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Compound (linguistics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lexeme (word or sign) that consists of more than one stem

Inlinguistics, acompound is alexeme (less precisely, aword orsign) that consists of more than onestem.Compounding,composition ornominal composition is the process ofword formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. Consequently, a compound is a unit composed of more than one stem, forming words or signs. If the joining of the words or signs is orthographically represented with a hyphen, the result is ahyphenated compound (e.g.,must-have,hunter-gatherer). If they are joined without an intervening space, it is aclosed compound (e.g.,footpath,blackbird). If they are joined with a space (e.g.school bus, high school, lowest common denominator), then the result – at least in English[1] – may be anopen compound.[2][3][4][5]

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 samepart of speech—as in the case of the English wordfootpath, composed of the twonounsfoot andpath—or they may belong to different parts of speech, as in the case of the English wordblackbird, composed of theadjectiveblack and the nounbird. With very few exceptions, English compound words arestressed on their first component stem.

As a member of theGermanic 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 asNorwegian,Swedish,Danish,German, andDutch. However, this is merely anorthographic convention: as in other Germanic languages, arbitrarynoun 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, GermanDonau­dampfschifffahrts­gesellschafts­kapitän[a] would be written in English as "Danube steamship transport company captain" and not as "Danube­steamship­transportcompany­captain".

The meaning of compounds may not always be transparent from their components, necessitating familiarity with usage and context. The addition ofaffix morphemes to words (such assuffixes orprefixes, as inemployemployment) should not be confused with nominal composition, as this is actuallymorphological 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) asBandwurmwörter ("tapeworm words").

Compounding extends beyond spoken languages to includeSign languages as well, where compounds are also created by combining two or more sign stems.

So-called "classical compounds" are compounds derived fromclassical Latin orancient Greekroots.

In many languages, including English, Spanish, Latin and German, all numbers greater than twenty that have more than one non-zero digit are written and spoken as compounds.

Formation of compounds

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Compound formation rules vary widely across language types.

In asynthetic language, the relationship between the elements of a compound may be marked with a case or othermorpheme. For example, theGerman compoundKapitänspatent consists of the lexemesKapitän (sea captain) andPatent (license) joined by an-s- (originally agenitive case suffix); and similarly, theLatin lexemepaterfamilias contains thearchaic genitive formfamilias of the lexemefamilia (family). Conversely, in theHebrew language compound, the word בֵּית סֵפֶרbet sefer (school), it is the head that is modified: the compound literally means "house-of book", with בַּיִתbayit (house) having entered theconstruct state to become בֵּיתbet (house-of). This latter pattern is common throughout theSemitic 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

servant-NOM

l-lāh-i

DEF-god-GEN

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.

InGerman, 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 allnoun adjuncts with the noun as the last stem. German examples includeFarb­fernsehgerät (color television set),Funk­fernbedienung (radio remote control), and the often quoted jocular wordDonau­dampfschifffahrts­gesellschafts­kapitänsmütze (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 theGuinness Book of World Records, the longest published German word has 79 letters and isDonau­dampfschiffahrts­elektrizitäten­hauptbetriebswerkbau­unterbeamten­gesellschaft("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. Internet folklore sometimes suggests thatlentokone­suihkuturbiinimoottori­apumekaanikko­aliupseerioppilas (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.[6]

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 torörelse­uppskattnings­sökintervalls­inställningar, though in reality, the word would most likely be divided in two:sökintervalls­inställningar för rörelse­uppskattning – "search range settings for motion estimation".

Subclasses

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Semantic classification

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A common semantic classification of compounds yields four types:

  • endocentric
  • exocentric
  • copulative
  • appositional

Anendocentric compound (tatpuruṣa in theSanskrit tradition) consists of ahead, i.e. the categorical part that contains the basic meaning of the whole compound, and modifiers, which restrict this meaning. The compound word is ahyponym of the head. For example, the English compounddoghouse, wherehouse is the head anddog is the modifier, is understood as a house intended for a dog. Endocentric compounds tend to be of the samepart of speech (word class) as their head, as in the case ofdoghouse.

