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Papers by CRISTINA-ANDREEA RADU-BEJENARU
Word Structure, 2024
Although lexical blending is considered a creative and unpredictable process, the literature show... more Although lexical blending is considered a creative and unpredictable process, the literature shows that it tends to follow certain patterns (Gries 2012; Beliaeva 2019), a tendency observed mainly in English. To check whether such generalisations and constraints are the same for Romanian or whether there are language-specific features affecting lexical blending, we created a hybrid-object image-based online experiment asking 110 Romanian native speakers, students at the University of Bucharest who rated themselves as advanced and intermediate users of English, to use only one word to name the hybrids presented to them; as compounding is mainly used in Romanian to name hybrids, we expected it to be more often used. Surprisingly, 68.31% of the elicited Romanian words were lexical blends, likely due to the linguistic profile of our subjects, reinforcing Vasileanu & Niculescu-Gorpin's (2022) corpus based-analysis that suggests that, due to the global English influence, the process is also active in Romanian. Most of the elicited Romanian lexical blends observe the patterns acknowledged in the literature, e.g. merging the beginning of the first source-word with the end of the second, preservingthe phonological contour of a source-word, and source-word clipping at syllableboundaries. Nevertheless, a handful of items revealed morpho-phonological propertiesthat had been previously considered impossible in blends (e.g. interfixes or switch pointsinside complex syllable constituents), evidence that some constraints, formulated mainlyfor English, need to be checked against larger datasets and against other languages aslexical blending is a very creative process that seems to transgress possible constraints.
Proceedings of International Conference of Experimental Linguistics
Български език, Jul 19, 2019
In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositi... more In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositionality, in particular. The introductory part deals with theoretical aspects of the new linguistic discipline known as cognitive studies. From a cognitive point of view, idioms are figurative linguistic units which exist at the intersection point of language, cognition and culture. The main idea, which we support, is that of Dobrovol'skij, one of the first linguists to apply the theory of conceptual metaphors in idiom analysis. In the second part of the paper we continue-as stated in the introduction-with an analysis of some Bulgarian and Romanian idioms that express the concept of intelligence or stupidity.
Proceedings of International Conference of Experimental Linguistics
In an elicitation experiment, 109 Romanian native subjects were presented with 50 pictures of hyb... more In an elicitation experiment, 109 Romanian native subjects were presented with 50 pictures of hybrid objects, e.g. a half-orange, half-pear fruit, and were asked to name each object using a single word either in Romanian or in English. 64.66% of the elicited English words were blends, thus confirming the expected tendency towards using blends in English; unexpectedly, the same tendency was observed for Romanian with 68.50% blends. In Romanian linguistics, lexical blending has been seldom mentioned, interest resting only in speech errors, and not in the deliberate phenomenon as a fullyfledged word formation process of Romanian morphology. We believe that our data analysis suggests a shift in Romanian word formation tendencies, possibly under the pervasive influence of English.
Journal of Bulgarian Language, 2019
In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositi... more In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositionality, in particular. The introductory part deals with theoretical aspects of the new linguistic discipline known as cognitive studies. From a cognitive point of view, idioms are figurative linguistic units which exist at the intersection point of language, cognition and culture. The main idea, which we support, is that of Dobrovol'skij, one of the first linguists to apply the theory of conceptual metaphors in idiom analysis. In the second part of the paper we continue-as stated in the introduction-with an analysis of some Bulgarian and Romanian idioms that express the concept of intelligence or stupidity.
Studii și cercetări lingvistice
The three main academic dictionaries of Romanian, DA-DLR, DEX and DELR, record a number of words ... more The three main academic dictionaries of Romanian, DA-DLR, DEX and DELR, record a number of words coined by lexical blending, a process defined in Romanian linguistics as the fusion of two words that have a semantic affinity (usually synonyms or near-synonyms). Relying on the general criteria for any etymological research, i.e., the formal criterion, semantic congruity, circulation of words, etc., as well as on the specific features of lexical blending, we suggest other etymological solutions for 38 words registered as lexical blends.
