Portmanteau words

Portmanteau Words are the one that blend the sounds and the meanings of two words. The word Portmanteau is derived from the French word portmanteau, combined from porter (to carry) and manteau(mantle). While these Words originated in 16th century, Lewis Carroll is credited with coining this word (in Through the Looking Glass) based on the fact that portmanteau bag is one that opens into two equal parts.

However, many such Words catch on and latch on to the lexicon. Others do not and simply fade away into silent sunsets, having enjoyed their 15 minutes of glory.

Here is the complete list of Portmanteau words that people could use in their communication.

The meanings of all such words are apparent from the combination. Most of these words will not be found in standard dictionaries.
Portmanteau Words are also called Centaur Words.

• Adflation = advertising + inflation
• Beautility = beauty + utility
• Bit = binary + digit
• Bitini = bitsy + bikini
• Blog = web + log
• Bonk = bang + conk

• Camcorder = camera + recorder
• Chortle = chuckle + snort
• Cremains = cremated + remains
• Chunnel= channel + tunnel
• Diplonomics=diplomacy + economics
• E-commerce = electronic + commerce
• Email= electronic + mail
• Faction= fact + fiction
• Fantabulous= fantastic+ fabulous
• Fanzine= fanatic + magazine
• Feminar= feminine + seminar
• Frarority= fraternity + sorority
• Gasohol= gasoline + alcohol
• Ginormous= gigantic + enormous
• Guestimate= guess + estimate
• Hi-tech= high + technology
• Heliport + helicopter + airport
• Internet = international + network
• Interpol- international + police

• Jackpot= jack + pot
• Jaywalk= jay + walk
• Jerkwater = jerk + water
• Joypad= joystick + pad
• Laundromat = laundry + automat
• Manimal = man + animal
• Medevac = medical + evacuation
• Medicare = medical + care
• Mobike= motor + bike
• Moped= motor + pedal
• Motel= motor + hotel
• Motorcade= motorcar + cavalcade
• Newscast = news + broadcast
• Oxbridge = Oxford + Cambridge
• Paratroop = parachute + troop
• Pluot = plum + apricot
• Podcast = iPod + broadcasting
• Sci-Fi= science + fiction
• Sexploitation= sex+ exploitation
• Shamateur= sham+ amateur
• Smog = smoke + fog
• Splurge= splash+ surge
• Telecast= television + broadcast
• Telethon = telephone (or television) + marathon

• Telecom = telephone + conversation
• Televangelist= television + evangelist
• Toughicult = tough + difficult
• Transistor= transfer + resistor
• Vash= volcanic + ash
• Workfar= work + welfare

Curiosities about English language.

• Torpenhow Hill near Plymouth, England means "Hillhillhill Hill." - from Saxon tor, Celtic pen, Scandinavian how, Middle English hill.

• The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet!

• The most used letter in the English alphabet is "E", and "Q" is the least used!

• Of all the words in the English language, the word "set" has the most definitions.

• The shortest complete sentence in the English language is "I am".

• "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel.

• The only word in the English language that has four sets of double letters in row is balloonneer.

• The word "Queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.

What are Synonyms?

Synonyms are different words with identical or at least similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. An example of synonyms are the words car and automobile.

To use Synonyms.net, simply type a word in the search box and click the Search button. A list of synonyms and antonyms for the different word senses will be returned followed with images and transltranslation options.


http://www.synonyms.net/

Nym Words

Words ending in –nym are often used to describe different classes of words, and the relationships between words. The –nym literally means name, from the Greek onoma meaning name or word. The Nym Dictionary below defines all the common –nym words, and many of the more unusual ones too.

