Abstract
The article presents some ideas about the hybrids that are made by combining the neoclassical elements or are mixed of Lithuanian or Latvian and foreign origin combining forms. The examples of hybrids found in English are also provided. This corpus-based investigation reveals that the formation of hybrids with final neoclassical combining forms in modern Baltic languages is a sufficiently active, productive and unobtrusive process of creativity and wit. The identified structural types of hybrids are the following: 1) the hybrids with the international elements of different classical or neoclassical origin; 2) the hybrids with the initial element of non-classical origin. They are almost identical in the analysed languages, suggesting that they are often borrowed and translated rather than created, but if they are created, then this is done by obvious analogy. Some Lithuanian and Latvian hybrids have long been used and included in various dictionaries, and their frequency in the linguistic corpus is quite high. However, most examples of hybrid origin do not exist and probably do not appear in dictionaries due to their rare use, uniqueness, distinctive form or irregularity. The knowledge of hybrid formation and usage can be relevant to the learners of Lithuanian, Latvian, and English, as well as translators, terminologists, and lexicographers.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to find out the diversity of modern Lithuanian and Latvian hybrids with neoclassical final combining forms by applying the methods of corpus linguistics, and to provide insights regarding the reasons for their use
Mainly coming from English, hybrids depending on the location of that element in relation to the Lithuanian or Latvian origin can be divided into those with prepositional, i.e., initial, or postpositional, i.e., final, neoclassical combining forms
In order to demonstrate that hybrids or their components found in Lithuanian and Latvian exist in English and to illustrate the universality and spread of the phenomenon of hybridisation, examples are provided for all three languages
Summary
Research Journal Studies about Languages No 37/2020, pp. It has already been acknolwedged for several decades that lexicologists, terminologists and word-formation specialists of various languages emphasise a notable trend of internationalisation, which is observed in the lexicon of modern languages. Hybridisation is one of the most mentioned and discussed phenomena in the research of modern languages and contemporary linguistics. The universality of hybridisation is determined by the realisation studies about languages / kalbų studijos no. They consist of a Greek or Latin element, i.e., stems, affixes, and of another one, in case of this analysis, of the Lithuanian and Latvian origin
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