It is two words that are blended together with some of the letters left out.
E.g. Smog is a blend of smoke and fog.
What are acronyms?
Formed by combining the initial letter of a series of words so they can be said as one word
E.g. NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
CAREFUL as not all abbreviations involving initial letters are acronyms. Like the RSPCA. Try saying it as a word if you can't it if not an acronym. This is called INITIALISMS.
What are clippings?
Shortened versions of longer words. Often give a slangy feel. The longer they become lexicalised.
What are borrowings?
The borrow of words form different languages.
E.g. Croissant is French.
What are synonyms?
Words that are equivalent in meaning
e.g. chair and seat
What are the 4 ways we can think about synonyms?
Dialect - sandwiches/butties
Formality - Good morning/hiya
Technicality - skull /cranium
Delicacy - bathroom/bog
The language we use is influenced by our role, situation and the audience we have. There is a broad lexical field. There are 4 boxes right is formal. left is informal.
E.g. puke, throw up, be sick, vomit.
Formal and informallexis - Contains near synonyms - Shorter words are derived from Anglo-Saxons (shorter and blunter words), whilst the longer words are derived from the Latin and French (more sophisticated)
