Compounds or word phrases

Though
structurally and semantically many English compounds look like word
groups, compounds
are more ‘word-like’ than free syntactic phrases.

Compounds,
unlike free syntactic phrases, are inseparable
vocabulary units that
should be specially
learned and presented in a dictionary as a special entry or
sub-entry. This inseparability
is usually established by graphical, morphological, phonetic, or
semantic criteria.

Graphically
a
compound is usually one orthographic word and may be spelled with a
hyphen
between its parts (grass-green,
dog-biscuit, dog-collar) or
solidly (Sunday,
handbook,penman,
schoolmaster).

But
spelling does not provide an accurate guide to differentiation
between compounds and word
groups because many compounds are written like word combinations with
a space: bus
stop, post office, jugular vein, jam session, freezing point, plate
glass. There
are few hardfast rules concerning spelling compound words in English.
Compound words similar in
meaning may be spelled differently in the same dictionary, as in
tooth-paste
but
tooth
powder,
baby carriage but
baby-sitter
[LDCE],
penknife
but
pen-pocket
[NND].
Futhermore,
different authors may use different spellings of the same words (for
example, word-formation
and
word
formation). Even
in different dictionaries one and the same word
may be presented in a different way: grapefruit
[LLCE]
— grape-fruit
[OALDCE]
[WNCD]
—grape-fruit,
grapefruit [LDCE];
skateboard
[LLCE]
— skate-board
[LDCE]
[WNCD][OALDCE]; grass
roots [WNCD]
[LDCE] — grass-roots
[OALDCE];
see also war-path
and
warpath,
dog-house and
doghouse,
snow-man and
snowman,
snow-flake and
snow/lake.
Solid
orthography of compounds is especially characteristic of American
English.
So, graphic criterion is not always helpful in determining a compound
word.

Many
scholars suggest that a
particular stress pattern should
be taken into consideration as
a criterion for compounds. Phonetically
compounds
acquire a new stress pattern that is different
from the stress in motivating words. Their first component may have a
high stress
(a ‘hot-house,
a ‘key-hole, a ‘doorway, ‘ice-cream, ‘common-wealth, ‘common­place,
a ‘common-room), or
a double stress with a primary stress on the first syllable (a
‘washing-
machine; a ‘ dancing-_tgirl).

This
criterion is not universal either because it is important only for
pronunciation of forms
in isolation. In a text there is a lot of variation in forms’
pronunciation. Even when

84

pronounced
in isolation some compounds may have two level stresses (‘icy-‘cold;
‘grass-‘green,
in ‘apple- pie ‘order) which
may be observed in word combinations (cf.: ‘common
‘knowledge, ‘common ‘sense)
or
they may have a high stress on the last component
( grass-‘roots,
grass-‘widow, apple-‘sauce (US=‘apple-sauce})
which
is more
characteristic of free word groups. So, though there is a certain
consistency in a speech
community in stressing compounds, in some cases the general rules do
not determine
the ‘wordness’ of a form.

Morphologically compounds
make up one inseparable unit with a strict order of components
and a new or single paradigm (cf.: rich
— richer — the richest and
oil-rich
—
more oil-rich, the most oil-rich; a shipwreck — shipwrecks, a
week-end — week­ends).
Elements
within the compound cannot be reordered, for additional items cannot
be inserted
between them.

However,
this criterion is not always reliable, especially in N-N compounds
(paper-basket)
and
similar structures with attributive noun use as in stone
wall. In
both cases the order of components is strict and the first noun
component in the singular form does not display
its usual paradigmatic forms (for e.g. in this construction it may
not be used in plural).

Semantic
criterion seems
to be more valuable and has wider applicability. Semantically
compounds
differ from nominal phrases like peace
years or
stone
wall because
they usually
carry additional idiomatic semantic component (a
player
piano ‘a
piano that is played
by machinery, the music being controlled by a piece of paper’,
laughing-gas
‘gas
which
may cause laughter when breathed in, used for producing
unconsciousness, esp. during short operations for removing teeth‘,
fiddle-sticks inter/
‘Nonsense!
How silly!’). Such
components are usually not found in free phrases.

When
the additional idiomatic component is very important or prevails in
the lexical meaning
of a compound, the latter may be considered to be partially
motivated as
in handcuffs,
a flower-bed, laughing-gas, grass-roots or
completely
demotivated as
in grass-widow,
wet-blanket, fiddle-sticks. These
compounds are very close to idioms, can hardly be differentiated from
them, and often are presented in dictionaries of idioms with such
word groups as red
tape or
small
hours (see
Chapter 6).

When
this additional idiomatic component is minimal as in girl-friend
or
icy-cold,
the
compound may be regarded as fully
motivated. The
meaning of the whole unit may be deduced
from the meaning of its constituent parts and their arrangement. Such
compounds are most closely related to free word combinations.

So,
there is not a single criterion that will distinguish compounds and
word groups in English.
This is especially the case with regards to fully motivated nominal
compounds like girl-friend,
dish cloth and
nominal phrases corresponding to an o/-phrase that have developed
some referential unity, as in stone
wall or
life
story. Yet,
the phonological,

85

syntactic and semantic features of compounds, especially when they
work simultaneously, act like a binding force and make them distinct
from phrases

|3. Classification of compounds]

Classification of compounds may be done according to various
principles.

1. First of all, from
the derivational point of view one
should distinguish between compounds
proper that
are made up of two derivational bases (sauce+pan)
and
derivational,
or pseudo-compounds, that
look like compounds only on the morphological
level because they have more than one root but are derived by
conversion, affixation,
back-formation and other name derivational processes (a break-down,
a pickpocket,
long-legged).

Derivational
compounds are
further subdivided into three groups: derivational compound
nouns, derivational compound adjectives and derivational compound
verbs.

Derivational
compound nouns
are
usually built by conversion
on
the basis of so-called
phrasal
verbs: cast-offs
from
to
cast off, a break-through from
to
break through,

by substantivization
of a
phrase often accompanied by productive suffixation
as in (six
inch-)+-er,
{two
deck-)+-er, or
by prefixation
applied
to a
compound derivational base as
in
ex-+(house+wife).

Many
scholars believe that completely demotivated compounds like
fiddle-sticks, grass-widow,
scape-goat should
also be referred to this group because their meaning is completely
different from the lexical meanings of their constituents. They are
believed to be
the final results of lexical-semantic
derivation.

Derivational
compound adjectives
are
built by suffixation
applied
to a free word group
reduced to a stem: (broad
shoulder-)+-ed, (heart shape-)+-ed or
by adjectivalization
(cleanup
adj
from
clean-up
n
from clean
up v; apple-pie adj
‘of,
relating
to, or characterized by traditionally American values (as honesty or
simplicity)’ (from
the noun apple-pie).

Derivational
compound verbs
are
created by means of conversion
applied
to a compound
derivational base: to
weekend from
a
week-end or
by means of back-derivation
applied
to a compound derivational base where one of the 1C is a
suffixational derivative:
to
babysit from
a
baby-sitter, to dryclean from
dry-cleaning.

2. Classification of
compounds may also be done according
to the part of speech they belong
to.

In modern English word
composition is mainly characteristic of nouns
(sunbeam,
Sunday,
sunshine). The
most common patterns for noun compounds are: n+n—>N
(ice-

86

cream)
and
adj+n—>N
(blackboard,
software). Noun
compounds may also be the result of compounding
adverbial and nominal stems adv+n—>N
as in after-thought,
back-talk. Compound
nouns with a verb as the first or the second component (v+n—>N
as in searchlight,
or
n+v—>N
as in sunshine)
take
place in English, too, though it is not quite clear
whether it is really a verb or a converted noun.

Word composition in modern
English is widespread among adjectives,
too. The
most common type of compound adjectives is the combination of two
derivational bases: nominal and adjectival (n+adj—»Adj):
airtight,
life-long, stone-deaf, foolproof, and
sugarfree.

