Morphology
A large range of the academic literature centering on the sociological as well as the cultural and linguistic properties of nicknaming can be found. This literature mostly focuses on only sociological and/or cultural properties and/or the linguistic properties but mostly with varying working definitions of the term nickname. For example, some researchers (e.g., Slater and Feinman 1985) notice the structural and sociological commonalities among both the formal and the nicknames whereas, according to some (e.g., Alford 1988) only the descriptive forms are the nicknames. The definition of the term nickname used in this paper may overlap with some of the categories however; there should be no surprise at the commonalities found between the informal and the formal names. As Pulgram (1954, 11-14) has said; the nicknames are the antecedents of many formal names.
Social meaning of nicknaming
The social meaning and function a nickname basically depends on the society that uses it. For example, in some societies it is used for the sake of disparaging someone, while in some societies it represents the unity and solidarity and it may also be used to show the social hierarchy in some other societies as well. As, (Alford 1988, 82-85). Price and Price (1972) have discussed the fusion of identity, name and reputation, whereas, Burton (1999) and Moyo (2002) have described the societies that connect the power and status with nicknames and names. Morgan, O'Neill, and Harre (1979) and Kany (1999) have talked about the similar patterns regarding the children's nicknames. A user can also be identified with a group through the nicknames that he uses (Aceto 2002; de Klerk 2002), differentiate the individuals in the communities that don't have a lot of formal names (Collier and Bricker 1970; Dorian 1970), they can also point out the similarities between the addressee as well as the speaker (Dickey 1997; Chevalier 2004).
There also exists a relationship between the gender of person being referred to and the function and form of the nickname being used (Slater and Feinman 1985; Busse 1983; Phillips 1990; Cutler, McQueen, and Robinson 1990; de Klerk and Bosch 1996, 1997; Wierzbicka 1992). For example, it is noticed that the males tend to use the nicknames a lot more than the females and the nicknames used by the males are usually disparaging whereas, the ones that are used by the females tend to be more affectionate. The nicknames used by females are also noticed to end on vowels and have non-initial stress along with being be longer than those used by the men. It has also been observed by Cassidy, Kelly, and Sharoni (1999) that the phonological cues are continuously used by child and adult English speakers in order to find out the gender of a novel pseudo nickname.
Structure of the nicknames
In order to make a truncation of a word, 2 or more syllables are sometimes merged into a single syllable. Furthermore, it can also combine with the suffixes such as those ending with -y, -ie, or -ey, -i ( Jespersen 1942, 538-50; Huddleston and Pullum 2002, 1634-36). Although it is very obvious that all theses suffixes have a diminutive functions but it can also be notices that the other functions are used here as well. For example, according to Huddleston and Pullum the -y suffix can at time have a "decorative or rhythmic" function.
Most of the research done on truncated nicknames is centered on the consonant sequences and the set of phonemes that may take place in truncated monosyllabic stem (Kahn 1976; Dunlap 1990; McCarthy and Prince 1986; Short 1983; Lappe 2001, 2003). A number of studies have shown that using one of these truncated suffixes given in the set {-y, -o, -er, -a, -s} or not using any truncated suffixes is the choice that one has while creating a novel truncation. Furthermore, it has also been observed that this choice is the making of the novel truncation depends on the nature of the last segments of the truncations as well.
When talking about the personal names, "truncated" and "nickname" are the terms that one uses to point out the several distinct phenomenon. Non-standardized nicknames are basically used to mention any one individual in particular and they are mostly connected to longer forms (Richard Nixon! Tricky Dick etc.). Whereas, another type of nicknames are the ones that are called pet names and although they are associated with the relationship or the personal traits they aren't linguistically related to the personal name (Elvis Presley!The King).
For the sake of this research,...
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