Anexocentric compound (bahuvrihi in the Sanskrit tradition) is a compound where the semantic category (e.g. person, plant, or animal) is not stated. Neither of its components is a head, and its meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts. For example, the English compoundwhite-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, amust-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. Other English examples includebarefoot.

Copulative compounds (dvandva in the Sanskrit tradition) are compounds with two semantic heads. These are commonly used to describe points on a gradual scale, such asyellow-green.

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

TypeDescriptionExamples
endocentricA+B denotes a special kind of Bdarkroom,smalltalk
exocentricA+B denotes a special kind of an unexpressed different semantic meaning Credhead,scarecrow
copulativeA+B denotes 'the sum' of what A and B denotebittersweet,sleepwalk
appositionalA and B provide different descriptions for the same referenthunter-gatherer,maidservant

Syntactic classification

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Noun–noun compounds

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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 asemantic identity that evolves from a merecollocation to something stronger in its solidification. This theme has been summarized inusage guides under the aphorism that "compound nouns tend to solidify as they age"; thus a compound noun such asplace name begins as spaced in most attestations and then becomes hyphenated asplace-name and eventually solid asplacename, or the spaced compound nounfile name directly becomes solid asfilename without being hyphenated.

Types of English compound nouns
TypeDescriptionExamples
Spaced (or open)The words are not visibly connected in writing.place name,ice cream
HyphenatedAhyphen is used to join the words.place-name,hunter-gatherer
Solid (or closed)When written, there is no space or intervening punctuation.placename,scarecrow

German, a fellowWest Germanic language, hasa 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.

InFrench, compound nouns are often formed by left-hand heads with prepositional components inserted before the modifier, as inchemin-de-fer 'railway', lit. 'road of iron', andmoulin à vent 'windmill', lit. 'mill (that works)-by-means-of wind'.

InTurkish, 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 apleonasm. One example is the English wordpathway.

InArabic, there are two distinct criteria unique to Arabic, or potentiallySemitic languages in general. The initial criterion involves whether thepossessive marker li-/la ‘for/of’ appears or is absent when the first element is definite. The second criterion deals with the appearance/absence of the possessive marker li-/la ‘for/of’ when the first element is preceded by acardinal number.[7]

Verb–noun compounds

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A type of compound that is fairly common inIndo-European languages is formed by a verb and its object. It in effect transforms a simple verbal clause into a noun. InSpanish, 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: Italiangrattacielo 'skyscraper', Frenchgrille-pain 'toaster' (lit. 'toast bread').

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

A special kind of compounding isincorporation, of which noun incorporation into a verbal root (as in Englishbackstabbing,breastfeed, etc.) is most prevalent. An argument of the verb isincorporated into the verb, which is then usually turned into agerund, such asbreastfeeding,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 compoundsmother-child breastfeeding, etc.

In the Australian Aboriginal languageJingulu, aPama–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, andrun.[8]

Verb–verb compounds

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Main article:Compound verb

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

  • In aserial verb, two actions, often sequential, are expressed in a single clause. For example:
Ewe

trɔ

turn

dzo

leave

trɔ dzo

turn leave

"turn and leave"

Hindi

जाकर

jā-kar

go-CONJ.PTCP

देखो

dekh-o

see-IMP

जाकर देखो

jā-kar dekh-o

go-CONJ.PTCP see-IMP

"go and see"

Tamil

van̪t̪u

1

paːr

2

van̪t̪u paːr

1 2

"come see"

In each case, the two verbs together determine the semantics and argument structure.

Serial verb expressions in English may includeWhat did you go and do that for?, orHe 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 ofellipsis.

