.The major findings are shown below: phonologically,FAITHSYLLSWR shows that the source word that has more syllables is on the right,especially in blends with one monosyllabic source word.FAITHSTRESSSWR demonstrates that the source word that contributes its stressed syllable to the blend is on the right,which is more distinctive in blends with polysyllabic source words.Integrally,when blend is made up of two polysyllabic source words,these two constraints can be ranked as FAITHSYLLSWR << FAITHSTRESSSWR,which has a stronger preference to posit the source word that contributes its stressed syllable to the blend on the right.If blend contains one monosyllabic source word,the ranking hierarchy is FAITHSTRESSSWR<< FAITHSYLLSWR,the situation of which is counter to that blend with two polysyllabic source words.Semantically,FAITHHEADSWR proves that in endocentric blends,the source word that serves as a semantic head in the blend has a strong tendency to be placed on the right,which is ranked as FAITHHEADSWR >>FAITHCLOSESWL >> FAITHTEMPSWL.However,in coordinate blends,constraint FAITHCLOSESWL outranks FAITHTEMPSWL,because in more blends,they exhibit that the source word which is more empathic with a virtual prototypical speaker’s vision of the world is positioned on the left.Followed by constraint FAITHTEMPSWL,which presents that the event occurs first is positioned on the left.Finally,it is ranked as FAITHCLOSESWL >> FAITHTEMPSWL >> FAITHHEADSWR.In short,blends are not formed arbitrarily.These five constraints reflect the internal working mechanism of English blends.The major findings are conducive to learners’ understanding and using English blends effectively.