There
are also many other different patterns according to which compound
adjectives may be
derived: composition of two adjectival bases (adj+adj—>Adj)
as
in deaf-mute,
bitter­sweet,
of
nominal and participial bases (n+Ving/ed—>Adj)
as
in peace-loving,
dog-tired, man-made,
of
adjectival and participial (adj+Ving/ed—>Adj)
as in
hard-working,
double-ended,
or
even adverbial and participial bases (adv+Ving/ed—>Adj)
as
in well-read,
over-qualified. But
verbs do not combine with adjectives in English compounds.

Composition
is not characteristic of modern English pronouns,
though
historical traces of former
word composition processes are still observed there (somebody,
anywhere, nothing,
oneself).

In modern English verb
composition
does not occur nowadays, though it was quite common in the past and
was effected by compounding adverbial and verbal stems: outgrow,
offset, inlay. Verbs
that look like compounds are usually the result of other derivational
processes like conversion
(to
honeymoon, to snowball) and
back-derivation
(to
proofread, to baby-sit, to dry-clean). Some
verbs such as to
apple-polish vi
‘to
attempt to
ingratiate oneself and vt
‘to curry
favour with (as by flattery) are condensed and lexicalized
expressions rather than derived words by composition. As with an
idiom, we need
to recall the verb’s original usage to understand its contemporary
meaning. As it is stated in the dictionary of etymology, the verb
appeared from the traditional practice of school
children bringing a shiny apple as a gift to their teacher. So, in
the case of verbs we usually
deal with pseudo-compounds,
or
derivational
compounds.

3.
Semantically,
compounds
are divided into:

—endocentric, or
subordinative,
where the
second element is the head and hyperonym
for the compound: sunshine,
airtight, blackboard (they
make up the bulk of modern
English compounds);

—
exocentric (or bahuvrihi) where
neither the first nor the second element is the head
or a hyperonym of a compound. This includes denvated compound nouns
fiddle­sticks,
grass-widow, scape-goat with
the least degree of semantic motivation;

—
coordinative, or copulative, (or dvandva),
where
both the derivational bases are
equally important. They are subdivided into: reduplicative:
fifty-fifty,
hush-hush;
phonetically
varied
rhythmic
twin
f
o rm s: chit-chat,
zig­zag,
a walkie-talkie; additive:
girl-friend,
sofa-bed, oak-tree, Anglo-American.

87

4.
Compounds may be classified according
to the means of composition into:

1)
those without
linking elements that
are formed by merely placing one base after another; they are
subdivided into:

a) syntactic
compounds that do not violate syntax laws of word combining
in English: house-dog,
day-lime, a red-breast, a baby-sitter, and

b)asyntactic
compounds
in which the order of constituents violates syntax
laws in English: oil-rich,
power-driven, early-riser;

2)
those with
a linking element o
(most
characteristic of scientific terms), i, or s
(not
productive in modern English): Anglo-Saxon,
sociolinguistics, handicraft, sportsman.

5.
Compounds
may also be classified according
to the part~of-speech meaning of their derivational
bases. There
are:

—
nominal compounds
with n+n
bases:
windmill,

—nominal-verbal
compounds
built according to the patterns n+(v+-er)
bottle-opener,
n+(v+-ing)
police-making,
n+(v+-tion/ment)
though the
second element is seldom
or never used in modern English as a free form, office-management,
n+(v+conversion)
dog-bite;

—
nominal-adjectival with
the pattern n+adj:
snow-white;

—
adjectival-nominal with the pattern adj+n:
blackboard;

—
adverbial-verbal
bases: outgrow,
offset, inlay

—
verbal-adverbial
(v + adv) + conversion: a
break-down; and
some others.

6. Compounds may also be
classified according
to the structure and semantics of free word
groups with which they correlate. For
example, the structural pattern of a compound noun
n+n
correlates
with various verbal-nominal word groups of the V+N type
(subject+verb,
or verb+object) (to make
image): ‘the
one who makes image’ is an image-maker
or
‘the result or process of making image’ is image-making.

7.
A special type of compounds such as telegram,
telephone, astronaut, aerophones is
called
neoclassical.
In
these compounds different elements from classical languages Latin or
Greek acting as roots and derivational bases combine with each other
forming new words
(see Classification
of morphemes above
in this chapter).

Many new words are created
when elements that started out as segments in blends become combining
forms making the new words look like compounds or at least a suffixal
derivative: rice-a-rony,
sport-a-rama, plant-o-rama, porn-o-topia, work-o-holic. This
is especially common in advertising and commerce.

Compounds
should not be mixed up with word
groups of phraseological character like
mother-in-law,
brother-in-arms, bread-and-butter, milk-and-water, or
longer
combinations
of words in attributive function that
for stylistic purposes may be treated like
unities and thus hyphenated: the-young-must-be-right
attitude, the nothing-huts of his
statements. These
constructions are neither compounds nor phraseological units. They

88

are usually treated as a
result of lexicalization of syntactic structures (see also
‘Compression’
in ‘Minor types of word-formation’).

Соседние файлы в предмете [НЕСОРТИРОВАННОЕ]

• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #
• #

First, terminology needs to be defined. Here, ‘word’ (orthographic word) and ‘phrase’ (meaningfully constructed string not containing finite verb and consisting of two or more words) are used:

Giegerich argues extensively that

steel bridge and watch-maker are unequivocally phrasal and
lexical respectively.

[ie a phrase and a (compound) word respectively]

The analysis really boils down to ‘is XY better considered/treated as a coherent unit or as a closely-related pair of units?’

He adds

Establishing [these] two prototypes will facilitate a more informed subsequent discussion
of the less clear-cut and possibly borderline cases …

He spends pages attempting to establish the truth of his assertions. And it’s a difficult process. And these are not two of ‘the less clear-cut and possibly borderline cases’.

I feel entitled to quote his ‘Linguists continue to argue’ slightly out of context.

My advice is not to worry too much about when a string has graduated from free combination (ie ‘casual acquaintance’) to strong collocation to open compound. Use them the way most people do, and be aware that the analysis is very tricky and open to dispute.

 1. Compounds versus phrases

Compound words is words formed by combining roots (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002, p. 59) or is a kind of word-formation in which, instead of attaching affixes to a stem, two or more are put together to create lexical unit (Farkhan, 2006. p. 6) whether phrase is a group of related word that is used as a single part of speech and does not contain a verb and its subject (Warriner, 1982. p. 78). Some compounds are written as one word (closed compounds), some are hyphenated (hyphenated compounds), and some are written as two separate words (open compounds) (Beech-Triplett, et. al., 1984. p.66). As we will see, some types of compound are much commoner that others. There are also some types of writing (for example, newspaper headlines) in which compounds are especially frequent. But first, we must deal with an issue that has not arisen so far, because until now all the complex words that we have looked at have contained at least one bound morpheme. Roots in English are mostly free rather than bound. How can we tell, then, whether a pair of such roots constitutes a compound word or phrase that is a unit of sentence structure rather than a complex word?

A definite answer is not always possible, but there are enough clear cases to show that the distinction between compounds and phrases is valid. Consider the expression a green house (with its literal meaning) and a greenhouse (meaning a glass structure where delicate plants are reared). There is a difference in sound corresponding to the difference in meaning, that is, in the first expression the main stress is on house, while in the second the main stress is on green. This pattern of semantic contrast between expressions stressed in different places is quite common, as in the following examples:

• black bóard bláckboard

‘board that is black’                           ‘board for writing on’

• silk wórm sílkworm

‘worm made of silk’ (e.g. soft toy)    ‘caterpillar that spins silk’

• hair nét háirnet

‘net made of hair’                              ‘net for covering hair’

• white hóuse (the)Whíte House

‘house that is white’                           ‘residence of the US President’

• toy fáctory tóy factory

‘factory that is a toy’                         ‘factory where toys are made’

The items on the left in 1-5 like green hóuse are a phrase, because it is characteristic of phrases in English to be stressed in the last word, unless some contrast is being stated or implied (e.g. They live in a white house, not a yellow one!). The items in the right stressed on the first element like gréenhouse, are generally classified as compounds—through this stress pattern applies consistently only to compound nouns, not to compounds in other word classes.

