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English compounds may be classified in several ways, such as the Word Class es or the Semantic relationship of their components.
COMPOUND NOUNS Most English compound Noun s are noun phrases (= nominal phrases) that include a noun modified by Adjective s or Attributive Noun s. Due to the English tendency towards Conversion , the two classes are not always easily distinguished. Most English compound nouns that consist of more than two words can be constructed Recursively by combining two words at a time. The compound ''science fiction writer'', for example, can be constructed by combining ''science'' and ''fiction'', and then combining the resulting compound with ''writer''. Some compounds, such as ''salt and pepper'' or ''mother-of-pearl'', can not be constructed in this way, however. Types of compound nouns Since English is a mostly Analytic Language , unlike most other Germanic Language s, it creates compounds by concatenating words without Case Marker s. As in other Germanic languages, the compounds may be arbitrarily long. However, this is obscured by the fact that the written representation of long compounds always contains blanks. Short compounds may be written in three different ways, which do not correspond to different pronunciations, however:
Usage in the US and in the UK differs and often depends on the individual choice of the writer rather than on a hard-and-fast rule; therefore, open, hyphenated, and closed forms may be encountered for the same compound noun, such as the triplets ''container ship''/''container-ship''/''containership'' and ''particle board''/''particle-board''/odd-looking ''particleboard''. In addition to this native English compounding, there is the '' Classical '' type, which consists of words derived from Latin, as ''horticulture'', and those of Greek origin, such as ''photography'', the components of which are in Bound form (connected by connecting vowels, which are most often ''-i-'' and ''-o-'' in Latin and Greek respectively) and cannot stand alone. Analyzability (transparency) In general, the meaning of a compound noun is a Specialization of the meaning of its head. The Modifier limits the meaning of the head. This is most obvious in Descriptive Compound s, also known as '' Karmadharaya '' compounds, in which the modifier is used in an attributive or appositional manner. A ''blackboard'' is a particular kind of board which is (generally) black, for instance. In Determinative Compound s, however, the relationship is not attributive. For example, a ''footstool'' is not a particular type of stool that is like a foot. Rather, it is a ''stool for one's foot or feet''. (It can be used for sitting on, but that is not its primary purpose.) In a similar manner, the ''office manager'' is the manager of an office, an ''armchair'' is a ''chair with arms'', and a ''raincoat'' is a ''coat against the rain''. These relationships, which are expressed by Preposition s in English, would be expressed by Grammatical Case in other languages. Compounds of this type are also known as '' Tatpurusha '' compounds. Both of the above types of compounds are called Endocentric compounds because the semantic head is contained within the compound itself -- a blackboard is a type of board, for example, and a footstool is a type of stool. However, in another common type of compound, the Exocentric or Bahuvrihi compound, the semantic head is not explicitly expressed. A ''redhead'', for example, is not a kind of head, but is a person '''with''' a red head. Similarly, a ''blockhead'' is also not a head, but a person with a head that is as hard and unreceptive as a block (i.e. stupid). And someone who is ''barefoot'' is not a foot -- they're someone '''with''' a foot that is bare. And, outside of Veterinary surgery, a ''lionheart'' is not a type of heart, but a person with a heart like a lion (in its bravery, courage, fearlessness, etc.). Note in general the way to tell the two apart: -- Can you paraphrase the meaning of the compound " . Y " to ''A person/thing that is a Y'', or ''... that '''does''' Y'', if Y is a verb (with X having some unspecified connection)? This is an endocentric compound. -- Can you paraphrase the meaning if the compound " . Y " to ''A person/thing that is with Y'', with X having some unspecified connection? This is an exocentric compound. Exocentric compounds occur more often in adjectives than nouns. A ''barefoot girl'', for example, is not a girl that is a bare foot, but a girl '''with''' a bare foot. Similarly, a ''V-8 car'' is a car '''with''' a V-8 engine rather than a car that is a V-8, and a ''twenty-five-dollar car'' is a car '''with''' a worth of $25, not a car that is $25. The compounds shown here are bare, but more commonly, a suffixal morpheme is added, esp. ''-ed''. Hence, a ''two-legged'' person is a person '''with''' two legs, and this is exocentric. On the other hand, endocentric adjectives are also frequently formed, using the suffixal morphemes ''-ing'' or ''-er/or''. A ''car-carrier'' is a clear endocentric determinative compound: it is a thing that is a carrier of cars. The related adjective, ''car-carrying'', is also endocentric: it refers to an object which is a carrying-thing (or equivalent, which '''does''' carry). These types account for most compound nouns, but there are other, rarer types as well. ''Coordinative'', ''copulative'' or '' Dvandva '' compounds combine elements with a similar meaning, and the compound meaning may be a Generalization instead of a specialization. ''Bosnia-Herzegovina'', for example, is the combined area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but a ''fighter-bomber'' is an aircraft that is both a fighter and a bomber. ''Iterative'' or ''amredita'' compounds repeat a single element, to express repetition or as an emphasis. ''Day-by-day'' and ''go-go-go'' are examples of this type of compound, which has more than one head. Analyzability may be further limited by Cranberry Morpheme s and semantic changes. For instance, the word ''butterfly'', commonly thought to be a Metathesis for ''flutter by'', which the bugs do, is actually based on an old Bubbe-maise that butterflies are petite Witch es that steal Butter from Windowsill s. ''Cranberry'' is a part translation from Low German , which is why we