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Course Paper
Ways of Making up New Compound Words in English and their Main Peculiarities
Chiinu 2014
CONTENTS
Introduction.... 3
Conclusions.35
Bibliography............37
Appendix..40
Introduction
Traditional linguists contributed enormously to our understanding of the facts
of English, yet there are facts about the language that some or most of them have
missed or have not study thoroughly.
The present thesis deals with the word-formation processes and especially,
with the compounding.
The existence of words is usually taken for granted by the speakers of a language. To speak and understand a language means-among many other thingsknowing the words of that language. The average speaker knows thousands of
words, and new words enter our minds and our language on a daily basis. The present paper is about words. More specifically it deals with the structure of compound words. This work represents a theoretical and practical investigation on the
question of compound words structure and means of word-formation in the Modern English language.
The ways in which new words are formed, and the factors which govern
their acceptance into the language, are generally taken very much for granted by
the average speaker. To understand a word, it is not necessary to know how it is
constructed, whether it is simple or complex, that is, whether or not it can be broken down into two or more constituents. We are able to use a word which is new
to us when we find out what object or notion it denotes.
The main aim of this paper is to study the ways of formation and typology
of the compound words because we consider it important to the present English
learners.
Much attention is given to the classification of the compound words and a
special interest is shown in the ways of forming new compound words.
The objectives of the present paper are:
To analyze the concept and the definition of the word given by linguists;
To analyze the compounding both as a linguistic phenomenon and a means
of enriching vocabulary;
3
Another problem is the difference between the word and the word combination. As for example: the word a nobleman and the word combination a
noble man.
These two examples are different concerning their meaning. A nobleman,
that is a man of noble rank, may not be noble; and a noble man, that is gracious
and dignified in character or bearing, may not be a decent from a noble dynasty.
Although the word
Isolatibility
Indivisibility
Looseness of entire
words
[36,p.67]
e.g. a lion and alive . A lion is a word- group because we can separate its elements and insert other words between them: a dead lion. Alive is a single word,
nothing can be inserted between its elements, it is indivisible.
Looseness of entire words is reference to the place in a sequence as compared to
the parts of the words whose place in a word can be changed.
e.g. un-gentle man-li-ness,
The children run away. Away run the children. [36,p.67]
Although the word is the smallest part of the vocabulary, it has been treated
from the oldest times and has its own features that help us to understand easily
their meaning.
While speaking about the meaning of the word, the book English Lexicology by T. Orembovskaya is welcome, because in this book different aspects concerning the meaning of a word both in a context and taking it separately (individually) are treated.
In her book English Lexicology T. Orembovskaya infers that the meaning of the word is the realization of the concept , which can take place in the lexical system existing in language. The author gives us some types of meaning of the
word. For example, on one hand, if it is analyzed the meaning of the word from
the semantic point of view, we must point out that each word has a phonetic form,
which contributes to the interchange of thoughts, and on the other hand, sounds
without meaning can not be words and parts of speech. [39,p.33-34]
Other types of meaning of the word, presented by T.Orembovskaya in the
above-mentioned work are lexical and structural, which are analyzed together,
because it acquires to grammatical categories. The meaning of a word is conditioned by the typical syntactic constructions in which the word is used.
e.g. the verb to enter:
1. to enter a room ( to come into )
2. to enter upon ones duties ( to begin )
3. to enter into conversation (to get engaged )
7
entries for all compounds. Compounds may be content bearing words in natural
language sentences and therefore important for the recovered result.
In his book A Course in Modern English. Lexicology R. S.Ginzburg concludes that the process of formation of new words by compounding takes various
forms. On the one hand, R.S. Ginzburg affirms that the compound -words are built
spontaneously according to productive distributional formulas of the given period.
