adheed

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> [Gerald Cohen wrote:]
>> [I wrote:]
>>>
>>>At a press conference warning of a potential mandatory evacuation of
>>>New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin said:
>>>
>>>"This is, this is serious business, and
>>>we would not be calling for a mandatory evacuation
>>>unless we thought there was a serious threat
>>>and I think most people will adheed [æd'hid] to that."
>>>
>>>The form would appear to be a blend of "pay/give heed" and "adhere".
>>>Read all about it here:
>>>
>>>http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=549
>>
>>Yes, it certainly looks like a blend.  But
>>there's also a contributing factor here, viz.
>>the similar-sounding vowel that appears in both
>>"heed" and "adhere."
>
> Why "but"?  Aren't overlapping sounds a
> contributing factor for blends (both intentional,
> Ã  la "motel", and un-)?

Indeed. That's why I wrote in the LL post, "Add to that the
phonological overlap that allows the creation of the fused form
[æd'hid] or [əd'hid], and the blendability seems almost
overdetermined." For more on overlapping contributing to blending, see
my previous LL post, "Blawgs, phonolawgically speaking":

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002780.html

And for a timely example, see today's Salon article on "staycation":

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/01/staycation/index.html


--Ben Zimmer

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