Emerging hybrid Spanish–English blend structures: ‘Summergete con socketines’

• Published in: Lingua Vol. 205; pp. 1 - 14
• Main Author: Balteiro, Isabel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-04-2018; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Blending; English language; Grammar; Hybrid blends; Language contact; Morphological analysis; Morphology; Semantic patterns; Semantics; Spanish language; Structural patterns; Structural patterns; Hybrid blends; Semantic patterns; Blending; Language contact
• ISSN: 0024-3841; 1872-6135
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2017.12.010

•Acroblends: an outcome of English impact in the internal structure of Spanish words.•A new emerging pattern where English and Spanish words are manipulated and blended.•Length and recognizability determine the presence of full forms and splinters.•Five combinatory patterns as to manipulation of splinters and full words are identified.•Semantic patterns suggest cognitive relations between the two source words.
This study focuses on the analysis of morphologically induced new hybrid blending patterns in Spanish due to the influence and contact with English. Our data-driven approach does not separate word creation from grammatical phenomena but considers hybrid blends – a completely new emerging pattern itself in Spanish – as the output of speakers’ or users’ word creativity and manipulation that may be subject to morphological laws. However, the limited number of existing examples as well as the understandable lack of records for such recent data led us to analyze them in terms of tendencies and probabilities. We pay special attention to the ordering of the source words according to foreign or native origin; the presence of full forms and the distribution of full words and splinters, clipping and overlapping of the source words, as well as the semantic patterns and relations between the source words.