  • In acompound verb (orcomplex 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 oraspect, and also carries theinflection (tense and/or agreement markers). The main verb usually appears in conjunctive participial (sometimeszero) form. For examples,Hindiनिकल गयाnikal gayā, lit. "exit went", means 'went out', while निकल पड़ाnikal paRā, lit. "exit fell", means 'departed' or 'was blurted out'. In these examples निकलnikal is the primary verb, and गयाgayā and पड़ाpaRā are the vector verbs. Similarly, in both Englishstart reading and Japanese 読み始めるyomihajimeru "read-CONJUNCTIVE-start" "start reading", the vector verbsstart and 始めるhajimeru "start" change according to tense, negation, and the like, while the main verbsreading 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: निकलाnikalā '(He) went out.' In a few languages both components of the compound verb can be finite forms:Kurukhkecc-ar ker-ar lit. "died-3pl went-3pl" '(They) died.'
  • Compound verbs are very common in some languages, such as the northern Indo-Aryan languagesHindustani andPunjabi, andDravidian languages likeTamil, where as many as 20% of verb forms in running text are compound. They exist but are less common in otherIndo-Aryan languages likeMarathi andNepali, inTibeto-Burman languages likeLimbu andNewari, inTurkic languages likeTurkish andKyrgyz, inKorean andJapanese, and in northeast Caucasian languages likeTsez andAvar.
  • Under the influence of aQuichua substrate speakers living in the Ecuadorianaltiplano have innovated compound verbs in Spanish:

De

from

rabia

anger

puso

put

rompiendo

breaking

la

the

olla

pot

De rabiapusorompiendo la olla

from angerputbreaking the pot

'In anger (he/she) smashed the pot.'

Botaremos matándote 'We will kill you.' (Cf. Quichua

huañuchi-shpa

kill-CP

shitashun

throw.1PL.FUT

huañuchi-shpa shitashun

kill-CP throw.1PL.FUT

Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);

Likewise in Hindi:

तेरे

tere

we

को

ko

will

मार

mār

kill-throw

डालेंगे

DāleNge

you

तेरे को मार डालेंगे

tere ko mār DāleNge

we will kill-throw you

  • Compound verb equivalents in English (examples from the internet):
What did yougo and do that for?
If you are not giving away free information on your web site then a huge proportion of your business is justupping and leaving.
Big Pig, shetook and built herself a house out of brush.
  • Caution: In descriptions ofPersian and otherIranian languages the term 'compound verb' refers to noun-plus-verb compounds, not to the verb–verb compounds discussed here.

Parasynthetic compounds

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Parasynthetic compounds are formed by a combination of compounding andderivation, with multiplelexical stems and a derivational affix. For example, Englishblack-eyed is composed ofblack,eye, and-ed 'having', with the meaning 'having a black eye';[9] Italianimbustare is composed ofin- 'in',busta 'envelope',-are (verbal suffix), with the meaning 'to put into an envelope'.[10]

Compound adpositions

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Compoundprepositions formed by prepositions and nouns are common in English and the Romance languages (consider Englishon top of, Spanishencima 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 postpositionke followed by a specific postposition (e.g.,ke pas, "near";ke nīche, "underneath").

Examples from different languages

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Arabic:

  • معلمو الفيزياءmuʕallim-uu l-fiizyaaʔ 'the physics teachers':معلموmuʕallim-uu 'teachers' +الفيزياءfiizyaaʔ 'physics'
  • إبرة المخدرʔibrat l-muxaddir 'the anaesthesia needle':إبرةʔibrat 'needle' +مخدرmuxaddir 'anaesthesia'

Bengali:

  • রাজপুত্রrajputro 'prince':রাজাraja 'king' +পুত্রputro 'son'
  • গৃহকর্তাgrihokοrta 'householder':গৃহgriho 'house' +কর্তাkorta 'master'
  • বিদ্যালয়bidyaloy 'school':বিদ্যাbidya 'knowledge' +আলয়aloy 'abode'

Chinese (traditional/simplified Chinese; Standard ChinesePinyin/CantoneseJyutping):

  • 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/mo1 touch + 天tiān/tin1 sky + 樓lóu/lau2 building (with more than 1 storey)
  • 打印機/打印机 'printer': 打/daa2 strike + 印yìn/yan3 stamp/print + 機/gei1 machine
  • 百科全書/百科全书 'encyclopaedia': 百bǎi/baak3 hundred + 科/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'
Sewage-treatment-facility – The German language has many compounds.