Once this process of building verb by compounding adverbial and verbal stems
was productive, and as a result were formed numerous verbs as outgrow, offset,
inlay, but now this process of building new compound verbs is not productive. On
the other hand, R.S.Ginzburg points out that a compound can be the result of a
gradual process of semantic isolation and structural combination of free- word
groups. Such compounds as forget me not, bulls eyes, mainland, etc. were
formed isolated in the course of time. Most of the syntactic compound nouns of the
(a + n) structure, e.g. blackboard, mad doctor, are the result of such semantic
structural isolation of free word groups. [21,p.158 ]
I. Arnold distinguishes two important peculiarities of English compounds.
Firstly, both immediate constituents of an English compound are free forms, that
is, they can be used as independent words with a distinct meaning of their own. It
can be illustrated by the following list of words frequently used in speech: afternoon, anyway, birthday, mother-in-law, motherland, note-book, etc.
The second feature to which attention should be paid is that the regular pattern for the English language is a two-stem compound, which can also be testified
by the examples mentioned above. An exception to this rule is observed when the
combining element is represented by a form-word stem, as in bread-and-butter,
good-for-nothing, deaf-and-dumb, etc.
One more specific feature of English compounding is the important role of
the attributive syntactic function. For example, We change it at the last minute
more than once.
10
I.Arnold in her book The English Word points out that the compounding
is one of the oldest methods of word-formation in all Indo-European languages,
especially developed in Germanic languages. English has made use of compounds
in all periods of its existence. Some compounds preserve their type in present-day
English; others have undergone phonetic changes due to which their stem ceased to
be homonymous to the corresponding free forms. Some times the compound is altered out of all recognition. Thus, in the name of the flower daisy, or in the word
woman composition as the basis of the words origin can be discovered by etymological analysis only: daisy < OE d es ea e (days eye), woman < OE wfan
(woman person). Other examples can be: husband < OE husbonda (master of the
house), gossip < OE odsibb (person related to one in God). [6,p.79-8]
Besides the old stem-compounds and the word-compounds that are their descendants, according to Greenough, there are also many compounds which belong
to a later stage of linguistic development, being formed by the growing together of
phrases or syntactic complexes. Of this kind are all verbs compounded with prepositions or similar particles. These prefixes were originally adverbs, which, from being habitually used with verbs, have become necessary to the sense, and have accordingly united with the verb to make a single unit. Thus we have the native verbs
undergo, outdo, withstand, etc.
Native phrase-compounds are besides (for by-side), betimes (for by-times),
outlaw, outdoor, and so on.
If the phrase is very old, its component parts may be no longer recognizable,
and we have a simple word, not a compound at all. Thus wassail is the AngloSaxon wes hl! be well! a sentence used in drinking for health. The same result is
often produced when a foreign phrase is adopted into English (aid-de-camp, basrelief, belles letters), but there are phrases which can be recognizable only by the
etymologist (alarm is the Italian call to arms! --- all arme!; hoax which was
formally slang, and is still undignified, though accepted into legitimated vocabulary, is a shortening of hocus pocus. So is to focus, for to drug. [22,p.187-189]
11
Composition was a favorite devise in the Old English period, it was a characteristic element. In Beowulf, for example, the author used five compound words in the first ten lines (people kinds, spear armed, mead bench, whale
path, afterward ) . In his poem Judith, Cynewulf used a great number of
compound words, impressive through graphicalness and the force of semantic condensation ( e.g. wael gifre fugel ( bird greedy for slaughter ), wring feere
(dewy winged)). Special mention should be made of metaphorical compounds
(e.g. a ship was a sea swam , the sea was the swam track ).
Another period which favored composition (sometimes to exaggeration) was
the Renaissance. Edmund Spenser, the first conscious inventor of a definite poetical vocabulary, has studied his The Faerie Queen with a great number of
compounds, as for example : hell bread breast (flacra crescut n iad), illfaste
(urit la chip), water sprinkles (stropi de ap), blood thirsty (setos de snge) and
others. Another writer who used compounds in his work was W. Shakespeare. He
left his contemporaries behind in the mastery with which he combined words, e.g.
silver white, heaven kissing hill, all shaking thunder in Hamlet.
