Week 4 – Compounding

Question 1

What is compounding?

Answer 1

• a lexical unit consisting of more that 1 base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word
• combination of linguistic elements on the basis of determinant/determinatum relationship called syntagma

Question 2

Hyponymic nature of compounds

Answer 2

Hyponymy: AB = kind of B

e.g. tablecloth (is a kind of cloth), sky-blue

Question 3

Compound word

Answer 3

= a fixed combination of 2 free forms!
- fixed order

Question 4

Criteria for compounds

Answer 4

1. prosodic (stress on the 1st element)
2. orthographic (typically solid and hyphenated, but also open (e.g. paper knife, paper-knife, paperknife)
3. grammatical (compared to a phrase: wet day x small talk – cannot be separated and divided but can be pluralised)
4. semantic (global meaning, hyponymic nature)

Question 5

Why do we need the criteria for compounds?

Answer 5

1. compound (‘sweetcorn) vs. free combination (sweet ‘breath)
2. compound (‘sweetcorn) vs. multiple word-term (sweet ‘pea)
3. compound (‘sweetcorn) vs. idiom (sweet ‘tooth)
4. compound (‘floodgate) vs. derivation (‘Irangate)

Question 6

EXCEPTIONS to prosodic criteria

Answer 6

1. participle + noun (minced ‘meat)
2. adj. + -ed participle (bad-‘tempered)
3. numerical 1st element (three ‘wheeler)
4. adverb compounds (head-‘first)
5. verb compounds w/ adverbial 1st element (ill-‘treat)

Question 7

Historical p.o.w. – compounds

Answer 7

1. historical
   amalgamated compounds (obscure)
   e.g. neighbour [near + farmer]
2. open compounds
   hard disk, spin doctor

Question 8

Compounding (derivation) by combining forms

Answer 8

Combining forms = psycho-, Anglo-, socio-, vice-
have the semantic characteristic of the 1st constituent in a compound but they resemble prefixes in mostly being obligatory initial in having little or no currency as separate words, and not normally being the stressed part of a complex word (psycho’therapy)

• usually neo-classical affixes!!
• e.g.:
  INITIAL: Anglo-, astro-, bio-, electro-, Euro-, psycho-, tele-
  FINAL: -cide, -cracy, -gram, -graph, -logy, -phile, -phobe
  (biochemistry, teleconference, Eurosceptic, psychotherapy)
• most often in scientific terminology (chemistry + pharmacology)

!!! 2 combining forms can be joined to form a word: psychology, homophobe, Eurocrat, astronaut