Abstract
The paper addresses the issue of meaning-making in a highly prolific and sprawling segment of English vocabulary – derivatives from precedent names (DPNs). The combination of cognitive linguistics methods applied to analyze the semantics of DPNs (Robin Hood cluster, Cinderella-based blends and Dorian Gray effect) permitted to account for their bias towards polysemy, which seems to be basically grounded in the process of metonymic zoom-in on the selected content in the event frame that describes the precedent name, oftentimes leading to domain extension and indeterminacy.