The period which followed is Classicism. P.B. Shelley employed compounding as epithet. In Ode to the West Wind the withered leaves of autumn are like
pestilence stricken multitudes (mulimi ciumate). In the poem To Night the
nights mantle is star inwrought (brodat cu stele) and in the poem The
Cloud the cloud unmakes its wind built tent (cortul ridicat de vnt). If Shelley used visual and acoustic epithet then John Keats is that who used musical epithet compounds, as for examples deep delved earth (pmnt spat adnc), leaden eyed despairs (dezndejdi cu ochi de plumb ), fast fading violets (toporai
care se trec repede), wild ridged mountains (crestele slbatice ale munilor),
moss lain Dryads (muchi ntins al deertului ) - (Ode to Psyche).
An interesting kind of compounds are found in the works of the original
thinker of the XIXth century, Thomas Carlyle, who in his work Sartor Resartus
and especially in the third chapter, used the following compounds as: solid
12
grown, Flesh Garment, hunger bitten, dead looking, self growth and so
on .
Compounds are not absent from the works of contemporary writers. Good examples of compounding are shown in The Congo by Rachel Linsay. Some of
them are : skull faced (cu faa ca un craniu ), torch eyed (cu ochii ca nite
tore), hand maimed (cu mna schilodit), vine snared trees (pomi prini n
lanurile vieii), foam flanked (tivit de spume).
Compounds did not develop only in literature, but also in the domain of industry. After the Industrial Revolution (the second half of XVIIIth century) a great
number of compound words of a technical scientific character appeared. For example, in English German Dictionary by Muret Sanders there are 197 technical scientific compounds with the word air. (e.g. air borne, air tight, air
conditioning, aircraft, airfield, air force, airline, airmail, airship, air strip, etc. )
[34,p.60 -62 ]
As, we have seen the compounding is used in many spheres of human
activity, culture and industry as well. The use of compound words can also be seen
as a method of enrichment of the vocabulary.
From the stylistic point of view, we can say that it is one of the main
methods of enriching the vocabulary, flourishing the style of the author and to
create a more beautiful aspect to the literary work. In this case the meaning of the
word it is used depends just on the context and on the desire of the author.
multiple meanings serve as different derivational bases, each with its own selective
range for the semantic features of the other component, each forming a separate set
of compound words, based on specific derivative relations. Thus the base board
meaning a flat piece of wood square or oblong makes a set of compounds chessboard, notice-board, key-board, diving-board, foot-board, sign-board; compounds
paste-board, car-board are built on the base meaning thick, stiff paper; the base
board-meaning an authorized body of men, forms compounds school-board,
board-room. The same can be observed in words built on the polysemantic stem of
the word foot. For example, the base foot in foot-print, foot-pump, foothold,
foot-bath, foot-wear has the meaning of the terminal part of the leg, in footlights, foot-stone the bases foot has the meaning of the lower part, and in foothigh, foot-wide, foot-rule measure of length. It is obvious from the above-given
examples that the meanings of the bases of compound words are independent and
that the choice of each is delimited as in variable word-groups by the nature of the
other component of the word. It thus may well be said that the combination of bases serves as a kind of minimal inner context distinguishing the particular individual lexical meaning of each component. In this connection we should also remember the significance of the differential meaning found in both components which
becomes especially obvious in a set of compounds containing identical bases.
The lexical meanings of the bases alone, important as they are, do not make
the meaning of the compound word. The meaning of the compound is derived not
only from the combined lexical meanings of its components, but also from the
meaning signaled by the patterns of the order and arrangement of its component
parts.
A mere change in the order of bases with the same lexical meanings brings
about a drastic change in the lexical meaning of the compound or destroys it altogether. As an illustration let us compare life-boat a boat of special construction
for saving lives from wrecks or along the coast with boat-life life on board the
ship; a fruit-market market where fruit is sold with market-fruit fruit de14
signed for selling; board-school with school-board, etc. Thus the structural or distributional pattern in compound words carries a certain meaning of its own which
is largely independent of the actual lexical meaning of their component parts.
It follows that the lexical meaning of a compound is derived from the combined lexical meanings of its components and the structural meaning of its distributional pattern.