Word Structure, 2024
Although lexical blending is considered a creative and unpredictable process, the literature show... more Although lexical blending is considered a creative and unpredictable process, the literature shows that it tends to follow certain patterns (Gries 2012; Beliaeva 2019), a tendency observed mainly in English. To check whether such generalisations and constraints are the same for Romanian or whether there are language-specific features affecting lexical blending, we created a hybrid-object image-based online experiment asking 110 Romanian native speakers, students at the University of Bucharest who rated themselves as advanced and intermediate users of English, to use only one word to name the hybrids presented to them; as compounding is mainly used in Romanian to name hybrids, we expected it to be more often used. Surprisingly, 68.31% of the elicited Romanian words were lexical blends, likely due to the linguistic profile of our subjects, reinforcing Vasileanu & Niculescu-Gorpin's (2022) corpus based-analysis that suggests that, due to the global English influence, the process is also active in Romanian. Most of the elicited Romanian lexical blends observe the patterns acknowledged in the literature, e.g. merging the beginning of the first source-word with the end of the second, preservingthe phonological contour of a source-word, and source-word clipping at syllableboundaries. Nevertheless, a handful of items revealed morpho-phonological propertiesthat had been previously considered impossible in blends (e.g. interfixes or switch pointsinside complex syllable constituents), evidence that some constraints, formulated mainlyfor English, need to be checked against larger datasets and against other languages aslexical blending is a very creative process that seems to transgress possible constraints.
Proceedings of International Conference of Experimental Linguistics
Български език, Jul 19, 2019
In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositi... more In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositionality, in particular. The introductory part deals with theoretical aspects of the new linguistic discipline known as cognitive studies. From a cognitive point of view, idioms are figurative linguistic units which exist at the intersection point of language, cognition and culture. The main idea, which we support, is that of Dobrovol'skij, one of the first linguists to apply the theory of conceptual metaphors in idiom analysis. In the second part of the paper we continue-as stated in the introduction-with an analysis of some Bulgarian and Romanian idioms that express the concept of intelligence or stupidity.
Proceedings of International Conference of Experimental Linguistics
In an elicitation experiment, 109 Romanian native subjects were presented with 50 pictures of hyb... more In an elicitation experiment, 109 Romanian native subjects were presented with 50 pictures of hybrid objects, e.g. a half-orange, half-pear fruit, and were asked to name each object using a single word either in Romanian or in English. 64.66% of the elicited English words were blends, thus confirming the expected tendency towards using blends in English; unexpectedly, the same tendency was observed for Romanian with 68.50% blends. In Romanian linguistics, lexical blending has been seldom mentioned, interest resting only in speech errors, and not in the deliberate phenomenon as a fullyfledged word formation process of Romanian morphology. We believe that our data analysis suggests a shift in Romanian word formation tendencies, possibly under the pervasive influence of English.
Journal of Bulgarian Language, 2019
In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositi... more In this paper we focus on some of the most important features of idioms, motivation and compositionality, in particular. The introductory part deals with theoretical aspects of the new linguistic discipline known as cognitive studies. From a cognitive point of view, idioms are figurative linguistic units which exist at the intersection point of language, cognition and culture. The main idea, which we support, is that of Dobrovol'skij, one of the first linguists to apply the theory of conceptual metaphors in idiom analysis. In the second part of the paper we continue-as stated in the introduction-with an analysis of some Bulgarian and Romanian idioms that express the concept of intelligence or stupidity.
Studii și cercetări lingvistice
The three main academic dictionaries of Romanian, DA-DLR, DEX and DELR, record a number of words ... more The three main academic dictionaries of Romanian, DA-DLR, DEX and DELR, record a number of words coined by lexical blending, a process defined in Romanian linguistics as the fusion of two words that have a semantic affinity (usually synonyms or near-synonyms). Relying on the general criteria for any etymological research, i.e., the formal criterion, semantic congruity, circulation of words, etc., as well as on the specific features of lexical blending, we suggest other etymological solutions for 38 words registered as lexical blends.