Setting limits on creativity in the production and use of metaphorical and metonymical compounds

Variation between endocentric and exocentric word structures

“…Benczes's (2006Benczes's ( , 2009 proposal to delimit creativity to metaphor-and metonymy-based compounds is both too broad and too narrow. It is too broad in that it covers cases of figurative extension in simplex words as well as in compound words; it is too narrow in that it cannot cover the huto-ppara-type compounds introduced in this paper.…”

“…It is not difficult to see that the types of figurative compounds that Benczes discusses for English are attested in Japanese as well, as shown by the illustrative examples in (5). Couched in the framework of cognitive linguistics, Benczes (2006Benczes ( , 2009) thus develops a purely semantic approach and tries to eschew the problem of morphological exocentricity by grouping together all sorts of exocentric and not so exocentric compounds motivated by metaphor and metonymy under the all-embracing category of ''creative compound''. Such an approach would be feasible if it were intended as a study of metaphor and metonymy in general, but will be highly problematic if designed as a morphological theory of exocentric compounds.…”

“…'shoulder + wheel' meaning 'to carry a small child on one's shoulders'. Because the figurative extension by metaphor and metonymy is not an isolated phenomenon peculiar to compounding but is ubiquitous across words of all kinds of composition, it cannot be identified as a defining feature of the ''creative compounds'' in the sense of Benczes (2006Benczes ( , 2009. In Japanese, figurative extension is found in all kinds of nouns from common nouns to species and genera to proper names, as exemplified below.…”

From Cabernet Sauvignon to Egri Csillag: Changing patterns in Hungarian wine naming

“…Names making use of conceptual integration are good candidates for product names because they are capable of making extensive use of the minimax principle in that the complex network of conceptual mappings at work in a conceptual integration is able to achieve a maximum semantic effect and information with a minimum of effort. According to Benczes (2010) this maximum effect might also involve humor.…”

“…Accordingly, it can be observed how the two afore mentioned functions mutually constrain each other: the eye-catching properties have to be congruent with the identification and positioning of the product, and the other way round. In order to understand how these two emerge in a successful product name we have to take minimax principle into consideration (Berkle 1978) which is mainly used in the investigation of compounds (see Benczes 2010). According to this principle, the economy of compounds reflects a minimum of surface complexity combined with a maximum of semantic information expressible.…”