The impact of figuration on word-formation: The role of figurative language in the production and interpretation of novel analogical compounds

This study investigates the role of figurative language, especially, metaphor and metonymy, in the formation and disambiguation of novel analogy-based compounds. The focus is on surface analogy, i.e. analogy created on the model of a unique concrete form, such as bird cafeteria, after birdhouse, or mouse potato, after couch potato. The data used for the study has been selected from two online collections of neologisms as well as from a dictionary of new English words. The study adopts a Cognitive Linguistics approach to explore the nature of figurative language in the models (i.e. the source words) and the targets (i.e. the new words). The aim is to find out semantic and cognitive correspondences that may help the association of the latter to the former. As a more general aim, this study intends to show the relevance of figuration to the creation of novel analogical compounds.