German:

Ancient Greek:

  • φιλόσοφοςphilósophos 'philosopher': φίλοςphílos 'beloved' + σοφίαsophíā 'wisdom'
  • δημοκρατίαdēmokratíā 'democracy': δῆμοςdêmos 'people' + κράτος 'rule'
  • ῥοδοδάκτυλοςrhododáktylos 'rose-fingered': ῥόδονrhódon 'rose' + δάκτυλοςdáktylos 'finger' (aHomeric epithet applied to the Dawn)

Hindi:

  • राजपुत्रraajputra 'prince':राजाraaja 'king' +पुत्रputra 'son'
  • विद्यालयvidyaalay 'school':विद्याvidyaa 'knowledge' +आलयaalay 'abode'
  • देशभक्तdeshbhakt 'patriot':देशdesh 'country' +भक्तbhakt 'devotee'

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 'millipede':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 'hall'

Korean:

  • 안팎anpak 'inside and outside': 안an 'inside' + 밖bak 'outside' (As two nouns compound the consonant sound 'b' fortifies into 'p' becoming 안팎anpak rather than 안밖anbak)

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 acalque from the English expressionscience fiction. In English, the head of a compound word is the last morpheme: sciencefiction. Conversely, the Spanish head is located at the front, sociencia 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 ofsube y baja 'goes up and down')
  • limpiaparabrisas 'windshield wiper' is a nested compound:[11]limpia 'clean' +parabrisaswindshield, which is itself a compound ofpara 'stop' +brisas 'breezes'.

Tamil:

  • InCemmozhi (Classical Tamil), rules for compounding are laid down in grammars such asTolkappiyam andNannūl, in various forms, under the namepunarcci. Examples of compounds includekopuram from 'kō' (king) + 'puram' (exterior). Sometimes phonemes may be inserted during the blending process such as inkovil from 'kō' (king) + 'il' (home). Other types are likevennai (butter) from 'veḷḷai' (white) + 'nei' (ghee); note how 'veḷḷai' becomes 'ven'.
  • Inkoṭuntamizh (Non-standard Tamil), parts of words from other languages may be morphed into Tamil. Common examples include 'ratta-azhuttam' (blood pressure) from the Sanskritrakta (blood) andCemmozhi 'azhuttam' (pressure); note howrakta becomesratta in Tamil order to remove the consonant-cluster. This also happens with English, for exampleskāpi-kaṭai (coffee shop) is from Englishcoffee, which becomeskāpi in Tamil, and the Tamilkaṭai meaning shop.

Tłįchǫ Yatiì/Dogrib:

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

Germanic languages

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InGermanic languages (includingEnglish), compounds are formed by prepending what is effectively anamespace (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'svocabulary. Only this defines "football" as a particular type of ball (unambiguously theround object, not thedance party, at that), and also the game involving such a ball. Another example of special and altered meaning is "starfish" – astarfish is in fact not afish in modern biology. Also syntactically, the compound word behaves like the main word – the whole compound word (or phrase) inherits theword 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 expressdefiniteness by inflection (as inNorth 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, arbitrarynoun 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

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In theRussian language compounding is a common type ofword 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.[12]

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 typestem + word: Академгородок 'Akademgorodok' (fromakademichesky 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 ([kəmʲɪnnʌʌˈstrovskʲɪjprʌˈspʲɛkt]) 'Stone Island Avenue', a street inSt.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" orinternationalisms: автомобиль 'automobile'.