Acronym	An abbreviation formed from the initial letters of a series of words; e.g. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). • From Greek akros (=point, tip). • Also called protogram, initialism.
Antonym Antonym page	Either of a pair of words that have opposite (or near-opposite) meanings; e.g. slow and fast are antonyms of one another, also dead and alive, wife and husband. More examples here. • From Greek anti (=against).
Aptronym	A person's name that matches it's owner's occupation or character very well (either in fiction or reality); e.g. arctic explorer Will Snow, hairdresser Dan Druff. • From apt (=suitable); coined by Franklin P. Adams.
Autoantonym Autoantonym page	A word that can take two (or more) opposite meanings; e.g. fast means "moving quickly" or "fixed firmly in place", overlook means "to watch over carefully" or "to fail to notice". More examples here. • From Greek auto (=self) + anti (=against). • Often hyphenated as auto-antonym. • Also called contranym, contronym, antilogy, enantiodrome, Janus word.
Autonym	1. A word that describes itself; e.g. noun is a noun, polysyllabic is polysyllabic, abbrv. is an abbreviation, word is a word. 2. A person's real name; the opposite of pseudonym. 3. A name by which a social group or race refers to itself. • From Greek auto (=self). • Also called self-referential word. • Take care not to confuse with antonym, autoantonym.
Bacronym	The reverse of producing an acronym; taking a word which already exists and creating a phrase (usually humorous) using the letters of the word as initials: e.g. Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody (BANANA), Guaranteed Overnight Delivery (GOD). • From back(wards) + acronym.
Capitonym	A word which changes its meaning and pronunciation when capitalised; e.g. polish and Polish, august and August, concord and Concord. • From capital letter.
Contranym	Another word for autoantonym.
Contronym	Another word for autoantonym.
Eponym	A name from which another name or word is derived; e.g. Romulus giving rise to Rome, the word sandwich coming from the Earl of Sandwich. • From Greek epo (=on). • Take care not to confuse with exonym.
Exonym	A place name used by foreigners that differs from the name used by natives; e.g. Londres is the French exonym for London, Germany is an exonym because Germans call it Deutschland. • From Greek exo (=outside). • Take care not to confuse with eponym.
Heteronym Heteronym page	One of two (or more) words that have the same spelling, but different meaning, and sometimes different pronunciation too. (Heteronyms that are pronounced differently are also heterophones.) E.g. sewer, row, entrance, wind. A heteronym is a kind of homonym. More examples here. • From Greek hetero (=other). • Also called heterograph.
Homonym Homonym page	One of two (or more) words that have the same pronunciation or spelling, but are different in meaning. (Homonyms which have the same spelling are also heteronyms; homonyms that have the same pronunciation, but different spelling and meaning, are also homophones; and homonyms that have the same spelling but are different in origin, meaning, and pronunciation are also homographs); e.g. sewer, row, write and right, way and weigh. More examples here. • From Greek homo (=same). • Take care when using the following terms as their meanings are easily confusable: homonym, homophone, heteronym, heterophone, homograph, heterograph.
Hypernym	A word that has a more general meaning than another; e.g. in the relationship between chair and furniture, furniture is a hypernym; in the relationship between horse and animal, animal is a hypernym. • From Greek hyper (=over). • Also called superordinate term, generic term. • Take care not to confuse with hyponym.
Hyperonym	Another word for hypernym.
Hyponym	A word that has a more specific meaning than another; e.g. in the relationship between chair and furniture, chair is a hyponym; in the relationship between horse and animal, horse is a hyponym. • From Greek hypo (=under). • Also called subordinate term. • Take care not to confuse with hypernym.
Meronym	1. A word that refers to a part of what another word refers to; e.g. in the relationship between leg and ankle, ankle is a meronym; in the relationship between brim and hat, brim is a meronym. 2. A term midway between two opposites; e.g. flat between convex and concave, present between past and future. • From Greek meros (=part). • Take care not to confuse with metonym, metronym.
Metonym	A word designates something by the name of something associated with it; e.g. the Crown referring to the monarchy, the bottle referring to alcohol, the White House for the US executive branch. • From Greek meta (=change). • Take care not to confuse with meronym, metronym.
Metronym	A name derived from the name of one's mother, or another female ancestor. • From Greek metros (=mother). • Take care not to confuse with meronym, metonym.
Oronym Oronym page	A string of words which is homophonic with another string of words; e.g. ice cream and I scream, mint spy and mince pie. More examples here. • From oral (=spoken).
Paronym	A word from the same root, and usually a similar pronunciation, as another; e.g. beautiful and beauteous. • From Greek para (=beside). • Take care not to confuse with patronym.
Patronym	A name derived from the name of one's father, or another male ancestor. • From Greek pater (=father). • Take care not to confuse with paronym.
Pseudonym	An assumed name, especially by an author; e.g. Eric Arthur Blair wrote the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four under the pseudonym George Orwell. • From Greek pseudo (=false). • Also called pen name.
Retronym	An adjective-noun pairing generated by a change in the meaning of the base noun, usually as a result of technological advance; e.g. watch became pocket watch due to introduction of wrist watch, pen became fountain pen due to introduction of ball-point pen. • From Greek retro (=backward); coined by Frank Mankiewicz.
Synonym	One of two (or more) words that have the same (or very similar) meaning; e.g. big and large, error and mistake, run and sprint. • From Greek sun (=together).
Tautonym	1. A word composed of two identical parts; e.g. pawpaw, yo-yo, tutu, bye-bye. 2. In biological nomenclature, a taxonomic name in which the genus and species names are identical; e.g. puffinus puffinus (manx shearwater), apus apus (common swift). • From Greek taut (=same).
Toponym	1. A place name; e.g. London, Mount Everest. 2. A word derived from a place name; e.g. champagne from Champagne in France, cashmere from Kashmir in India. • From Greek topos (=place).

