Extra-grammatical Morphology in English: Abbreviations, Blends, Reduplicatives, and Related Phenomena

Extra-grammatical morphology is a hitherto neglected area of research, highly marginalised because of its irregularity and unpredictability. Yet many neologisms in English are formed by means of creative mechanisms, which deserve attention and a more systematic study. This book analyses creative phenomena like abbreviation, blending and reduplication. It demonstrates that, although they are not rule-bound, these phenomena are partially predictable on the basis of analogical patterns, and generally comply with criteria of well-formedness, as well as with principles of contextual suitability.