FRENEMY（友敌）Formation and Its Grammatical Meaning英语词汇学论文.doc

FRENEMY（友敌）Formation and Its Grammatical MeaningWhat does the word “Frenemy” mean? How does this word proposed?The word I am to focus on is “Frenemy”. The word has appeared in print as early as 1953 in an essay named Howz about calling the Russians our Frienemies? and written by Winchell, W,published in Nevada State Journal, which can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor. The reason why I choose this term is that it represents a typical relationship in modern society. It is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. You may have the same experience of this kind of relationship. Now, here is several examples of this word for us to understand it more clear:E.g.1 Zack is John's frenemy. They get along in the office but both of them work on internal competing teams.扎克和约翰是友敌。他们在办公室相处得不错，同时又在团队内部相互竞争。E.g.2 They two are frenemies because both of them study very hard but meanwhile, they are close friends in privacy.他们俩是对友因为他们学习都很刻苦但是私下里又是很好的朋友。E.g.3 Peter is a real frenemy for he pretend to be your good friend and say something bad behind you.彼得可真是个伪善的朋友，假装是你的好朋友却在背地里说你的坏话。Is it clear enough to interpret the various meanings of “Frenemy”? There are also some TV series that can explain well what are frenemies.E.g. Susan Mayer and Edie Britt in Desperate HousewivesThey try to get alone with each other but actually they hate each other badly because they love a same man, the plumber, Mike and Edie detests Susans pretending to be innocent and soft. Susan cannot tolerate Edies temptation to Mike and his ex-husband Carl.What is the grammatical meaning of the word? Firstly, I thought “Frenemy” as a compounding word, but after studying blending word, I got the difference between these two formations of words.Compounding is formation of new words by joining two or more bases. Words formed in this way are called compounds such as:n.+ n.: moonwalk(月球漫步) endproduct(最终制成品) n. +v. toothache(牙疼) frostbite（冻伤）v. + n. crybaby(爱哭的人) telltale(迹象，指示器) andother patterns of compounding like a.+ n.: deadline; n. +v-ing: air-conditioning etc.Meanwhile, blending is formation of new words by two words or a word plus a part of another word. Words formed as such are blends or portmanteau.For example, flush(激动) is the combination of flush and blush. Similarly, smog(烟雾) is the result of putting smoke and fog together. Blending is a very productive process and many coinages resulting from blending have become well-established. Words created through blending are related to all aspects of society. But structurally, they fall into four major categories:1) head+tail autocide(自我毁灭、撞车自杀)from(automobile+suicide）2) head+head Amerind(美洲印第安人)from (American+Indian) 3)4)5) .head+word medicare(医疗保险) from(medical+care)6) word+tail bookmobile(流动的汽车图书馆)from(book+automobile)So, we can see obviously that “Frenemy” is one of the word formations of blending but not compounding. As society develops more and more quickly, more new words are now produced in the way of blending. Here are some examples: brunch早午餐-breakfast(早餐) + lunch(午餐)fruice果汁饮料-fruit(水果) + juice(果汁)psywar心理战-psychological(心理的) + warfare(斗争)bromance哥俩好-brother(兄弟)+romance（浪漫）staycation（居家旅游、宅度假）-stay（呆在）+vacation(假期)etc.Now, you can see how powerful the new words are, they can express the changing world and continuously appearing situations. Everything and any phenomenon can successfully find a word to express it.Blends are mostly used in writing related to science and technology, and newspapers and magazines. Though many of them have already achieved currency in English, they are still considered by the serious-minded people to be slang and informal. For example, sexaholic (sex+alcoholic) and so on are still struggling for existence. Therefore, it is advisable not to use such words too often, particularly in formal writing.