On a New Type of Word-Forming Element in Serbian

Abstract

This paper qualitatively and quantitatively analyses a new type of wordforming element in Serbian, known as a splinter, used in the formation of lexical blends. The aims of the present research are: (a) to identify the most frequent splinters in Serbian blends, (b) to investigate which words or parts of words they tend to combine with and how, (c) to identify the meanings of these splinters, and (d) to explore whether the splinters show the potential to develop into new combining forms. The research is corpus-based. The examples of 172 lexical blends containing the 14 most frequent splinters are collected from several sources, including the studies and papers on blends in Serbian, the Serbian Web Corpus, and various other Internet and print sources. The analysis indicates that the vast majority of the splinters, which are segmented from nouns whose meanings they retain, combine also with nouns. Some of the splinters show the potential to become well-established bound morphemes, i.e. combining forms, through regularity in use or semantic generalisation and specialisation.