PROGRAMME 1: alcopops

Profesor David Crystal: One of the big questions always asked about a language: “how do new words come into being?” Well, you can borrow them from other languages of course; a lot of English words are like that. But one of the lesser-known ways of forming new words is to form a blend – and a blend is when you run two words together to make a third word. And people have done it since the beginning of English actually. To take a recent example: alcopops – carbonated fruit flavoured drinks containing alcohol – a very controversial thing it was when they first came in a few years ago, because it was obviously being aimed at children, and people were very concerned that children would now have some alcohol introduced into them that they weren’t expecting. But it’s the word I want to talk about today – a very interesting word indeed! Alco-pops. Alco is obviously the first part of the word, shortened version of "alcohol". And pops is the second part of the word. Pops you might not know so much about. It has quite a long-standing usage. It’s basically the word for lemonade once upon a time. Pop bottles – because of the sound that’s made when a cork is drawn out of an effervescing drink [spot: cork being pulled out of a bottle] – that sort of sound! – and pops became a very quick sound symbolic way of expressing that kind of notion; so the two words have come together: alcohol and pops …and becomes alco-pops. to come into being - znikat borrowed words - cizí slova blend - složenina alcopops - perlivý alkoholický nápoj s ovocnou příchutí carbonated - perlivý, s bublinkami aimed at - zamířeno na once upon a time - bylo nebylo, kdysi dávno to be concerned - obávat se pop - perlivý nápoj pull out - vytáhnout