A Cognitive Approach to Productive Word-Formation in Neologisms: Focusing on -gate Words

Abstract

This study discusses how to classify a certain type of word formation, such as the hamburger series, and focuses on the identity of the segmented elements of these series. The type of the hamburger series, the so-called H-type word formation (Frath 2005), includes the burger series, the -holic series, the -gate series, and so on. This study critically reviews the three approaches to these (un)bound morphemes in the previous studies, argues that the word formation should be regarded as metonymic shortening or clipping, and suggests that emergent (un)bound morphemes should be called “(un)bound remnants” (cf. Kageyama and Saito 2016). This new term can draw attention to the characteristics of this type of word formation, which is different from lexical blending and similar to compounding. Using the term remnant can prevent us from confusing the H-type word formation with lexical blending, and encourage us to distinguish it from affixation since the new term, unlike affixes, refers to the part of the word which acquires semantic independence that corresponds to the meaning of the original parent word.