compounding
That
is, in familiar terms, compounding occurs when two or more words are
joined together to make them one word. The meaning of
the compound may be very different from the meanings of its
components in isolation.
In language studies, compounding is the
process of combining two words (free morphemes) to create a new word
(commonly anoun, verb, or adjective). Also called composition.Compounds are written sometimes as one word (sunglasses), sometimes as two hyphenated words (life-threatening), and sometimes as two separate words (football stadium).
Types of Compounds
A.compound words
in morphology, a compound word is made up of two or morewords that
express a single idea and function as a single word.
The most common types of compound words in English
arecompound nouns (e.g., cheeseburger), compound
adjectives("red-hot temper"), and compound
verbs ("waterproof the deck").
1. CLOSED COMPOUND WORDS
formed when two unique words are
joined together do not have a space between them examples:
• I love the fireworks on
the fourth of July.
• Make sure you hold hands when
you come to the crosswalk.
• The ocean was bathed in moonlight.
others examples: football
, anybody , everything , inside , upside , railroad etc.
2. OPEN COMPOUND WORDS
have a space between the
words a new meaning is formed when they are read together examples :
• Ice cream is
my favorite dessert.
• There must be a full
moon out tonight.
others examples : middle
class , cave in , real estate , half sister etc.
3.
HYPHENATED COMPOUND WORDS
connected by a hyphen
examples :
• My mother-in-law is
coming for a visit.
• Some over-the-counter drugs
can have serious side effects.
others examples : one-half
, merry-go-round , well-being etc.
One-half | Mother-in-law |
Eighty-six | One-third |
Merry-go-round | Well-being |
Mass-produced | Over-the-counter |
Daughter-in-law | |
B. Compound Adjective
A compound adjective is made
up of two or more words (such aspart-time and high-speed) that act as a single
idea to modify anoun (a part-time employee, a high-speed chase). Also called a
phrasal adjective or a compound modifier.
As a general rule, the words
in a compound adjective arehyphenated when they come before a noun (a
well-known actor) but not when they come after (The actor is well known).
Also, compound adjectives
formed with an adverb ending in -ly(such as rapidly changing) are usually not
hyphenated.
C.Compound
Noun
Two
or more nouns combined to form a single noun.
Compound
nouns are written as separate words (grapefruit juice),
as words linked by ahyphen (sister-in-law), or
as one word (schoolteacher).
A
compounded noun whose form no longer clearly reveals its origin (such as bonfire ormarshall) is
sometimes called an amalgamated compound.
Many place names (or toponyms) are amalgamated
compounds: e.g., Norwich (north + village) and Sussex (south + Saxons).
D.Compound
Verb
(1)
In English grammar, a compound
verb is made up of two or more words that function as a
single verb. Conventionally, verb compounds are written as either one word
("to housesit") or two
hyphenated words ("to water-proof").
Also called a compound (orcomplex) predicate.
(2)
Similarly, a compound verb can be a phrasal
verb or aprepositional verb that
behaves either lexically or syntacticallyas a single verb. In
such cases, a verb and its particle may be separated by other words
("drop the essay off"). This structure is
now more commonly known as a multi-word
verb.
(3)
The term compound verb can also
refer to a lexical verb along with
its auxiliaries; in traditional grammar, this is called a verb phrase.
E.Exocentric Compound
In morphology, an exocentric
compound is a compound construction
that lacks a head word: that is, the construction as a whole is
not grammatically and/or semantically equivalent to either
of its parts. Also called a headless
compound. Contrast with endocentric
compound (a construction that fulfills the same linguistic
function as one of its parts).
Put another way, an exocentric compound is a compound word
that's not a hyponym of its grammatical head. As discussed
below, one well-known type of exocentric compound is the bahuvrihi compound (a term
that is sometimes treated as a synonym for exocentric
compound).
Linguist Valerie Adams illustrates exocentricity in this way: "The term exocentric describes
expressions in which no part seems to be of the same kind as the whole or
to be central to it.
The noun change-over is
exocentric, and so are 'verb-complement' noun compounds like stop-gap, along
with adjective + noun and noun + noun compounds like air-head, paperback, lowlife.
F. Rhyming Compound
A compound word that
contains rhyming elements, such as blackjack, fuddy duddy,
pooper-scooper, and voodoo. Also called rhyme-motivated
compounds.
Rhyming compounds (subtype of compounds)
These words are compounded from two rhyming words.
Examples:
lovey-dovey
chiller-killer
There are words that are formally very similar to rhyming
compounds, but are not quite compounds in English because the second element is
not really a word--it is just a nonsense item added to a root word to form a
rhyme.
Examples:
higgledy-piggledy
tootsie-wootsie
Kenneth Wilson notes that rhyming compounds are
"catchy and surprisingly durable self-imitating words such as nitty-gritty, hanky-panky, hurdy-gurdy, nambypamby,
and itty-bitty"
G. Root
Compound and Synthetic Compound
In morphology,
a root compound is
a compound construction in which the head element is not
derived from a verb. Also called aprimary
compound or an analytic
compound. Contrast withsynthetic
compound.
Root
compounds are made up of free morphemes, and the semantic relation between
the two elements in a root compound is not inherently restricted.
In morphology,
a synthetic compound is a
type of compound that parallels a verbal construction, with
the head derived from a verband the other element functioning as
an object. Also known as averbal
compound. Contrast with root
compound.
Synthetic compounding is a type of word formation in
whichcompounding and derivation are combined.
According
to Rochelle Lieber, "The thing that distinguishes synthetic from root
compounds, and therefore that drives the interpretation of synthetic compounds,
is the fact that the secondstem of a synthetic compound is by definition
a deverbal derivation, and in deverbal derivations we often have more
than one argument available for co-indexing. Further, those
arguments, by virtue of being verbal arguments, have distinctive thematic
interpretations which contribute to the interpretation of any co-indexed
stem" (Morphology and Lexical Semantics.
Cambridge University Press, 2004).
H. Suspended
Compound
In English grammar, a suspended compound is a set
ofcompound nouns or compound adjectives in which an element
common to all members is not repeated. Also called suspensive hyphenation.
A hyphen and a space follow the first
element of a suspended compound. (A hyphen with a space after it is called
a hanging hyphen.)
COMPOUNDING
- noun-noun compound: note + book → notebook
- adjective-noun compound: blue + berry → blueberry
- verb-noun compound: work + room → workroom
- noun-verb compound: breast + feed → breastfeed
- verb-verb compound: stir + fry → stir-fry
- adjective-verb compound: high + light → highlight
- verb-preposition compound: break + up → breakup
- preposition-verb compound: out + run → outrun
- adjective-adjective compound: bitter + sweet → bittersweet
- preposition-preposition compound: in + to → into