Sanskrit language

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Main article:Sanskrit compounds

Sanskrit is very rich in compound formation with seven major compound types and as many as 55 sub-types.[13] 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 somerunning through pages are not rare in Sanskrit literature.[13] 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 theHimalaya mountain range. Literallythe abode of snow.[14] 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 workPanchatantra.[13] 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): LiterallyO the one who dispels the darkness of three worlds by the shine ofKaustubha jewel hanging on the chest, which has been made reddish-yellow by the saffron from the bosom of Kamalā (Lakshmi), an adjective ofRama in the KakabhushundiRāmāyaṇa.[15] 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): Literallythe acclaimed forerunner in understanding of the canons ofSāṅkhya,Yoga,Nyāya,Vaiśeṣika,Pūrva Mīmāṃsā,Vedānta,Nārada Bhakti Sūtra, Śāṇḍilya Bhakti Sūtra,Bhagavad Gītā, the Ramayana ofVālmīki,Śrīmadbhāgavata; and the most skilled in comprehensive self-study, discoursing and expounding of the complete works ofGosvāmī Tulasīdāsa.[16] An adjective used in a panegyric ofJagadguru Rambhadracharya. The hyphens show only those word boundaries where there is nosandhi. 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

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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.[17] Copulative compounds ordvandva, 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. Thesign forparents inItalian Sign Language, for instance, is a combination of the nouns 'father' and 'mother'. The sign forbreakfast inAmerican Sign Language follows the same concept. The wordseat andmorning are signed together to create a new word meaning breakfast.[citation needed] This is an example of a sequential compound; in sign languages, it is also possible to formsimultaneous compounds, where one hand represents one lexeme while the other simultaneously represents another lexeme. An example is the sign forweekend inSign Language of the Netherlands, which is produced by simultaneously signing a one-handed version of the sign forSaturday and a one-handed version of the sign forSunday.[17] InAmerican 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.[18] This is different from compounding in that it breaks the strict linear order of compounding.[19]

Recent trends in orthography

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Although there is no universally agreed-upon guideline regarding the use of compound words in theEnglish language, in recent decades written English has displayed a noticeable trend towards increased use of compounds.[20] 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 asyllabic abbreviation.

In Dutch and theScandinavian languages there is an unofficial trend toward splitting compound words, known in Norwegian assærskriving, in Swedish assärskrivning (literally "separate writing"), and in Dutch asEngelse 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 Norwegian adjectiverøykfritt (literally "smokefree", meaning no smoking allowed) if separated into its composite parts, would meanrøyk 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 agenitive (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 spelledcommissievergadering).

TheGerman spelling reform of 1996 introduced the option ofhyphenating 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, likeEisenbahn-Unterführung (railway underpass) orKraftfahrzeugs-Betriebsanleitung (car manual). Such practice is also permitted in other Germanic languages, e.g. Danish andNorwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk alike), and is even encouraged between parts of the word that have very different pronunciation, such as when one part is aloan word or anacronym.

Compounding by language

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^The word illustrates where compounds can be formed by combining multiple words together to create new, often complex, terms.
    • Donau - This refers to the Danube River, the second-longest river in Europe, which flows through several countries including Germany and Austria.
    • Dampf - Means "steam" in German, often used in the context of steamboats or steamships.
    • Schiffahrt - This translates to "navigation" or "shipping" in English.
    • Gesellschaft - Means "society" or "company" in German.
    • Kapitän - Refers to the captain of a ship.
    • Mütze - This translates to "cap" or "hat" in English.
    So, "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmütze" can be understood as the "Danube steam navigation company captain's cap" in English.