Apart from stress, a second criterion traditionally used for distinguishing compounds from phrases is semantic, that is a compound tends to have a meaning that is more or less idiosyncratic or unpredictable. This is true of most of the compounds in 1-5. This criterion must be treated with caution, however, because being semantically unpredictable does not correlate exactly with being a word. All the same, it is true that words are more likely to be lexical items than phrases are, so treating semantic idiosyncrasy as an indicator of compound status will not often be misleading.

2. Compound Verbs

A compound verbs is a verb, noun, adjective, and preposition followed by a verb that counts as a single verb. Verbs formed by compounding are much less usual than verbs derived by affixation. Nevertheless, a variety of types exist which may be distinguished according to their structure:

• Verb-verb (VV): stir-fry, freeze-dry
• Noun-verb (NV): hand-wash, air-condition, steam-clean
• Adjective-verb (AV): dry-clean, whitewash
• Preposition-verb (PV): underestimate, outrun, overcook.

Only the PV type is really common, however, and some compounds with under-, over-, out- do not need to be classed as lexical items. For example, out– can create a transitive verb meaning ‘outdo in Xing’ from any verb denoting a competitive or potentially competitive activity (e.g. outsail, outsail, outswim), while new words with over- can also be created freely (e.g. overpolish, overcriticise, overbleach).

All these compounds have a verb as the rightmost element, and also that, with most of them, the activity denoted by the compound as a whole is a variety of the activity denoted by the right-most element. Let us call these compounds right-headed, the rightmost element being the head.

3. Compound Adjectives

Adjective is a word used to describe or qualify the noun or pronoun. Adjective classified into two, namely Descriptive adjective and limiting adjective. (Nina, 2010, p. 31)

1) Descriptive Adjective

Adjectives that describe the state and quality of the noun or pronoun that includes taste, shape, size and so forth. Descriptive adjective is divided into three:

2) Proper Adjective

As an American Women, a Spanish meal, a British enterprise.

3) Participle Adjective

• Present participle: an interesting movie, a happening frog, an intriguing experience.
• Past Participle: a tired waitress, a worn apron, a torn cloth.

4) Adjective Compounds

• Present participle; a good looking man, an English-speaking girl, a meat-eating animal.
• Past Participle: a new-born baby, a turned-up nose, a broken-down factory
• -ed Suffix added to the noun that serves as the second element in the compound: Green-eyed, short-sighted, absent-minded.

4. Compound Nouns

Compound noun is a noun that is classified according to their form. Compound word refers to a group of words combined into one and serves as a single part of a sentence. (Nina, 2010, p. 26)

Compound noun forms are as follows:

1. Noun + noun; English book, department store
2. Possessive noun + noun: Traveler’s checks, women’s college
3. Adjective + noun: Common sense, a blue print
4. Verb + noun: Pickpocket, singing team
5. Noun + verb: Garbage dump, handshake
6. Gerund + noun: Living room, punching bag
7. Noun + gerund: Fortune telling, story telling
8. Preposition + noun: Overalls, by-way
9. Verb + preposition-adverb: Make-up, grown-up
10. Noun + prepositional phrase: Mother-in-law, editor-in-chief

5. Headed and Headless Compounds

Headed compounds are compounds which have an internal centre (it is called endocentric), for examples like blackboard, greenstone, etc. But headless compounds are compounds which do not have an internal centre (it is called exocentric), for examples: faintheart (is not a kind of heart but a kind of person who has a faint heart), pickpocket (is not a kind of pocket) (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002, p. 64).

A few VN- type compound nouns resemble secondary compounds in that the noun at the right is interpreted as the object of the verb:

• Pickpocket, killjoy, cutpurse

These too are headless; in that pickpocket is not a kind of pocket, for example. The implication from these analysis: if the fact that heart and  pocket are nouns is really irrelevant to the fact that faintheart and pickpocket are nouns too, we should expect there to be some headless noun in which the second element is not a noun at all.

• Take-off, sell-out, wrap-up, sit-in

The nouns here can be seen as a special case of this, where the base is a verb plus another word.

6. Blends and Acronyms

Blend is a kind of compound which at least one component is reproduced only partially, i.e. smog blended from smoke and fog, cheeseburger blended from cheese and hamburger. (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002, p. 65)

In all the examples, the whole of each component root (or base) is reproduced in the compound. Sporadically, however, we encounter a kind of compound where at least one component is reproduced only partially. These are known as blends. A straightforward example is smog, blended from smoke and fog; a more elaborate one is chortle blended from chukle  and snort.

The most extreme kind of truncation that a component of a blend can undergo is reduction to just one sound (or letter), usually the first. Blends made up of initial letters are known as acronym, of which well-known examples are NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), RAM (Random Access Memory).

The use of the capital letter in the spelling of some of these words reflects the fact that speakers are aware of their acronym status. It does not follow that any string of capital letters represents an acronym. If the conventional way of reading the string by pronouncing the name of each them in turn, as with USA and RP (Standing for the ‘Received Pronunciation’ of British English) then it is not an acronym but an abbreviation.

G. Compounds Containing Bound Combining Forms

Most of the compounds that we have looked at so far involve roots that are free forms. But the vocabulary of English, especially in scientific and technical areas, includes a huge repertoire of compounds that are made up of bound roots, known as combining forms, here are just a few:

• anthropology, sociology, cardiogram, electrocardiogram, retrograde, retrospect, plantigrade.

For most of these, the meaning of the whole is clearly determinable from that of the parts: for example, a. anthrop(o)- ‘human’ plus -(o)logy ‘science or study’ yields a word that means ‘science or study of human beings’, and b. planti– ‘sole (of foot)’ and –grade ‘walking’ yields a word meaning ‘walking on the soles of the feet’. This semantic predictability is crucial to the coining of new technical terms using these elements. (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002, p. 66)

Apart from containing bound roots, anthropology differs in two other ways from most compound nouns.

1. It has a central linking vowel –o– that cannot conclusively be assigned to either root. In this respect, it resembles many combining-form compounds.
2. Although it is a noun, its stress is not on the first element – unless the linking –o– belongs there. In this respect, it resembles e.g. monogamy, philosophy and

We encountered bound roots that could function as the base for derivational affixation, such as aud- in audible, audition etc. Not surprisingly, some combining forms can function in this way too (in other words, the dividing line between combining forms and other bound roots is not sharp): for example, soci– and electr(o)- from (1) also occur, indeed much more commonly, in social and electric. Given that combining forms, and the compounds that contain them, are so untypical of compounds in general, it is natural to ask how English has come to acquire them. In fact, they come mostly from Greek or Latin, through deliberate borrowings to supply new needs for technical vocabulary that arose partly from the revival of learning in Western Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries known as the Renaissance, and partly from the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century and its scientific spin-offs.

H. Phrasal Words

In some of the compounds that we have looked at so far, relationships are expressed that are the same as ones expressed in syntax: for example, the verb-object relationship between hair and restore in hair restorer. On the other hand, the way in which the verb-object relationship is expressed in this compound is quite different from how it is expressed in syntax, in that the two words appear in the opposite order: we say This substance restores hair, not *This substance hair restores. There is a clear difference between compound word structure and sentence structure here. But there are also complex items that function as words, yet whose internal structure is that of a clause or phrase rather than of a compound. There is no standard term for these items, there will be introduced the term phrasal words. (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002, p. 67)

An example of a phrasal word is the noun jack-in-the-box. Structurally this has the appearance of a noun phrase in which the head noun, jack, is modified by a prepositional phrase, in the box, exactly parallel to the phrases people in the street or (a) book on the shelf. However, it forms its plural by suffixing –s not to the head noun (as in books on the shelf) but to the whole expression: not ‘jacks-in the-box’ but jack-in-the-boxes, as in They jumped up and down like jack-in-the-boxes. Though structurally a phrase, then, it behaves like a word. Contrast this with another item which is at least as idiosyncratic in meaning and which has a superficially similar structure: brother-in-law. A crucial difference is that brother-in-law forms its plural by affixing -s not to the whole expression but to the head noun: brothers-in-law. Despite its hyphens, therefore, brother-in-law is not a word at all but a phrase. Can phrases other than noun phrases constitute phrasal words? The answer is yes.

