The Role of Alliteration and Rhyme in Novel Metaphorical and Metonymical Compounds

Abstract

The playful function of language is well captured by witty (and often humorous) metaphorical and metonymical compounds that are based on phonological analogy (i.e., alliteration and/or rhyme). The main hypothesis of the article is that phonological analogy is exploited systematically in novel metaphorical and metonymical compounds, and might play an influential role in compound formation by motivating the selection of the component nouns. The article outlines the various patterns of alliteration and rhyme in novel metaphorical and metonymical compounds, and delineates its implications for cognitive grammar. It is also hypothesized that phonological analogy serves a number of functions: (a) as an attention-seeking device it enhances emphasis; (b) helps the reader/hearer decipher the meaning of a novel expression; (c) aids a novel expression's acceptability and long-term retention; (d) signals an informality of meaning; and (e) helps in the creation of a “social bond” between the participants of a speech situation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thank Keith Allan, Kate Burridge, and Zoltán Kövecses for their very helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this article, and is especially grateful to Raymond W. Gibbs for his constructive criticism and expert advice.

Notes

¹ ludic: “of or pertaining to undirected and spontaneously playful behaviour” (Oxford English dictionary, 1989)

²All definitions are from Oxford English dictionary (1989), unless otherwise stated.

³The semantic complexity of a compound does affect processing times. According to the results obtained from the psycholinguistic experiments carried out by Libben, Gibson, Yoon, and Sandra (2003), the processing of a compound with a non-transparent head, such as such jailbird or fleabag, took longer than the processing of those compound expressions where the modifier was non-transparent (and the head transparent), as in godchild for instance.

⁴Furthermore, in both compounds the modifying element (brain) rhymes with the head (drain and gain, respectively). See “Rhyme Between Constituent₁ and Constituent₂ (“Rhyming Compounds”)” for a detailed analysis of this type of analogy.

⁵Source: http://www.word-origins.com/definition/bobby.html. Note that the officers of the Metropolitan Police were first actually known as Peelers, also after Sir Robert Peel, but a couple of decades later the name became obsolete as the expression bobby became increasingly popular.

⁶The expression fleet of foot also exists, meaning “fast at running” (Longman dictionary of contemporary English, 1999).