Compounding as a Type of Word-Formation
Compounding (or word-composition) is a productive type of word-formation. Compounds are made up by joining together at least two stems, mostly stems of notional parts of speech. Compounds have different degree of complexity: they may consist of simple and derived stems.
Structure of Compound Words: Their Inseparability
Compounds are structurally and phonetically inseparable. Structurally
compounds are characterized by the specific order and arrangement of stems.
The order in which the two stems are placed together within a compound is
strictly fixed in Modern English and it is the second stem which is the struc-
tural and semantic centre of the compound, e.g.: baby-sitter, writing-table.
Phonetically compounds are also marked by a specific structure of their own. No phonetic changes of stems take place in composition, but the compound word gets a new stress pattern, different from the stress in the words with similar stems, e.g.: 'key, 'hole -> 'key-hole. Compounds have three stress patterns:
1. A high or unity stress on the first component: 'doorway, 'drawback,
'blackboard.
2. A double stress: with a primary stress on the first component and a
weaker, secondary stress on the second component: 'blood,vessel, 'washing-
ma,chine.
3. A level stress: 'open-'eyed, 'icy-'cold, 'grass-'green.
Graphically most compounds have two types of spelling: they are written either solidly or with a hyphen. It differs from author to author and from dictionary to dictionary,
e.g.: war-path = warpath;
blood-transfusion = bloodtransfusion
word-group = wordgroup
Meaning of Compound Words. Motivation in Compounds
Semantically the majority of compounds are motivated units: their meaning is derived from the combined lexical meanings of their components. The semantic centre of the compound is the lexical meaning of the second component modified and restricted by the meaning of the first,
e.g.: a handbag = a bag carried in the hand;
an ear-ring = a ring to wear in the ear.
But the meaning of a compound is not a simple sum of lexical meanings of its components: the new meaning dominates over the individual meanings
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of the components. The lexical meanings of both components are closely fused together to create a new semantic unit,
e.g.: a time-bomb = a bomb designed to explode at a certain time.
The meaning of the compound is also derived from the meaning of its distributional pattern.
A simple change in the order of stems with the same lexical meanings results in a drastic change in the lexical meaning of the compound,
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e.g.: fruit-market is different from market-fruit;
boat-life is different from life-boat.
So, the lexical meaning of a compound is derived from the combined lexical meanings of its components and the structural meaning of its distributional pattern.
According to different degrees of motivation compounds are:
completely motivated - both components are used in their direct meanings: shoe-maker, sportsman;
partially motivated - one component - in the direct, the other - in indirect meaning: flower-bed, castle-builder;
completely nonmotivated (with lack of motivation) - there is no connection between the meaning of the compound and the lexical meanings of the components: fiddlesticks (nonsense), eye-wash (smth. said or done to deceive a person).
Classification of Compounds
According to the degree of semantic independence of stems; according to the part of speech; according to the means of connection of stems; according to the types of stems.
According to the degree of semantic independence of stems compounds are:
1) subordinative - the components are neither structurally nor semanti-
cally equal in importance, the head member is the 2nd component:
baby-sitter, speedometer;
2) coordinative - both stems are semantically equally important, both
words are structural and semantic centres.
Coordinative compounds may be:
a) reduplicative - made up by repetition of the same word: fifty-fifty,
hush-hush, goody-goody;
b) phonetically variated rhythmic twin forms: chit-chat, zig-zag, clap
trap, helter-skelter;
c) additive - are formed from stems of the independently functioning
words of the same part of speech. They denote a person or an object that is two
things at the same time.
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Functional classification - compounds are viewed as different parts of speech, which is indicated by the second stem:
- nouns: birthday, week-end, mother-in-law;
- adjectives: peace-loving, long-legged;
- adverbs: somewhere, indoors, inside;
- pronouns: somebody, something;
- connectives: within, without;
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- verbs:
a) verbal and adverbial stems: to bypass, to inlay, to offset,
b) verbs formed by means of conversion: to week-end, to gooseflesh, to
blacklist.
According to the means of connection:
-formed by placing one simple stem with a linking element after the other: spedometer, Afro-Asian (o), handicraft (i); statesman, sales-man (s);
-without any linking element: headache, man-made.
According to the type of stems joined together:
-compounds proper: formed by joining together stems of words available in the language, with or without the help of special linking element, e.g. street-lamp, age-long;
-derivational compounds: one of the stems is derived, e.g. bed-sitter, type-writer, long-legged.
Patterns of Compounds Compound nouns: N + N - pencil-case [N + (V + er)] - peace-fighter
[N + (V + tion/ment)] - office-management, price-reduction
In general compounds are formed from the stems of words available in the language according to productive patterns: dog-days, rosy-cheeked.
Compounds can also be the result of a gradual process of semantic isolation and structural fusion of free word-groups, e.g.: forget-me-not, bread-and-butter, hook-and-ladder, man-of-war, up-to-date.
Compounding is a very interesting and problematic phenomenon. Though many investigations have been done in this field still there are many problems to be solved: typological study of patterns of compounds, motivation, compounds formed by means of conversion, the stone wall-problem (is it a free word-group or a compound word ?).
CONVERSION
1. Definition. Treatment of conversion.
2. Semantic relations between conversion pairs.
3. Traditional and occasional conversion.
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