1. Adjectival examples are dyed-in-the-wool (as in a dyed-in-the-wool Republican) or couldn’t-care-less (as in a couldn’t-care-less attitude).
2. Syntactically, dyed-in-the-wool looks like an adjective phrase consisting of an adjective (died ‘artificially colored’) modified by a prepositional phrase, just like suitable for the party or a devoted to his children.

However, such a phrase cannot entirely precede the noun it modifies (we say a man devoted to his children or suitable music for the party, not *a devoted to his children man or *suitable for the party music); therefore the behavior of dyed-in the-wool is that of a word rather than a phrase. As for couldn’t-careless, its structure is that of a verb phrase, but again its behavior is that of an adjective (e.g.Your attitude is, even more, couldn’t-care-less than hers!).

This seems an appropriate point to mention a small and rather oldfashioned class of lexical items exemplified by governor general, attorney general, court martial and lord lieutenant. How do they form their plural: like attorney generals, or like attorneys general? If you prefer the former, then these items may seem at first like further phrasal words – except for the fact that they differ from normal English noun phrases in having an adjective following the noun rather than preceding it. It seems better, therefore, to treat them as examples of something that we have not so far encountered: endocentric words which, untypically, have their head on the left rather than on the right. On the other hand, if you prefer the latter sort of plural (attorneys general), they seem more akin to brother(s)- in-law: not words but lexicalized phrases. If, finally, neither kind of plural sounds quite right to you, that is not surprising, because however these items are analyzed, their structure is unusual. (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2002, p. 68)

REFERENCES 

A R, Nina. (2010). Hafalan Luar Kepala English Grammar. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Widyatama.

Beech, Linda Ward-DeWayne Triplett et. al. (1984). Spelling: Words and Skills. Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Carstairs, Andrew-McCarthy et. al. (2002). An Introduction to English Morphology, Edinburg: Edinburg University Press Ltd,.

Farkhan, Muhammad. (2006). An Introduction to Linguistic. Jakarta: Lembaga Penelitian UIN Jakarta Press.

Warriner, John E. (1982). Warriners English Grammar and Composition. New York: Hancourt Brace Jovanovich Inc,.

In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. A compound that uses a space rather than a hyphen or concatenation is called an open compound or a spaced compound; the alternative is a closed compound.

The meaning of the compound may be similar to or different from the meaning of its components in isolation. The component stems of a compound may be of the same part of speech—as in the case of the English word footpath, composed of the two nouns foot and path—or they may belong to different parts of speech, as in the case of the English word blackbird, composed of the adjective black and the noun bird. With very few exceptions, English compound words are stressed on their first component stem.

As a member of the Germanic family of languages, English is unusual in that even simple compounds made since the 18th century tend to be written in separate parts. This would be an error in other Germanic languages such as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, and Dutch. However, this is merely an orthographic convention: As in other Germanic languages, arbitrary noun phrases, for example «girl scout troop», «city council member», and «cellar door», can be made up on the spot and used as compound nouns in English too.

For example, German «Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän» would be written in English as «Danube steamship transport company captain» and not as «Danubesteamshiptransportcompanycaptain».

The addition of affix morphemes to words (such as suffixes or prefixes, as in employ → employment) should not be confused with nominal composition, as this is actually morphological derivation.

Some languages easily form compounds from what in other languages would be a multi-word expression. This can result in unusually long words, a phenomenon known in German (which is one such language) as Bandwurmwörter or tapeworm words.

Sign languages also have compounds. They are created by combining two or more sign stems.

So-called «classical compounds» are compounds derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots.

Formation of compounds[edit]

Compound formation rules vary widely across language types.

In a synthetic language, the relationship between the elements of a compound may be marked with a case or other morpheme. For example, the German compound Kapitänspatent consists of the lexemes Kapitän (sea captain) and Patent (license) joined by an -s- (originally a genitive case suffix); and similarly, the Latin lexeme paterfamilias contains the archaic genitive form familias of the lexeme familia (family). Conversely, in the Hebrew language compound, the word בֵּית סֵפֶר bet sefer (school), it is the head that is modified: the compound literally means «house-of book», with בַּיִת bayit (house) having entered the construct state to become בֵּית bet (house-of). This latter pattern is common throughout the Semitic languages, though in some it is combined with an explicit genitive case, so that both parts of the compound are marked, e.g. Arabic عبد الله ʕabd-u l-lāh-i (servant-NOM DEF-god-GEN) «servant of-the-god: the servant of God».

Agglutinative languages tend to create very long words with derivational morphemes. Compounds may or may not require the use of derivational morphemes also. In German, extremely
extendable compound words can be found in the language of chemical compounds, where, in the cases of biochemistry and polymers, they can be practically unlimited in length, mostly because the German rule suggests combining all noun adjuncts with the noun as the last stem. German examples include Farb­fernsehgerät (color television set), Funk­fernbedienung (radio remote control), and the often quoted jocular word Donau­dampfschifffahrts­gesellschafts­kapitänsmütze (originally only two Fs, Danube-Steamboat-Shipping Company captain[‘s] hat), which can of course be made even longer and even more absurd, e.g. Donau­dampfschifffahrts­gesellschafts­kapitänsmützen­reinigungs­ausschreibungs­verordnungs­diskussionsanfang («beginning of the discussion of a regulation on tendering of Danube steamboat shipping company captain hats») etc. According to several editions of the Guinness Book of World Records, the longest published German word has 79 letters and is Donau­dampfschiffahrts­elektrizitäten­hauptbetriebswerkbau­unterbeamten­gesellschaft («Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Electric[ity] Maintenance Building of the Danube Steam Shipping»), but there is no evidence that this association ever actually existed.

In Finnish, although there is theoretically no limit to the length of compound words, words consisting of more than three components are rare. Even those with fewer than three components can look mysterious^{[clarification needed]} to non-Finnish speakers, such as hätäuloskäynti (emergency exit). Internet folklore sometimes suggests that lentokone­suihkuturbiinimoottori­apumekaanikko­aliupseerioppilas (Airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student) is the longest word in Finnish, but evidence of its actual use is scant and anecdotal at best.^[1]

Compounds can be rather long when translating technical documents from English to some other language, since the lengths of the words are theoretically unlimited, especially in chemical terminology. For example, when translating an English technical document to Swedish, the term «Motion estimation search range settings» can be directly translated to rörelse­uppskattnings­sökintervalls­inställningar, though in reality, the word would most likely be divided in two: sökintervalls­inställningar för rörelse­uppskattning – «search range settings for motion estimation».

Subclasses[edit]

Semantic classification[edit]

A common semantic classification of compounds yields four types:

• endocentric
• exocentric
• copulative
• appositional

An endocentric compound (tatpuruṣa in the Sanskrit tradition) consists of a head, i.e. the categorical part that contains the basic meaning of the whole compound, and modifiers, which restrict this meaning. For example, the English compound doghouse, where house is the head and dog is the modifier, is understood as a house intended for a dog. Endocentric compounds tend to be of the same part of speech (word class) as their head, as in the case of doghouse.

An exocentric compound (bahuvrihi in the Sanskrit tradition) is a hyponym of some unexpressed semantic category (such as a person, plant, or animal): none (neither) of its components can be perceived as a formal head, and its meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts. For example, the English compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing. In an exocentric compound, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents. For example, a must-have is not a verb but a noun. The meaning of this type of compound can be glossed as «(one) whose B is A», where B is the second element of the compound and A the first. A bahuvrihi compound is one whose nature is expressed by neither of the words: thus a white-collar person is neither white nor a collar (the collar’s colour is a metonym for socioeconomic status). Other English examples include barefoot.

