Word Formation with Splinters in the Lithuanian Language
Abstract
The article addresses a budding and unconventional method of word formation in the Lithuanian language, one that involves non-morphemic elements: splinters. It is driven by the recent surge of borrowed blends (that usually come from the English language) in the Lithuanian language, as well as translation and indigenous blends. Both blending and word formation with splinters is becoming an increasingly widespread in many European languages and the subject of all kinds of research.
The article highlights the reasons behind the occurrence of splinters, showcases how some of the splinters are semantically generalised or specialised and enter the process of morphemisation to possibly eventually become formational morphemes or even stand-alone lexemes.
The study is grounded on the data from the Database of Lithuanian Neologisms going back to the early 21st century and covering both borrowed blends and those that are likely to be translations or indigenous blends.
