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This study deals with novel English analogical compounds, i.e. compounds obtained via either a unique model (e.g. beefcake after cheesecake) or a schema model: e.g., green-collar based on white-collar, blue-collar, pink-collar, and other X-collar compounds. The study aims, first, to inspect whether novel analogical compounds maintain the same degree of morphosemantic transparency/opacity as their models, and, second, to find out the role played by the compound constituents in the constitution of compound families, such as X-collar and others. To these aims, the study proposes a scale of morphosemantic transparency/opacity for the analysis of compound constituents. In particular, the compound constituents in our database (115 examples) are analysed in connection with: 1) their degree of transparency (vs. opacity, including metaphorical/metonymic meaning), linked to their semantic contribution in the construction of the whole compound’s meaning, and 2) their part-of-speech. Against the common assumption that productive word-formation rules mostly create morphosemantically transparent new words, or that rule productivity is closely connected with transparency, the study of our database demonstrates that novel analogical compounds tend to maintain the same transparency/opacity degree as their models. It also shows that, in nuclear families and subfamilies of compounds, the part-of-speech of the constituents, their degree of transparency/opacity, and their semantic relation are reproduced in all members of the analogical set.

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This study is a corpus-based analysis of metaphor in popular science texts about genetic engineering. It explores two sub-corpora of web articles drawn from Nature.com and TheGuardian.com in order to identify the metaphorical associations that authors of popularisation discourse trigger in the audience's mind and the ethical issues that these associations may raise. The focus is especially on the genetic modification of embryos, which is often described as 'text editing', as well as on modified offspring, often defined by authors as 'designer babies'. The former metaphor is connected to the traditional metaphor of the genome as a 'text' (Calsamiglia and van Dijk 2004), whereas the latter is rather connected to the commercialisation of modified babies, regarded as 'designer' or 'tailored' goods. The study shows how metaphor can be used both for popularising effects, mapping concepts from abstract to concrete domains, and for ethical reasons, persuading audiences of the dangerous consequences and high risks of genome editing. Only a small portion of metaphors in the corpus authorises and encourages genome editing as a 'step' towards progress and 'fight' against disease.