Copulative compounds (dvandva in the Sanskrit tradition) are compounds with two semantic heads, for example in a gradual scale (such a mix of colours).

Appositional compounds are lexemes that have two (contrary or simultaneous) attributes that classify the compound.

Type	Description	Examples
endocentric	A+B denotes a special kind of B	darkroom, smalltalk
exocentric	A+B denotes a special kind of an unexpressed different semantic meaning C	redhead, scarecrow
copulative	A+B denotes ‘the sum’ of what A and B denote	bittersweet, sleepwalk
appositional	A and B provide different descriptions for the same referent	hunter-gatherer, maidservant

Syntactic classification[edit]

Noun–noun compounds[edit]

All natural languages have compound nouns. The positioning of the words (i.e. the most common order of constituents in phrases where nouns are modified by adjectives, by possessors, by other nouns, etc.) varies according to the language. While Germanic languages, for example, are left-branching when it comes to noun phrases (the modifiers come before the head), the Romance languages are usually right-branching.

English compound nouns can be spaced, hyphenated, or solid, and they sometimes change orthographically in that direction over time, reflecting a semantic identity that evolves from a mere collocation to something stronger in its solidification. This theme has been summarized in usage guides under the aphorism that «compound nouns tend to solidify as they age»; thus a compound noun such as place name begins as spaced in most attestations and then becomes hyphenated as place-name and eventually solid as placename, or the spaced compound noun file name directly becomes solid as filename without being hyphenated.

German, a fellow West Germanic language, has a somewhat different orthography, whereby compound nouns are virtually always required to be solid or at least hyphenated; even the hyphenated styling is used less now than it was in centuries past.

In French, compound nouns are often formed by left-hand heads with prepositional components inserted before the modifier, as in chemin-de-fer ‘railway’, lit. ‘road of iron’, and moulin à vent ‘windmill’, lit. ‘mill (that works)-by-means-of wind’.

In Turkish, one way of forming compound nouns is as follows: yeldeğirmeni ‘windmill’ (yel: wind, değirmen-i: mill-possessive); demiryolu ‘railway’ (demir: iron, yol-u: road-possessive).

Occasionally, two synonymous nouns can form a compound noun, resulting in a pleonasm. One example is the English word pathway.

Verb–noun compounds[edit]

A type of compound that is fairly common in the Indo-European languages is formed of a verb and its object, and in effect transforms a simple verbal clause into a noun.

In Spanish, for example, such compounds consist of a verb conjugated for the second person singular imperative followed by a noun (singular or plural): e.g., rascacielos (modelled on «skyscraper», lit. ‘scratch skies’), sacacorchos ‘corkscrew’ (lit. ‘pull corks’), guardarropa ‘wardrobe’ (lit. ‘store clothes’). These compounds are formally invariable in the plural (but in many cases they have been reanalyzed as plural forms, and a singular form has appeared). French and Italian have these same compounds with the noun in the singular form: Italian grattacielo ‘skyscraper’, French grille-pain ‘toaster’ (lit. ‘toast bread’).

This construction exists in English, generally with the verb and noun both in uninflected form: examples are spoilsport, killjoy, breakfast, cutthroat, pickpocket, dreadnought, and know-nothing.

Also common in English is another type of verb–noun (or noun–verb) compound, in which an argument of the verb is incorporated into the verb, which is then usually turned into a gerund, such as breastfeeding, finger-pointing, etc. The noun is often an instrumental complement. From these gerunds new verbs can be made: (a mother) breastfeeds (a child) and from them new compounds mother-child breastfeeding, etc.

Verb-noun compounds derived from classical languages tend to be nouns; rarely, a verb-noun classical compound can be a verb. One example is miscegenate, a word that literally falls into disuse nowadays, which is derived from a Latin verb and a Latin noun. In the Australian Aboriginal language Jingulu, a Pama–Nyungan language, it is claimed that all verbs are V+N compounds, such as «do a sleep», or «run a dive», and the language has only three basic verbs: do, make, and run.^[2]

A special kind of compounding is incorporation, of which noun incorporation into a verbal root (as in English backstabbing, breastfeed, etc.) is most prevalent (see below).

Verb–verb compounds[edit]

Verb–verb compounds are sequences of more than one verb acting together to determine clause structure. They have two types:

• In a serial verb, two actions, often sequential, are expressed in a single clause. For example, Ewe trɔ dzo, lit. «turn leave», means «turn and leave», and Hindi जाकर देखो jā-kar dekh-o, lit. «go-CONJUNCTIVE PARTICIPLE see-IMPERATIVE«, means «go and see». In Tamil, a Dravidian language, van̪t̪u paːr, lit. «come see». In each case, the two verbs together determine the semantics and argument structure.

Serial verb expressions in English may include What did you go and do that for?, or He just upped and left; this is however not quite a true compound since they are connected by a conjunction and the second missing arguments may be taken as a case of ellipsis.

• In a compound verb (or complex predicate), one of the verbs is the primary, and determines the primary semantics and also the argument structure. The secondary verb, often called a vector verb or explicator, provides fine distinctions, usually in temporality or aspect, and also carries the inflection (tense and/or agreement markers). The main verb usually appears in conjunctive participial (sometimes zero) form. For examples, Hindi निकल गया nikal gayā, lit. «exit went», means ‘went out’, while निकल पड़ा nikal paRā, lit. «exit fell», means ‘departed’ or ‘was blurted out’. In these examples निकल nikal is the primary verb, and गया gayā and पड़ा paRā are the vector verbs. Similarly, in both English start reading and Japanese 読み始める yomihajimeru «read-CONJUNCTIVE-start» «start reading», the vector verbs start and 始める hajimeru «start» change according to tense, negation, and the like, while the main verbs reading and 読み yomi «reading» usually remain the same. An exception to this is the passive voice, in which both English and Japanese modify the main verb, i.e. start to be read and 読まれ始める yomarehajimeru lit. «read-PASSIVE-(CONJUNCTIVE)-start» start to be read. With a few exceptions, all compound verbs alternate with their simple counterparts. That is, removing the vector does not affect grammaticality at all nor the meaning very much: निकला nikalā ‘(He) went out.’ In a few languages both components of the compound verb can be finite forms: Kurukh kecc-ar ker-ar lit. «died-3pl went-3pl» ‘(They) died.’
• Compound verbs are very common in some languages, such as the northern Indo-Aryan languages Hindustani and Punjabi, and Dravidian languages like Tamil, where as many as 20% of verb forms in running text are compound. They exist but are less common in other Indo-Aryan languages like Marathi and Nepali, in Tibeto-Burman languages like Limbu and Newari, in Turkic languages like Turkish and Kyrgyz, in Korean and Japanese, and in northeast Caucasian languages like Tsez and Avar.
• Under the influence of a Quichua substrate speakers living in the Ecuadorian altiplano have innovated compound verbs in Spanish:

De rabia puso rompiendo la olla, ‘In anger (he/she) smashed the pot.’ (Lit. from anger put breaking the pot)

Botaremos matándote ‘We will kill you.’ (Cf. Quichua huañuchi-shpa shitashun, lit. kill-CP throw.1plFut.

Likewise in Hindi: तेरे को मार डालेंगे tere ko mār DāleNge, lit. «we will kill-throw you»).

• Compound verb equivalents in English (examples from the internet):

What did you go and do that for?

If you are not giving away free information on your web site then a huge proportion of your business is just upping and leaving.

Big Pig, she took and built herself a house out of brush.

• Caution: In descriptions of Persian and other Iranian languages the term ‘compound verb’ refers to noun-plus-verb compounds, not to the verb–verb compounds discussed here.