Lexicon Game

A nice way to practice vocabulary and learn new words. Try!!!


http://www.heavygames.com/laughlexicon/gameframe.asp

Lexical semantics

The nature of lexical semantics has changed markedly in the twenty-to-thirty years since classic texts like Lyons (1977) and Cruse (1986) were published. Such texts were written at a time when Structuralist lexical semantics essentially carried on separately from major [Generative] theories of grammar. During and since the 1980s, however, theories of grammar have become much more lexically-driven, necessitating much deeper attention to issues of lexical meaning. Unfortunately, there is a tendency in lexical semantics courses and in semantics textbooks to present lexical semantics essentially as it was 30 years ago, with the focus limited to polysemy/homonymy and the ‘nym’ relations (synonym, antonym, etc.). This guide examines ways to construct a modern classroom approach to lexical semantics, with a broader definition of the field.

Teaching lexical semantics

Lexical semantics could be defined as the ‘study of word meaning’, but in practice it is often more specifically concerned with the study of lexical (i.e. content) word meaning, as opposed to the meanings of grammatical (or function) words. This means that lexical semanticists are most interested in the open classes of noun, verb and adjective and with more ‘contentful’ members of the adverb and preposition classes (for instance over but not of). Lexical semantics is thus mostly exempt from considering issues that arise from the use of grammatical words, such as definiteness and modality.
But while lexical semantics focuses on content words, such words cannot be studied in an agrammatical vacuum. Some lexical properties, like Aktionsart (lexical aspect) have effects throughout the sentence. So, for instance, a difference between the verbs spot and see can be described in terms of aspectual properties of the verbs: spot describes a punctual event, while see does not. This in turn affects which tense and aspect markers can be present in the same clause and how such markers are interpreted. So, I saw the bird all day long can describe a continuous seeing event, while I spotted the bird all day long must be interpreted as repeated instances of spotting events. Because of the effects of the verbs’ semantics on other elements in the sentence, Aktionsart (and other topics, like thematic role assignment) is often presented as ‘semantics’ in textbooks, rather than as ‘lexical semantics’. This can create problems both for students’ understanding of lexical semantics and for instructors’ planning of a lexical semantics course that complements a general semantics course. The approach taken below is to offer a broad range of lexical semantic topics.

Teachable issues in lexical semantics

General Topic	Basic issues to discuss and useful resources	Taking it further
What is a lexicon?	key terms: lexicon, mental lexicon, lexis, lexeme/lexical item, lexical entry lexicon/grammar (idiosyncrasy of lexical information)	Does the lexicon include only arbitrary information? (Bybee 1998)
What is a word?	definitions of word/lexeme (Trask 2003b) word classes (Internet Grammar of English; Trask 2003a)	Is word class semantically determined? (Givón 1984, Wierzbicka 1988)
What is meaning?	aspects of meaning: denotation, connotation, social meaning (Leech 1981, Allan 2002) semantics/pragmatics sense/reference ambiguity/vagueness, polysemy/homonymy	treatments of polysemy (Ravin & Leacock (eds.) 2000, esp. introduction, and chapters by Cruse, Fillmore and Atkins) is there a continuum of form-meaning variance? (Tuggy 1993)
Meaning components: basics	‘Classical’ theory of meaning (covered well in most semantics texts) Problems with classical theory (e.g. prototype effects) (Taylor 2003)	Selectional restrictions, projection, redundancy rules (Katz & Fodor 1963)
Alternatives to ‘Classical Theory’	Some selection of the following (covered briefly in Löbner 2002, Saeed 2003—more specific textbooks listed below): modern componential approaches, e.g.: Conceptual Semantics (Jackendoff 2002), Natural Semantic Metalanguage (Goddard 1998) ‘schematic’ approaches from Cognitive Linguistics (Croft and Cruse 2004; Evans and Green 2006)	Primary theory sources: Conceptual Semantics: Jackendoff 1983, 1990, 2002 Generative Lexicon: Pustejovsky 1995 Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Wierzbicka 1996 Cognitive Semantics: Talmy 2000 Frame Semantics: see FrameNet site
Semantic relations	synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, (meronymy, others) (Cruse 2000b) semantic fields (Lehrer 1974) Classical theory approach relation to propositional relations (entailment, contradiction)	How are these relations represented in the lexicon? (Murphy 2003, forthcoming.) Are the relations semantic or also lexical? (Murphy 2003, forthcoming.)
Topics in verb meaning	Ontological categories: event, state (Frawley 1992) Aspectual classes/Aktionsarten (Hofmann 1993; some basic coverage in Saeed 2003)	Levin (1993) classes Typology of motion verbs (Talmy 1985)
Topics in noun meaning	[basic issues generally raised under topics 4/5]	Countability (Jackendoff 1991) Nouns and names (Allan 2002)
Topics in adjective meaning		Gradable meaning (Bierwisch & Lang 1989) Markedness, opposition (Lehrer 1985) Variability of adjective meaning (Pustejovsky 1995)