On the typology of telescoped words (based on the material of French journalism)

The vocabulary of any language is updated from time to time. The mass media contribute quite effectively to this process, especially in the field of word formation. One of the ways of word formation in the language of French journalism is blending, which seeks not only to emotionally influence the recipient, attracting his attention to events, but also to use speech means economically. French newspapers aimed at a wide range of readers served as the material for the study. The empirical base of the study was formed by using the means of random sampling. Based on the research work of John Algeo, who studies the means of forming telescoped words in English, the study made it possible to identify and compile a typology of telescopic lexical units used in the language of modern French journalism: 1) lexical units obtained by merging complete initial components; 2) lexical units with truncation of finite elements of the first initial components; 3) lexical units with complete coincidence of individual elements of the initial components and their overlap; 4) lexical units with the finite element truncation of both initial components. The analysis of the vocabulary of each type by lexical meanings, morphological features and grammatical categories made it possible to develop the models of French blend words. In all models, parts of speech expressed by nouns, adjectives and verbs are involved in the process of merging. The first type of blend formations includes a model based on the combination of two nouns, which, as a result, give a new word, also expressed by a noun. The most widespread model in the language of the French journalism is the second type, with the truncation of the second element of the first component of the initial lexical units. Five models of telescoped units have been registered in this type. The components of these word formation models are nouns, adjectives and verbs. When two words expressed by a verb merge, as a result of addition the suffixes ment/age, a telescoped word expressed by a noun is formed. The third type of telescoped words includes a model that connects adjectives and nouns. In this case, the middle part of the newly formed word is a complete coincidence of the two initial components. The fourth type is characterized by two models: the first of them is based on the creation of a noun due to the combination of two verbs, and the second includes terms formed from Greek components.

information space, blending, telescoped units, word-play, word formation