Saturday, April 17, 2010

Portmanteau

While giving my presentation yesterday at the BEA Conference at Las Vegas, it dawned on me as to why I like portmanteaux is because they signify something that is still in hybrid. It is language wrapping itself around a new concept using two signifiers...then dropping syllables until we create both a new signifier...and by extension a new signified.

The word seems to have been coined by Lewis Carrol. I also like the idea of "Frankenword" (itself a portmanteau) which is quite literally dripping with semantic intent.