cannot recognize the element ''cran'' (from the Low German ''kraan'' or ''kroon'', "crane"). The ''ladybird'' or ''ladybug'' was named after the Christian expression "our ''Lady'', the Virgin Mary". In the case of verb+noun compounds, the noun may be either the Subject (grammar) or the Object of the verb. In ''playboy'', for example, the noun is the subject of the verb (''the boy plays''), whereas it is the object in ''callgirl'' (''someone calls the girl''). Sound patterns A ''black board'' is any board that is black, and equal Prosodic Stress can be found on both elements (or, according to Psycholinguist Steven Pinker , the second one is accented more heavily.) A ''blackboard'', the compound, may have started out as any other ''black board'', but now is a thing that is constructed in a particular way, of a particular material and serves a particular purpose; the word is clearly Accented on the first Syllable . Sound patterns, such as stresses placed on particular syllables, may indicate whether the word group is a compound or whether it is an adjective-+-noun phrase. A compound usually has a falling intonation: "bláckboard," the "Whíte House", as opposed to the phrases "bláck bóárd". (Note that this rule does not apply in all contexts. For example, the stress pattern "whíte house" would be expected for the compound, which happens to be a proper name, but it is also found in the emphatic negation "No, not the ''black house''; the ''white'' house!" COMPOUND ADJECTIVES English compound adjectives are constructed in a very similar way to the compound noun. ''Blackboard jungle'', ''leftover ingredients'', ''gunmetal sheen'', and ''green monkey disease'' are only a few examples. A compound adjective is a modifier of a noun. It consists of two or more morphemes of which the left-hand component limits or changes the modification of the right-hand one, as in "the dark-green dress": ''dark'' limits the ''green'' that modifies ''dress''. Solid compound adjectives There are some well-established permanent compound adjectives that have become solid over a longer period, especially in American usage: ''earsplitting'', ''eyecatching'', and ''downtown''. However, in British usage, these, apart from ''downtown'', are more likely written with a hyphen: ''ear-splitting'', ''eye-catching''. Other solid compound adjectives are for example:
Hyphenated compound adjectives A compound adjective is hyphenated if the hyphen helps the reader differentiate a compound adjective from two adjacent adjectives that each independently modify the noun. Compare the following examples:
The hyphen is unneeded when capitalization or italicization makes grouping clear:
If, however, there is no risk of ambiguities, it may be written without a hyphen: ''Sunday morning walk''. Hyphenated compound adjectives may have been formed originally by an adjective preceding a noun:
Others may have originated with a verb preceding an adjective or adverb:
Yet others are created with an original verb preceding a Preposition .
The following compound adjectives are ''always'' hyphenated when they are not written as one word:
The following compound adjectives are not normally hyphenated:
COMPOUND VERBS
A compound verb is usually composed of a Preposition and a Verb , although other combinations also exist. The term ''compound verb'' was first used in Publication in Grattan and Gurrey's ''Our Living Language'' ( 1925 ). From a morphological point of view, some compound verbs are difficult to analyze because several derivations are plausible. ''Blacklist'', for instance, might be analyzed as an adjective+verb compound, or as an adjective+noun compound that becomes a verb through Zero Derivation . Most compound verbs originally have the collective meaning of both components, but some of them later gain additional meanings that may predominate the original, accurate sense. Therefore, sometimes the resultant meanings are seemingly barely related to the original contributors.
Hyphenation Compound verbs with single-syllable modifiers are solid, or un Hyphen ated. Those with longer modifiers may originally be hyphenated, but as they became established, they became solid, e.g.,
There was a tendency in the 18th Century to use hyphens excessively, that is, to hyphenate all previously established solid compound verbs. American English , however, has diminished the use of hyphens, while British English is more conservative. Phrasal Verb s English Syntax distinguishes between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs. Consider the following: I held up my hand. I held up a bank. I held my hand up.
The first three sentences are possible in English; the last one is unlikely, except for Kryptonians . When ''to hold up'' means ''to raise'', it is a prepositional verb; the preposition ''up'' can be detached from the verb and has its own individual meaning "''from lower to a higher position''". As a prepositional verb, it has a literal meaning. But when ''to hold up'' means ''to rob'', it is a Phrasal Verb . A phrasal verb is used in an idiomatic, figurative or even metaphorical context. The preposition is inextricably linked to the verb, the meaning of each word cannot be determined independently but is in fact part of the idiom. The ''Oxford English Grammar'' (ISBN 0-19-861250-8) distinguishes seven types of prepositional or phrasal verbs in English:
English has a number of other kinds of compound verb idioms. There are compound verbs with two verbs (e.g. ''make do''). These too can take idiomatic prepositions (e.g. ''get rid of''). There are also idiomatic combinations of verb and adjective (e.g. ''come true'', ''run amok'') and verb and adverb (''make sure''), verb and fixed noun (e.g. ''go ape''); and these, too, may have fixed idiomatic prepositions (e.g. ''take place on''). Misuses of the term "Compound verb" is often used in place of: # "complex verb", a type of Complex Phrase . But this usage is not accepted in Linguistics , because "compound" and "complex" are not synonymous. # "verb Phrase " or "verbal phrase". This is a partially, but not entirely, incorrect use. A phrasal verb can be a one-word verb, of which compound verb is a type. However, many phrasal verbs are multi-word. # " Phrasal Verb ". A sub-type of verb phrase, which have a particle as a ''word'' before or after the verb. SEE ALSO |