L’amalgamation lexicale comme procédé satirique dans Le Journal du jeudi

Although there are disagreements about the criteria for identifying and categorizing lexical blends, they are no less productive than other neological processes, and thus deserve proper study. How far do the theories on blending account for the manifestations created in and disseminated through the media? That is the question that this article seeks to answer. To do so, it analyses twenty blends taken from Le Journal du Jeudi, a satirical weekly, which has set itself the goal of contributing to consolidating democracy by easing tensions in national public life. The article highlights the main types of blends in terms of generally accepted morphological and phonological processes. The semantic features are also studied to reveal the functions assigned to these artificial units. Incidentally, the criteria are reviewed to distinguish blends from related phenomena.