Word creation

In this paper, the term “word creation” refers to all operations for the production of new lexemes which are not covered by regular word formation. It includes the coining of sound symbolic words as well as shortening, alienation, extragrammatical derivation, and blending. These so-called creative techniques are considered as intentional extragrammatical operations in the framework of Natural Morphology. Their linguistic status is discussed in contradistinction to regular grammatical word formation and to unintentional extragrammatical operations occurring, e.g., during language acquisition. The primary functions of word creation are a controlled reduction of transparency, and the production of sound shapes with special characteristics, which are difficult to produce by regular word formation. Typical fields of application are different kinds of (mostly humorous) literary texts, brand names, and others. A comprehensive typology of creative techniques is developed on the basis of a large corpus of German brand names.