3.4.3. Morphological Stylistic Devices

3.4.3.1. Extension of the Morphemic Valency

One of the most productive ways of using a morpheme for creation of addition stylistic information (emotive, expressive, evaluative) is extension of its normative valency which results in the formation of new words. They are not neologisms in the true sense of the word, for they are created ad hoc, for special communicative situation, for a special occasion. This is why they are call "occasional words" or occasionalisms, and are characterized by freshness originality of their form and morphemic structure.

Problem Question:

Analyze the morphemic structure and the purpose of creating the occasional words:

1. In the l. Carrol's parody poem:

The Manlet

In stature the manlet was dwarfish —

No big burly Blunderbore he;

And he wearily gazed on the crawfish

His wifelet had dresses for his tea.

"Now reach me, sweet Atom, my gunlet,

And hurl the old shoelet for luck.

Let me hie to the bank of the runlet,

And shoot thee a Duck!"...

On he speeds, never wasting a wordlet,

Though thoughtlets cling, closely as wax,

To the spot where the beautiful birdlet

So quietly quacks...

Where the Grublet is sought by the Froglet,

Where the Frog is pursued by the Duck;

Where the Ducklet is chased by the Doglet –

So runs the world's Luck!

Carroll, 1967 : 172

2. In the extract from c. Bushnell's bestseller:

Meet the modalizers

Modelizers are a particular breed. They're a step beyond womanizers, who will sleep with just about anything in a skirt. Modelizers are obsessed not with women but with models. They love them for their beauty and hate them for everything else. ...Modelizers inhabit a sort of parallel universe, with its own planets (Nobu, Bowery Bar, Tabac, Flowers, Tunnel, Expo, Metropolis) and satellites ...and goddesses (Linda, Naomi, Christy, Elle, Bridget). Welcome to their world. It's not pretty.

Bushnell, 2002 : 32

Check yourself:

What is the difference between occasional words and neologisms? Show it on the examples.

His enaffable, effable

Effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable

Singular name

Т. C. Eliot. The Naming of Cats

She wasn't datable.

Bushnell : 77

Т. C. Eliot. The Naming of Cats

Call me a Very Junior Administration Official... Far enough? Uncle Ernie can speak on the record, but I'm not allowed to.

Clancy : 485

...one mother, who is tired all the time from buttoning and bottling and babying.

Cisneros. Opp. Cit

If he'd just kind-uncled me...

Fowles. The Collector : 168

As English judges became more wife-friendly, rich American stopped coming to London to dump their spouses.

The Economist, 22, 2004

I've bertillioned people that have killed their folks and that have poisoned their wives.

«There is something Peter Pan-ish about it», said Kip. «That's part of the reason I don't take it everywhere anymore».

Bushnell : 77

Britta, a tall, rangy brunette who works as a photo rep and is now happily married.

Bushnell : 20 295

Wilder : 27

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