Linguistics has always been a fascinating subject to me. From the sounds of old words to the formation of new words, the English language in particular and Germanic and Latin languages in general are both challenging and interesting. One of our readings this week, A Linguist Explains the Grammar of Shipping discusses a published paper by Cara DiGirolamo that explains her research on what it means when we “ship” names, and what it tells us about grammar and linguistics.

The author of the article, Gretchen McCulloch, uses a number of examples of two or more persons, real and fictional, who have successfully shipped names. Shipping means to combine two or more names into one using a number of grammar rules that have been established over time. The grammar rules and some examples of shipped names include:

1. Overlap: Harry Potter’s Grindelwald and Dumbledore becoming Grindeldore
2. Stress Match: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson becoming Johnlock
3. Onset Conservation: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie becoming Brangelina
4. Orthographic Transparency: Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley become Hinny (instead of Garry)
5. Lexical Neighborhood Evaluation: Anne of Green Gables’ Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe becoming Shirbert (sounds like sherbert)

The last few years have seen exponential increases in iterations of shipping names, and given the speed of social communication on the internet, they seem to catch on and spread quickly. Clearly this was a popular phenomenon that warranted further study.

The question, however, is what can we learn from this kind of research? I suppose that it can tell us a lot about how people choose to connect with characters, celebrities, and others and how they choose to express those relationships. It is a cultural manifestation of the English language and learning more about how people manipulate language to represent things that are meaningful to them is incredibly valuable in understanding humanities and what it means to be human.