**Exploring New Drunkonyms in Language**
The sheer abundance of playful terms in the English language used to describe being drunk is well-known, from common slang like “pissed” and ”hammered” to more creative expressions like “utterly gazeboed” or “totally carparked.” Comedian Michael McIntyre even humorously suggests that posh individuals can use any word to convey drunkenness. Given this diversity, how do people navigate and understand new drunkonyms entering the lexicon?
**Linguistic Study on Drunkonyms**
Professors Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer from Chemnitz University of Technology and Peter Uhrig from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg & ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig decided to investigate McIntyre’s assertion seriously. In a recent linguistic study published in the *Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association*, their aim was to explore if different synonyms for “drunk” are employed in similar contexts, potentially inheriting the meaning automatically.
The researchers discovered that while “drunk” is predominantly linked with intensifiers like “too/so/very drunk,” other drunkonyms ending in “-ed” such as “blasted” or “loaded” are more commonly paired with amplifiers like “completely” or ”totally.” This common pattern of structures in expressing drunkenness may help individuals decipher new drunkoenyms.
Sanchez-Stockhammer and Uhrig further posit that adults, having encountered numerous “-ed” words for “drunk” throughout their lives, can easily interpret unfamiliar terms like “pyjamaed” as indicating intoxication thanks to this linguistic background. The researchers even compiled a comprehensive list of 546 synonyms for “drunk” as evidence of the extensive vocabulary available.
**Linguistic Traditions and Humor**
Despite the potential negative repercussions of excessive drinking, the use of playful language to describe drunkenness remains a prominent feature in English. Sanchez-Stockhammer notes that the humor in drunkonyms often lies in their indirectness, exemplified by McIntyre’s whimsical examples like “gazeboed” or “carparked,” where the connection between the word and its meaning is not immediately clear.
This indirectness in language is akin to the playful nature of Cockney rhyming slang, evident in English drunkonyms like “Brahms” and “Schindler’s,” derived from “Brahms and Liszt” and “Schindler’s list,” both rhyming with “pissed.” Shortening phrases like “blind drunk” to simply “blind” and “nicely drunk” to “nicely” further showcases how English uses creative language to indirectly convey drunkenness.
**Conclusion**
Sanchez-Stockhammer and Uhrig’s study sheds light on the intricate ways language evolves to express concepts like drunkenness through unique and often humorous linguistic means. This exploration of drunkonyms reveals how language users adapt and interpret new terms within the rich tapestry of English linguistic traditions.