Parasynthetic compounds[edit]

Parasynthetic compounds are formed by a combination of compounding and derivation, with multiple lexical stems and a derivational affix. For example, English black-eyed is composed of black, eye, and -ed ‘having’, with the meaning ‘having a black eye’;^[3] Italian imbustare is composed of in- ‘in’, busta ‘envelope’, -are (verbal suffix), with the meaning ‘to put into an envelope’.^[4]

Compound adpositions[edit]

Compound prepositions formed by prepositions and nouns are common in English and the Romance languages (consider English on top of, Spanish encima de, etc.). Hindi has a small number of simple (i.e., one-word) postpositions and a large number of compound postpositions, mostly consisting of simple postposition ke followed by a specific postposition (e.g., ke pas, «near»; ke nīche, «underneath»).

Examples from different languages[edit]

Chinese (traditional/simplified Chinese; Standard Chinese Pinyin/Cantonese Jyutping):

• 學生/学生 ‘student’: 學 xué/hok6 learn + 生 shēng/sang1 living being
• 太空/太空 ‘space’: 太 tài/taai3 great + 空 kōng/hung1 emptiness
• 摩天樓/摩天楼 ‘skyscraper’: 摩 mó/mo1 touch + 天 tiān/tin1 sky + 樓 lóu/lau2 building (with more than 1 storey)
• 打印機/打印机 ‘printer’: 打 dǎ/daa2 strike + 印 yìn/yan3 stamp/print + 機 jī/gei1 machine
• 百科全書/百科全书 ‘encyclopaedia’: 百 bǎi/baak3 hundred + 科 kē/fo1 (branch of) study + 全 quán/cyun4 entire/complete + 書 shū/syu1 book
• 謝謝/谢谢 ‘thanks’: Repeating of 謝 xiè thank

Dutch:

• arbeids­ongeschiktheids­verzekering ‘disability insurance’: arbeid ‘labour’ + ongeschiktheid ‘inaptitude’ + verzekering ‘insurance’.
• rioolwater­zuiverings­installatie ‘sewage treatment plant’: riool ‘sewer’ + water ‘water’ + zuivering ‘cleaning’ + installatie ‘installation’.
• verjaardags­kalender ‘birthday calendar’: verjaardag ‘birthday’ + kalender ‘calendar’.
• klantenservice­medewerker ‘customer service representative’: klanten ‘customers’ + service ‘service’ + medewerker ‘worker’.
• universiteits­bibliotheek ‘university library’: universiteit ‘university’ + bibliotheek ‘library’.
• doorgroei­mogelijkheden ‘possibilities for advancement’: door ‘through’ + groei ‘grow’ + mogelijkheden ‘possibilities’.

Finnish:

• sanakirja ‘dictionary’: sana ‘word’ + kirja ‘book’
• tietokone ‘computer’: tieto ‘knowledge data’ + kone ‘machine’
• keskiviikko ‘Wednesday’: keski ‘middle’ + viikko ‘week’
• maailma ‘world’: maa ‘land’ + ilma ‘air’
• rautatieasema ‘railway station’: rauta ‘iron’ + tie ‘road’ + asema ‘station’
• kolmivaihe­kilowattitunti­mittari ‘electricity meter’: ‘three-phase kilowatt hour meter’

German:

• Wolkenkratzer ‘skyscraper’: Wolken ‘clouds’ + Kratzer ‘scraper’
• Eisenbahn ‘railway’: Eisen ‘iron’ + Bahn ‘track’
• Kraftfahrzeug ‘automobile’: Kraft ‘power’ + fahren/fahr ‘drive’ + Zeug ‘machinery’
• Stacheldraht ‘barbed wire’: Stachel ‘barb/barbed’ + Draht ‘wire’
• Rinder­kennzeichnungs- und Rindfleisch­etikettierungs­überwachungs­aufgaben­übertragungs­gesetz: literally cattle-marking- and beef-labeling-supervision-duties-delegation law

Ancient Greek:

• φιλόσοφος philosopher: φίλος phílos ‘beloved’ + σοφία sophíā ‘wisdom’
• δημοκρατία dēmokratíā ‘democracy’: δῆμος dêmos ‘people’ + κράτος ‘rule’
• ῥοδοδάκτυλος rhododáktylos ‘rose-fingered’: ῥόδον rhódon ‘rose’ + δάκτυλος dáktylos ‘finger’ (a Homeric epithet applied to the Dawn)

Icelandic:

• járnbraut ‘railway’: járn ‘iron’ + braut ‘path’ or ‘way’
• farartæki ‘vehicle’: farar ‘journey’ + tæki ‘apparatus’
• alfræðiorðabók ‘encyclopedia’: al ‘everything’ + fræði ‘study’ or ‘knowledge’ + orðabók ‘dictionary’ (orða ‘words’ + bók ‘book’)
• símtal ‘telephone conversation’: sím ‘telephone’ + tal ‘dialogue’

Italian:

• millepiedi ‘centipede’: mille ‘thousand’ + piedi ‘feet’
• ferrovia ‘railway’: ferro ‘iron’ + via ‘way’
• tergicristallo ‘windscreen wiper’: tergere ‘to wash’ + cristallo ‘crystal (pane of) glass’
• pomodoro: pomo d’oro = apple of Gold = tomatoes
• portacenere = porta cenere = ashtray

Japanese:

• 目覚まし（時計） mezamashi(dokei) ‘alarm clock’: 目 me ‘eye’ + 覚まし samashi (-zamashi) ‘awakening (someone)’ (+ 時計 tokei (-dokei) clock)
• お好み焼き okonomiyaki: お好み okonomi ‘preference’ + 焼き yaki ‘cooking’
• 日帰り higaeri ‘day trip’: 日 hi ‘day’ + 帰り kaeri (-gaeri) ‘returning (home)’
• 国会議事堂 kokkaigijidō ‘national diet building’: 国会 kokkai ‘national diet’ + 議事 giji ‘proceedings’ + 堂 dō ‘hall’

Korean:

• 안팎 anpak ‘inside and outside’: 안 an ‘inside’ + 밖 bak ‘outside’ (As two nouns compound the consonant sound ‘b’ fortifies into ‘p’ becoming 안팎 anpak rather than 안밖 anbak)

Ojibwe/Anishinaabemowin:

• mashkikiwaaboo ‘tonic’: mashkiki ‘medicine’ + waaboo ‘liquid’
• miskomin ‘raspberry’: misko ‘red’ + miin ‘berry’
• dibik-giizis ‘moon’: dibik ‘night’ + giizis ‘sun’
• gichi-mookomaan ‘white person/American’: gichi ‘big’ + mookomaan ‘knife’

Spanish:

• ciencia-ficción ‘science fiction’: ciencia, ‘science’, + ficción, ‘fiction’ (This word is a calque from the English expression science fiction. In English, the head of a compound word is the last morpheme: science fiction. Conversely, the Spanish head is located at the front, so ciencia ficción sounds like a kind of fictional science rather than scientific fiction.)
• ciempiés ‘centipede’: cien ‘hundred’ + pies ‘feet’
• ferrocarril ‘railway’: ferro ‘iron’ + carril ‘lane’
• paraguas ‘umbrella’: para ‘stops’ + aguas ‘(the) water’
• cabizbajo ‘keeping the head low in a bad mood’: cabeza ‘head’ + bajo ‘down’
• subibaja ‘seesaw’ (contraction of sube y baja ‘goes up and down’)
• limpiaparabrisas ‘windshield wiper’ is a nested compound:^[5] limpia ‘clean’ + parabrisas windshield, which is itself a compound of para ‘stop’ + brisas ‘breezes’.

