Blending

Blends are words that combine two words or synonyms including sometimes letters
or sounds in common as a connecting element. In blends two ways of word-building
are combined : abbreviation and composition.

To form a blend we clip the end of the first word and the beginning of the second
word. As a resUlt we have a compound-shortened(шотынд) word. One of the first
blends in English was the word «smog» from two words : smoke and fog. From the
first word the beginning is taken, from the second one the end, letter «o» is common
for both of them.

There are also other examples

bio (logical) + (electro)nic —» bionic байо

wash + (caf)eteria —> washeteria
sk(ateboard) + (s)urfing —» skurflng
slim+gymnastics —> slimnastics;
miserable+flimsy (флимзи) —> mimsy;
gallop (гэлоп)+triumph (траиамф—> galumph; гэлемф
new+utopia (ютоупиа) —•neutopia (нютопиа)

There are two types of blends: the Additive and the restrictive. Both involve the
sliding together not only of sound but of meaning as well. However the semantic
симэнтик relations which are at work are different.

In the first type the components are synOnymous and complete each other

French+English —<• Frenglish;

smoke+haze —» smaze;
breakfast and lunch —> brunch
transmitter and receiver —* transceiver

In the second type the first element modifies the second:

cine(matographic pano) rama —* cinerama,

medical care —* medicare

pOsitive electron —» positron
television broadcast —* telecast

Blends combine two words. Tables to form it you need to take the end of the first
word and the beginning of the second. There are two types of blends: additive and
restrictive. In the first type the components are synOnymous and complete each
other. In the second type the first element modifies the second.

Sound gradation

Sound gradation is one of the two non-prodUctive types of word-building in Modern

English. The other one is semantic stress.
"Sound gradation" is to be found in all the Indo-European languages.

"Sound gradation", is the change of a root vowel or a root consonant, or both, to form
a new word.

e.g. sit – sat, fall – fell фол – фел , tooth – teeth,

In English lexical used to play a certain role in word-building in the past though (зоу)
it is no longer active now.

Among the words formed with the help of sound gradation I can recognize 3 groups
of words.

1) Words formed by means of vowel gradation,

food > to feed, blood > to bleed блад - блииид, gold > to gild; to shoot > shot шут -
шат, to sing> song, to write > writ райт – рит (уст. писание);

2) Words formed by means of both vowel and consonantal gradation,

bath > to bathe бас - бэйс, grass > to graze грас - грэйс (пастись, щипать траву),
breath > to breathe брэс - брис, cloth > to clothe клоз - клоуз, loss > to lose лоз –
луз, life > to live лайф – лив, choice > to choose, etc.

3) Words formed by means of consonantal gradation are often followed by spelling

changes

price[ ] – цена > to prize[ ] – 1. высоко ценить; 2. оценивать;

advice[ ] > to advise[ ];
practice[ ]>to practise[ ],

Sometimes sound-gradation is followed by affixation,

deep > depth, wide > width, вайд - видс broad > breadth, long > length, strong >
strength

where vowel gradation is followed by the addition of the -th suffix.

Sound gradation making new word by changing the root vowel or a consonant.
"Sound gradation" is to be found in all the Indo-European languages. Sometimes
sound-gradation is followed by affixation. There are 3 forms of gradation.

Words formed by means of vowel gradation.

Words formed by means of both vowel and consonantal gradation.
Words formed by means of consonantal gradation