Clipped compound

 ( Word Coinage ) 

In linguistics, a clipped compound is a word produced from a compound word by reducing its parts while retaining the meaning of the original compound.Elisa Mattiello, "An Introduction to English Slang: A Description of Its Morphology, Semantics and Sociology", 2008, , pp. 146-148 It is a special case of a type of word formation called clipping.

Clipped compounds are common in various slang and jargon vocabularies, but they are not specific to those. Examples in English include sci fi, comp sci, lab tech, and surg tech.

A clipped compound word is linguistically a type of blend word. The nature of its morphology and orthography (i.e., ) is subject to the linguistic forces seen with other compounds. Like other blends, clipped compounds may be made of two or more components. However, a blend may have a meaning independent of its components' meanings (e.g., motel <— motor + hotel), while in a clipped compound the components already serve the function of producing a compound meaning (for instance, pulmotor <— pulmonary + motor). In addition, a clipped compound may drop one component completely: hard instead of hard labor, or mother for motherfucker (a process called ellipsis). Laurie Bauer suggests the following ad hoc distinction for English: If the word has compound stress, it is a clipped compound; if it has single-word stress, it is a blend.

The meaning of clipped compound may overlap with that of acronym.

In the Russian language, a clipped compound may acquire one or more extra suffixes that indicate the intended grammatical form of the formed word. In particular, the suffix -k is commonly used, for example, in askorbinka (from askorbinovaya kislota (i.e., ascorbic acid)).Larissa Ryazanova-Clarke, Terence Wade, The Russian Language Today, 2002, , p. 49

In Japanese, clipped compounds are very commonly used to shorten long, either coined or wholly borrowed, compounds (see also Japanese phonology and transcription into Japanese). For instance, a word processor ( ワード プロセッサ wā do puro sessa ) may be referred to as simply ワープロ wāpuro , sexual harassment (セク シャルハラ スメント sekusharu harasumento) as セクハラ sekuhara, the program Clip Studio Paint ( クリップ スタジオペイント Kuri ppu Suta jio Peinto ) as クリスタ Kurisuta , the video game series Monster Hunter (モン スターハン ター Monsutā Hantā) as モンハン Monhan, the United Nations ( 国際 連合 Koku sai Ren gō ) as 国連 Kokuren , and the Soviet Union (ソ ビエト連 邦 Sobieto Renpō) as ソ連 Soren.

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Clipped compound place names Clipped compounds are sometimes used in place names.

• English: The Delmarva Peninsula is named for the US states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia (from the traditional abbreviation Va.). Several Manhattan neighborhoods are clipped compounds including Soho (" South of Houston Street"), Noho (" North of Houston"), TriBeCa (" Triangle Below Canal Street"), Nolita (" North of Little Italy") and NoMad (" North of Madison Square").
• Chinese: The Chinese city of Wuhan takes its name from a clipped compound of the "Three Towns of Wuhan": Wuchang contributes "Wu", whereas Hankou District and Hanyang District both contribute "Han."
• Japanese: In Japanese, city names are often combined in a clipped compound with alternative readings of the characters, especially for combined regions or for train lines between cities. Most often the kan-on readings (most common readings in kanji compounds) are used for the compounds, while the place names use other readings. For example, the Kyōto and Ōsaka region is called Keihan, as is a major train line connecting them (Keihan Electric Railway), replacing the go-on reading kyō and kun'yomi saka with the kan-on readings kei and han. The larger region, including Kōbe, is similarly called Keihanshin, the go-on reading shin replacing the kun'yomi kō.
• Hebrew: In Hebrew, there are many words that are clipped compounds and other types of abbreviations. Since in Jewich writing system the vowels are usually omitted, the resulting word may sound differently: "mabas" for "base commander" is made of מפקד הבסיס ("mefaked basis" AbbreviationsL A Unified Analysis of Acronym Words, Clippings, Clipped Compounds, ad Hypocoristics, 2002 Another example: רמזור (traffic light) is רמז (hint) plus אור (light).
• Multi-lingual: The Benelux takes its name from its component nations, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
• The African country Tanzania has a name that combines the names of the two states that unified to create the country: Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

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See also

• Portmanteau
• Syllabic abbreviation

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Further reading

• Denis Jamet, A morphophonological approach to clipping in English Can the study of clipping be formalized?

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