Word Formation
Indonesian Blends
Barli Bram Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, Indonesia barli@usd.ac.id
Abstract This paper examines Indonesian blends like asdos (ASisten DOSen, respectively meaning 'assistant lecturer ') "lecturer assistant" and wako (WAli KOta 'guardian city ') "mayor". Even though this topic has, to a certain extent, been discussed under a different heading called "acronym", for instance by Dardjowidjojo (1979), it will prove beneficial to look into the patterns of this morphological phenomenon by making use of more data, including recently introduced examples. The data of this paper consist of approximately 600 Indonesian blends collected mostly from online sources, particularly daily newspapers in the Indonesian language. It can be said that blends are highly frequent in Indonesian, considering that the number 600 can certainly grow bigger. To examine the phenomenon, I am interested in the following two issues: How can the pattern of each of the collected data be identified? Does Indonesian apply similar blending patterns to those of English (even though they belong to different language families)? The second question is also relevant to ask because some of the English blending rules put forward by Lopez Rua (2004), particularly those belonging to Group 1a (only splinter clusterings), can be used in the attempts to identify the patterns of the approximately 600 Indonesian blends. The collected data demonstrate that Indonesian blends follow some common, general patterns. As Dardjowidjojo (1979: 148-9) has generalized, "acronymic words", which are regarded as referring to blends, might consist of these two elements (parts of words): "CV, CVC, VC and V", as in, eg, 1. "CV+CVC": lalin (LAlu LINtas 'pass cross ') 'traffic ', 2. "CV+CV": cama (CAlon MAhasiswa: 'candidate student ') 'student candidate ', 3. "CVC+CVC": bonbin (keBON BINatang 'garden animal ') "zoo", 4. "CVC+CV": honda (HONorer DAerah 'non-permanent/contract regional ') "regional
Barli Bram Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, Indonesia barli@usd.ac.id
Abstract This paper examines Indonesian blends like asdos (ASisten DOSen, respectively meaning 'assistant lecturer ') "lecturer assistant" and wako (WAli KOta 'guardian city ') "mayor". Even though this topic has, to a certain extent, been discussed under a different heading called "acronym", for instance by Dardjowidjojo (1979), it will prove beneficial to look into the patterns of this morphological phenomenon by making use of more data, including recently introduced examples. The data of this paper consist of approximately 600 Indonesian blends collected mostly from online sources, particularly daily newspapers in the Indonesian language. It can be said that blends are highly frequent in Indonesian, considering that the number 600 can certainly grow bigger. To examine the phenomenon, I am interested in the following two issues: How can the pattern of each of the collected data be identified? Does Indonesian apply similar blending patterns to those of English (even though they belong to different language families)? The second question is also relevant to ask because some of the English blending rules put forward by Lopez Rua (2004), particularly those belonging to Group 1a (only splinter clusterings), can be used in the attempts to identify the patterns of the approximately 600 Indonesian blends. The collected data demonstrate that Indonesian blends follow some common, general patterns. As Dardjowidjojo (1979: 148-9) has generalized, "acronymic words", which are regarded as referring to blends, might consist of these two elements (parts of words): "CV, CVC, VC and V", as in, eg, 1. "CV+CVC": lalin (LAlu LINtas 'pass cross ') 'traffic ', 2. "CV+CV": cama (CAlon MAhasiswa: 'candidate student ') 'student candidate ', 3. "CVC+CVC": bonbin (keBON BINatang 'garden animal ') "zoo", 4. "CVC+CV": honda (HONorer DAerah 'non-permanent/contract regional ') "regional
References: Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono. 1979. "Acronym Patterns in Indonesian". Pacific Linguistics. Series C, 45: 143-160. Lopez Rua, Paula. 2004. "The Categorial Continuum of English Blends". English Studies. 85: 1, 63-76.