An extensive analysis of blending in Contemporary Italian

This study investigates Italian blending from a synchronic perspective, based on data extracted from a dictionary of neologisms attested over the past two decades. The first part of the paper addresses the boundaries between blends and other morphological units. Neologisms in which at least one of the two constituents has undergone a shortening have been classified into three categories (i.e., compounds with combining forms, secreted affixation, and blends), and described according to a set of semantic and formal parameters. The second part of the paper provides an updated description of Italian blending by analyzing a sample of 200 blends. The analysis reveals that Italian blends exhibit a wide variety of structures, according to the parameters of linearization, shortening, and overlap. Overlap, along with the phonological resemblance, proved to be a factor that favors blend formation. Moreover, it is shown that although blending in Italian is an irregular mechanism overall, in rare cases (such as that of -iota from idiota ‘idiot’), a blend's part may acquire regularity and affix-like properties.