TO BRUNCH OR TO BRENCH - SOME ASPECTS OF BLEND STRUCTURE

Three studies demonstrate that aspects of English blend structures lik e ''brunch'' are quite predictable from cognitive and linguistic princ iples The first study analyzed the order in which words are represente d in blends and found that thr ee variables that predict word order in conjunctive phrases like ''smoke and fog'' also predict the order in which word components appear in blends like ''smog.'' In particular, t he first word represented in blends tends to be higher in frequency, c ontain fewer syllables, and denote more prototypical category members than the second word. The second study examined the boundaries between blend components and found that they fall primarily at major phonolog ical joints, such as syllable, onset, and rime boundaries. Breaks at o nset-rime boundaries were more than four times more common than breaks at body-coda boundaries, thus supporting an onset-rime representation of English syllable structure. The third study showed that the phonem es involved at the juncture between blend components tend to be phonol ogically similar, which might be used to emphasize the teasing nature of blends. More generally, the studies illustrate the promise of takin g hypothesis-testing approaches to blend structure rather than the tax onomic approaches common in prior investigations.