Ajo y agua y otros acortamientos de frases en el español actual

Abstract

This article deals with a relatively unusual word-formation process in modern Spanish whereby a new lexeme is created by shortening a phrase, clause or sentence, rather than simply clipping a single word-form. Although this process has been mentioned in passing by several authorities as merely another way of shortening words, the fact that it affects units larger than a single word has been overlooked thus far, hence this detailed consideration. Creating a new lexical item from a larger linguistic unit implies solidifying at least two of its elements into a single form, the final part of which may itself be a clipped word. The process becomes even more complex or playful when homonymy or paronymy is thrown into the mix. Drawing upon a wealth of examples from a range of sources, this study examines the motives for their use, their structure and the relationship between morphology and stress-placement patterns. The last section presents a collection of shortenings of this type which have been documented from various parts of the Spanish-speaking world.