References

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  1. ^Sanchez-Stockhammer, Christina (2018-05-03).English Compounds and their Spelling. Cambridge University Press. p. 26.ISBN 978-1-108-18727-5.English compounds cannot be defined as an uninterrupted sequence of characters
  2. ^University of Chicago press, ed. (2017).The Chicago manual of style (17th ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 443–444.ISBN 978-0-226-28705-8.Compounds defined. An open compound is spelled as two or more words (high school,lowest common denominoator). A hyphenated compound is spelled with one or more hyphens (mass-produced,kilowatt-hour,non-English-speaking). A closed (or solid) compound is spelled as a single word (birthrate,smartphone).
  3. ^Nagarajan, Hemalatha (2022-10-20).The Routledge Companion to Linguistics in India. Taylor & Francis.ISBN 978-1-000-77574-7.The compound can be a closed compound, where the two words are written together (e.g.,blackboard), an open compound, where they are written separate (e.g.,ice cream), or hyphenated, with a hyphen in between (e.g.,short-term).
  4. ^McArthur, Thomas Burns; McArthur, Roshan (2005).Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press. p. 237.ISBN 978-0-19-280637-6.
  5. ^"open compound (noun)".Merriam-Webster. Retrieved29 January 2024.a compound whose word components are separated by a space in printing or writing
  6. ^"Seattle FinnFest '09".
  7. ^Altakhaineh, Abdel Rahman Mitib (2018-02-27)."Identifying N+N compounding in Modern Standard Arabic and Jordanian Arabic".Studia Linguistica.73 (1):1–36.doi:10.1111/stul.12087.ISSN 0039-3193.
  8. ^R. Pensalfini,Jingulu Grammar, Dictionary and Texts, PhD thesis (MIT, 1992), 138–9.[1]
  9. ^Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, June 2005s.v.
  10. ^Chiara Melloni, Antonietta Bisetto, "Parasynthetic compounds: data and theory", in Sergio Scalies, Irene Vogel, eds.,Cross-Disciplinary Issues in Compounding,ISBN 9789027248275, 2010, p. 199-218
  11. ^"Diccionario De La Lengua Española : limpiaparabrisas". Real Academia Española. Retrieved16 February 2013.
  12. ^Student Dictionary of Compound Words of the Russian Language(1978)ISBN 0-8285-5190-1
  13. ^abcKumar, Anil; Mittal, Vipul; Kulkarni, Amba (2010). "Sanskrit Compound Processor". In Jha, Girish Nath (ed.).Sanskrit Computational Linguistics: 4th International Symposium, New Delhi, India, December 10–12, 2010: Proceedings (Volume 6465 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science / Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Series). Springer. pp. 57–69.ISBN 978-3-642-17527-5.
  14. ^Harper, Douglas."Himalaya".Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved2011-07-17.
  15. ^Kumar, Animesh (May 23, 2007)."Sruti Krta Rama Stuti". Stutimandal.com. RetrievedJuly 1, 2011.
  16. ^"Virudavali – Jagadguru Rambhadracharya". Shri Tulsi Peeth Seva Nyas. RetrievedOctober 25, 2011.
  17. ^abQuer, Josep; Cecchetto, Carlo; Donati, Caterina; Geraci, Carlo, eds. (2017-11-20)."Part 4: Morphology".SignGram Blueprint. De Gruyter. pp. 163–270.doi:10.1515/9781501511806-009.ISBN 9781501511806. Retrieved2019-02-19.
  18. ^"Word formation: compounding and blending in sign language".www.handspeak.com. Retrieved2022-10-25.
  19. ^Hill, Joseph C. (2017)."Deaf Culture: Exploring Deaf Communities in the United States by Irene W. Leigh, Jean F. Andrews, and Raychelle L. Harris".Sign Language Studies.18 (1):162–165.doi:10.1353/sls.2017.0025.ISSN 1533-6263.S2CID 148714617.
  20. ^Sedivy, Julie (2017-11-16)."The Rise and Fall of the English Sentence".Nautilus. Retrieved2020-08-02.

Sources

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  • 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

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Look upcompound word in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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