Tamil:

• In Cemmozhi (Classical Tamil), rules for compounding are laid down in grammars such as Tolkappiyam and Nannūl, in various forms, under the name punarcci. Examples of compounds include kopuram from ‘kō’ (king) + ‘puram’ (exterior). Sometimes phonemes may be inserted during the blending process such as in kovil from ‘kō’ (king) + ‘il’ (home). Other types are like vennai (butter) from ‘veḷḷai’ (white) + ‘nei’ (ghee); note how ‘veḷḷai’ becomes ‘ven’.
• In koṭuntamizh (Non-standard Tamil), parts of words from other languages may be morphed into Tamil. Common examples include ‘ratta-azhuttam’ (blood pressure) from the Sanskrit rakta (blood) and Cemmozhi ‘azhuttam’ (pressure); note how rakta becomes ratta in Tamil order to remove the consonant-cluster. This also happens with English, for examples kāpi-kaṭai (coffee shop) is from English coffee, which becomes kāpi in Tamil, and the Tamil kaṭai meaning shop.

Tłįchǫ Yatiì/Dogrib:

• dlòotsǫ̀ǫ̀ ‘peanut butter’: dlòo ‘squirrel’ + tsǫ̀ǫ̀ ‘dung’
• eyakǫ̀ ‘hospital: eya ‘sick’ + kǫ̀ ‘house’
• dè gotłeè ‘kerosene’: dè ‘land’ + gotłeè ‘its fat’
• dǫ łèt’è ‘bannock’: dǫ ‘[Aboriginal] people’ + łèt’è ‘bread’

Germanic languages[edit]

In Germanic languages (including English), compounds are formed by prepending what is effectively a namespace (disambiguation context) to the main word. For example, «football» would be a «ball» in the «foot» context. In itself, this does not alter the meaning of the main word. The added context only makes it more precise. As such, a «football» must be understood as a «ball». However, as is the case with «football», a well established compound word may have gained a special meaning in the language’s vocabulary. Only this defines «football» as a particular type of ball (unambiguously the round object, not the dance party, at that), and also the game involving such a ball. Another example of special and altered meaning is «starfish» – a starfish is in fact not a fish in modern biology. Also syntactically, the compound word behaves like the main word – the whole compound word (or phrase) inherits the word class and inflection rules of the main word. That is to say, since «fish» and «shape» are nouns, «starfish» and «star shape» must also be nouns, and they must take plural forms as «starfish» and «star shapes», definite singular forms as «the starfish» and «the star shape», and so on. This principle also holds for languages that express definiteness by inflection (as in North Germanic).

Because a compound is understood as a word in its own right, it may in turn be used in new compounds, so forming an arbitrarily long word is trivial. This contrasts to Romance languages, where prepositions are more used to specify word relationships instead of concatenating the words. As a member of the Germanic family of languages, English is unusual in that compounds are normally written in separate parts. This would be an error in other Germanic languages such as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German and Dutch. However, this is merely an orthographic convention: As in other Germanic languages, arbitrary noun phrases, for example «girl scout troop», «city council member», and «cellar door», can be made up on the spot and used as compound nouns in English too.

Russian language[edit]

In the Russian language compounding is a common type of word formation, and several types of compounds exist, both in terms of compounded parts of speech and of the way of the formation of a compound.^[6]

Compound nouns may be agglutinative compounds, hyphenated compounds (стол-книга ‘folding table’, lit. ‘table-book’, «book-like table»), or abbreviated compounds (acronyms: колхоз ‘kolkhoz’). Some compounds look like acronym, while in fact they are an agglutinations of type stem + word: Академгородок ‘Akademgorodok’ (from akademichesky gorodok ‘academic village’). In agglutinative compound nouns, an agglutinating infix is typically used: пароход ‘steamship’: пар + о + ход. Compound nouns may be created as noun+noun, adjective + noun, noun + adjective (rare), noun + verb (or, rather, noun + verbal noun).

Compound adjectives may be formed either per se (бело-розовый ‘white-pink’) or as a result of compounding during the derivation of an adjective from a multi-word term: Каменноостровский проспект ([kəmʲɪnnʌʌˈstrovskʲɪj prʌˈspʲɛkt]) ‘Stone Island Avenue’, a street in St.Petersburg.

Reduplication in Russian is also a source of compounds.

Quite a few Russian words are borrowed from other languages in an already-compounded form, including numerous «classical compounds» or internationalisms: автомобиль ‘automobile’.

Sanskrit language[edit]

Sanskrit is very rich in compound formation with seven major compound types and as many as 55 sub-types.^[7] The compound formation process is productive, so it is not possible to list all Sanskrit compounds in a dictionary. Compounds of two or three words are more frequent, but longer compounds with some running through pages are not rare in Sanskrit literature.^[7] Some examples are below (hyphens below show individual word boundaries for ease of reading but are not required in original Sanskrit).

• हिमालय (IAST Himālaya, decomposed as hima-ālaya): Name of the Himalaya mountain range. Literally the abode of snow.^[8] A compound of two words and four syllables.
• प्रवर-मुकुट-मणि-मरीचि-मञ्जरी-चय-चर्चित-चरण-युगल (IAST pravara-mukuṭa-maṇi-marīci-mañjarī-caya-carcita-caraṇa-yugala): Literally, O the one whose dual feet are covered by the cluster of brilliant rays from the gems of the best crowns, from the Sanskrit work Panchatantra.^[7] A compound of nine words and 25 syllables.
• कमला-कुच-कुङ्कुम-पिञ्जरीकृत-वक्षः-स्थल-विराजित-महा-कौस्तुभ-मणि-मरीचि-माला-निराकृत-त्रि-भुवन-तिमिर (IAST kamalā-kuca-kuṅkuma-piñjarīkṛta-vakṣaḥ-sthala-virājita-mahā-kaustubha-maṇi-marīci-mālā-nirākṛta-tri-bhuvana-timira): Literally O the one who dispels the darkness of three worlds by the shine of Kaustubha jewel hanging on the chest, which has been made reddish-yellow by the saffron from the bosom of Kamalā (Lakshmi), an adjective of Rama in the Kakabhushundi Rāmāyaṇa.^[9] A compound of 16 words and 44 syllables.
• साङ्ख्य-योग-न्याय-वैशेषिक-पूर्व-मीमांसा-वेदान्त-नारद-शाण्डिल्य-भक्ति-सूत्र-गीता-वाल्मीकीय-रामायण-भागवतादि-सिद्धान्त-बोध-पुरः-सर-समधिकृताशेष-तुलसी-दास-साहित्य-सौहित्य-स्वाध्याय-प्रवचन-व्याख्यान-परम-प्रवीणाः (IAST sāṅkhya-yoga-nyāya-vaiśeṣika-pūrva-mīmāṃsā-vedānta-nārada-śāṇḍilya-bhakti-sūtra-gītā-vālmīkīya-rāmāyaṇa-bhāgavatādi-siddhānta-bodha-puraḥ-sara-samadhikṛtāśeṣa-tulasī-dāsa-sāhitya-sauhitya-svādhyāya-pravacana-vyākhyāna-parama-pravīṇāḥ): Literally the acclaimed forerunner in understanding of the canons of Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Pūrva Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta, Nārada Bhakti Sūtra, Śāṇḍilya Bhakti Sūtra, Bhagavad Gītā, the Ramayana of Vālmīki, Śrīmadbhāgavata; and the most skilled in comprehensive self-study, discoursing and expounding of the complete works of Gosvāmī Tulasīdāsa.^[10] An adjective used in a panegyric of Jagadguru Rambhadracharya. The hyphens show only those word boundaries where there is no sandhi. On including word boundaries with sandhi (vedānta=veda-anta, rāmāyaṇa=rāma-ayana, bhāgavatādi=bhāgavata-ādi, siddhānta=siddha-anta, samadhikṛtāśeṣa=samadhikṛta-aśeṣa, svādhyāya=sva-adhyāya), this is a compound of 35 words and 86 syllables.

