From Brexit to Bregret

Abstract

The UK's June 2016 decision to withdraw from the European Union, popularly referred to as Brexit, has had a major political, financial and economic impact worldwide. However, the impact was also linguistic as this event has generated a myriad of neologisms in English, such as breferendum, brexiteer, Brexitsphere, regrexit or Brexitology. The aim of the present study is to give a general overview of these new words, to establish the predominant word-formational patterns as well as to point out the creativity and speed with which speakers of English have reacted linguistically to this change in the socio-political context.

Gold Punning: studying multistable meaning structures using a systematically collected set of lexical blends

“…Although lexical blends may be claimed to be marginal in comparison with word formation processes such as derivation and compounding, and more so yet in relation to lexical retrieval and syntactic processes in general, the findings in lexical blend research may have farreaching implications for more general linguistic assumptions [Kelly 1998;Dressler 2000]. Also, outbursts of lexical creativity seen in controversial political circumstances [Lalić-Krstin & Silaški 2018] signal that the importance of lexical blends go far beyond the indications given by their low frequency numbers. Therefore, it seems even more pressing to take further steps towards a better understanding of these lexical items.…”

“…There are, however, a number of problems with compressed definitions of this type. First, truncation patterns are reportedly diverse, and there is an intriguing interplay between truncation and the sharing of graphemes and phonemes [Kemmer 2003;Lalić-Krstin & Silaški 2018]. For instance, the structure of a blend such as dragula (drag + dracula) involves an uncertainty as to the origin of the blend.…”

“…Second, the status of the segments differs as well. Transparency typically varies, and it is common for segments to be reused in forms derived from already existing blends [Kemmer 2003;Lepic 2016;Lalić-Krstin & Silaški 2018]. As indicated above, the recycling of already existing blends, or segments of blends, is a field requiring further research, and the workings of the mechanisms behind these processes are still in need of more detailed analyses.…”

Brexitiness: The Ebbs and Flows of British Eurosceptic Rhetoric since 1945

“…With regard to the linguistic impact of Brexit, attention was initially focused on vocabulary and terminology (e.g., Katz, 2016;Fontaine, 2017;Lalić-Krstin & Silaški, 2018;Pullum, 2018). More recently, this research has been complemented by publications taking a wider, discourse-analytical approach (e.g.…”

A morphosemantic analysis of new blends in Serbian

“…Једну од врло продуктивних, али и непредвидивих могућности у творби речи, првенствено у енглеском, али и у другим језицима, последњих деценија представља и творбени процес у релевантној литератури познат као лексичко сливање (енгл. lexical blending) (Aronoff & Fudeman, 2011;Booij, 2007;Callies, 2016;Delahunty & Garvey, 2010;Haspelmath & Sims, 2010;Katamba, 2005;Lalić-Krstin & Silaški, 2018;Lieber & Štekauer, 2014;Lieber, 2009;Mattiello, 2013;Mattiello 2017;Miller, 2014;Pound, 1914;Renner, 2019;Бугарски, 2001, 1). У српском језику овај процес постао је популаран и продуктиван током 90-их година прошлога века, највероватније као само једна од неизбежних последица "свеприсутног" енглеског језика (Бугарски, 2001, стр.…”