Sign languages[edit]

Also in sign languages, compounding is a productive word formation process. Both endocentric and exocentric compounds have been described for a variety of sign languages.^[11] Copulative compounds or dvandva, which are composed of two or more nouns from the same semantic category to denote that semantic category, also occur regularly in many sign languages. The sign for parents in Italian Sign Language, for instance, is a combination of the nouns ‘father’ and ‘mother’. The sign for breakfast in American Sign Language follows the same concept. The words eat and morning are signed together to create a new word meaning breakfast.^[12] This is an example of a sequential compound; in sign languages, it is also possible to form simultaneous compounds, where one hand represents one lexeme while the other simultaneously represents another lexeme. An example is the sign for weekend in Sign Language of the Netherlands, which is produced by simultaneously signing a one-handed version of the sign for Saturday and a one-handed version of the sign for Sunday.^[11] In American Sign Language there is another process easily compared to compounding. Blending is the blending of two morphemes to create a new word called a portmanteau.^[13] This is different from compounding in that it breaks the strict linear order of compounding. ^[14]

Recent trends in orthography[edit]

Although there is no universally agreed-upon guideline regarding the use of compound words in the English language, in recent decades written English has displayed a noticeable trend towards increased use of compounds.^[15] Recently, many words have been made by taking syllables of words and compounding them, such as pixel (picture element) and bit (binary digit). This is called a syllabic abbreviation.

In Dutch and the Scandinavian languages there is an unofficial trend toward splitting compound words, known in Norwegian as særskriving, in Swedish as särskrivning (literally «separate writing»), and in Dutch as Engelse ziekte (the «English disease»). Because the Dutch language and the Scandinavian languages rely heavily on the distinction between the compound word and the sequence of the separate words it consists of, this has serious implications. For example, the Danish adjective røykfritt (literally «smokefree», meaning no smoking allowed) if separated into its composite parts, would mean røyk fritt («smoke freely»). In Dutch, compounds written with spaces may also be confused, but can also be interpreted as a sequence of a noun and a genitive (which is unmarked in Dutch) in formal abbreviated writing. This may lead to, for example, commissie vergadering («commission meeting») being read as «commission of the meeting» rather than «meeting of the commission» (normally spelled commissievergadering).

The German spelling reform of 1996 introduced the option of hyphenating compound nouns when it enhances comprehensibility and readability. This is done mostly with very long compound words by separating them into two or more smaller compounds, like Eisenbahn-Unterführung (railway underpass) or Kraftfahrzeugs-Betriebsanleitung (car manual). Such practice is also permitted in other Germanic languages, e.g. Danish and Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk alike), and is even encouraged between parts of the word that have very different pronunciation, such as when one part is a loan word or an acronym.

Compounding by language[edit]

• Classical compounds
• English compounds
• German compounds
• Sanskrit compounds

See also[edit]

• Compound modifier
• Bracketing paradox
• Etymological calque
• Genitive connector
• Incorporation (linguistics)
• Kenning
• Multiword expression
• Neologism
• Noun adjunct
• Phono-semantic matching
• Portmanteau compounds
• Status constructus
• Syllabic abbreviation
• Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein, South African placename
• Word formation
• Univerbation: a phrase becomes a word

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Kortmann, Bernd: English Linguistics: Essentials, Cornelsen, Berlin 2005.
• The Oxford Handbook of Compounding, eds. Lieber, Rochelle & Pavol Štekauer, 2009. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Plag, Ingo: Word-formation in English, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003.
• Scalise Sergio & Irene Vogel (eds.) (2010), Cross-Disciplinary Issues in Compounding, Amsterdam, Benjamins.

External links[edit]

• Compound word, encyclopedia.com
• Compounds and multi-word expressions in the languages of Europe by Rita Finkbeiner and Barbara Schlücker, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in English by Laurie Bauer, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in Finnish by Irma Hyvärinen, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in French by Kristel Van Goethem, 2018
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in German by Barbara Schlücker, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in Greek by Maria Koliopoulou, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in Hungarian by Ferenc Kiefer, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in Italian by Francesca Masini, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in Polish by Bozena Cetnarowska, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in Russian by Ingeborg Ohnheiser, 2019
  • Compounds and multi-word expressions in Spanish by Jesús Fernández-Domínguez, 2019

phrase | compound | As verbs the difference between phrase and compound is that phrase is while compound is to form (a resulting mixture) by combining different elements, ingredients, or parts. As nouns the difference between phrase and compound is that phrase is phrasing while compound is an enclosure within which workers, prisoners, or soldiers are confined or compound can be anything made by combining several things. As an adjective compound is composed of elements; not simple. Other Comparisons: What’s the difference? phrase English Noun (en noun) A short written or spoken expression. (grammar) A word or group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence, usually consisting of a head, or central word, and elaborating words. * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-11-30, volume=409, issue=8864, magazine=(The Economist), author=Paul Davis, title= Letters: Say it as simply as possible , passage=Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“ On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?}} (music) A small section of music in a larger piece. (archaic) A mode or form of speech; diction; expression. * Tennyson phrases of the hearth * Shakespeare Thou speak’st / In better phrase and matter than thou didst. Synonyms * (expression) figure of speech, locution * See also Derived terms * adjective phrase * adverb phrase * antecedent phrase * bombard phrase * catchphrase * consequent phrase * determiner phrase * empty phrase * noun phrase * participial phrase * phrasal * phrase book * phrase structure * phrasemaker * phraseology * prepositional phrase * set phrase * turn a phrase * verb phrase Verb (phras) (music) To perform a passage with the correct phrasing. (music) To divide into melodic phrases. To express (an action, thought or idea) by means of words. * Shakespeare These suns — for so they phrase ’em. compound Etymology 1 Possibly from (etyl) kampong, . Noun (en noun) an enclosure within which workers, prisoners, or soldiers are confined a group of buildings situated close together, e.g. for a school or block of offices Synonyms * gaol/jail, pen, pound, prison Etymology 2 From (etyl) compounen, from (etyl) componre, . Adjective (—) composed of elements; not simple a compound word * I. Watts Compound substances are made up of two or more simple substances. (music) An octave higher than originally (i.e. a compound major second is equivalent to a major ninth). Synonyms * (composed of elements) composite Antonyms * (composed of elements) simple Derived terms * compound chocolate * compound interest Noun (en noun) Anything made by combining several things. (chemistry, dated) A substance made from any combination elements. (chemistry) A substance formed by chemical union of two or more ingredients in definite proportions by weight. (linguistics) A lexeme that consists of more than one stem; compound word; for example (laptop), formed from (lap) and (top). Synonyms * (anything made by combining several things) amalgam, blend, combination, composite, mix, mixture * (word) compound word Hyponyms * (word) closed compound * (word) hyphenated compound * (word) open compound Verb (en verb) To form (a resulting mixture) by combining different elements, ingredients, or parts. to compound a medicine * Sir Walter Scott incapacitating him from successfully compounding a tale of this sort To assemble (ingredients) into a whole; to combine, mix, or unite. * Addison We have the power of altering and compounding those images into all the varieties of picture. To modify or change by combination with some other thing or part; to mingle with something else. * Shakespeare Only compound me with forgotten dust. (legal) To settle by agreeing on less than the claim, or on different terms than those stipulated. to compound a debt To settle amicably; to adjust by agreement; to compromise. * Shakespeare I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife. To come to terms of agreement; to agree; to settle by a compromise; usually followed by with» before the person participating, and »for before the thing compounded or the consideration. * Shakespeare Here’s a fellow will help you to-morrow; compound with him by the year. * Clarendon They were at last glad to compound for his bare commitment to the Tower. * R. Carew Cornwall compounded to furnish ten oxen after Michaelmas for thirty pounds. * Hudibras Compound for sins they are inclined to / By damning those they have no mind to. (obsolete) To compose; to constitute. * Shakespeare his pomp and all what state compounds To worsen a situation or thing state * New Family Structure Study This problem is compounded when these studies compare data from the small convenience samples of gay parenting with data on heterosexual parenting Synonyms * (to come to terms of agreement) agree * (to put together) assemble, blend, combine, join, join together, mix, put together, unite * (to add to) augment, increase * settle Derived terms * compoundable References