The structural meaning of the derivational pattern of compounds may be abstracted and described through the interrelation of its component elements. In analyzing compound adjectives, e.g. duty-bound, wind-driven, mud-stained, we observe that their underlying pattern N+V conveys the generalized meaning of instrumental or agentive relations which can be interpreted as done by or with the
help of something; the lexical meanings of the bases supply the individual action
performed and the actual doer of the action or objects with the help of which the
action is done duty-bound may be interpreted as bound by duty, wind-driven as
driven by wind, mud-stained as stained with mud.
The derivational patterns in compounds may be monosemantic as in the
above-given examples, and polysemantic. If we take the pattern N+AA which
underlies such compound adjectives as snow-white, world-wide, air-sick, we shall
see that the pattern has two different meanings which may be interpreted:
a)
b)
polysemy of the compound. For example, it is equally correct to interpret the compound noun toy-man as a toy having shape of a man or a man who makes toys, a
toy-maker, the compound clock-tower may likewise be understood as a tower
with a clock fitted in or a tower that serves as or is at the same time a clock.
It follows that the meaning of a compound is made up of the combined lexical meaning of the bases and the structural meaning of the pattern. The semantic
centre of the compound is the lexical meaning of the second component modified
and restricted by the meaning of the first. The semantic centers of compounds and
the semantic relations embedded in the structural patterns refer compound words to
certain lexico-semantic groups and semantic sets within them as, for example:
1)
earthquake, handshake;
2)
flight, street-fight;
3)
compounds denoting individual objects designed for some goal, e.g. bird-
4)
compounds denoting objects that are parts of the whole, e.g. shirt-collar,
eye-ball;
5)
trotter.
The lexical meanings of both components are closely fused together to create a new semantic unit with a new meaning which is not merely additive but dominates the individual meanings of the bases and is characterized by some additional
semantic components not found in any of the bases. For example, a hand-bag is
essentially a bag, designed to be carried in the hand, but it is also a womans
bag to keep money, papers, face-powder and the like; a time-bomb is a bomb designed to explore at some time, but also after being dropped or placed in position. The bulk of compounds are completely motivated like sky-blue, foot-pump,
tea-taker. Motivation in compound words may be partial, but again the degree will
16
Although compounding is the most productive type of word formation process in English, it is perhaps also the most controversial one in terms of its linguistic analysis. Compounding is a field of study where intricate problems abound,
numerous issues remain unresolved and convincing solutions are generally not
easy to find.
Let us start with the problem of definition: what exactly do we mean when
we say that a given word is a compound? To answer this question we first examine
the internal structure of compounds. The definition of a compound as being a combination of two words to form a new word contains two crucial assumptions: the
first being that compounds consist of two (and not more) elements and the second
being that these elements are words. Both assumptions are in need of justification.
There are compounds which question the idea that compounding involves
only two elements. For example, take into consideration the following examples
taken from a users manual for a computer printer: power source requirement, engine communication error, communication technology equipment. The definition
seems to suggest that compounding involves only two words, but there are compounds with four, five or even more members, e.g. university teaching award
committee member. But all these words may be combined by two words and in
such a way the definition can be formulated in such a way that compounds are binary structures. [Ingo Plag, 2002:173]
What is also important to note is that-at least with noun compounds-new
words can be repeatedly stacked on an existing compound to form a new compound. Thus if there were a special training for members of the university teaching
award committee, we could refer to that training as the university teaching award
committee member training. Thus the rules of compound formation are able to repeatedly create the same kind of structure. This property is called recursivity, and
it is a property that is chiefly known from the analysis of sentence structure. For
example, the grammar of English allows us to use subordinate clauses recursivily
by putting a new clause inside each new clause, as in e.g. John said that Betty knew
18
that Harry thought that Janet believed...and so on. Recursivity seems to be absent
from derivation, but some marginal cases such as great-great-great grandfather
are attested in prefixation. There si no structural limitation on the recursivity of
compounding, but the longer a compound becomes the more difficult it is for the
speakers/listeners to process, i.e. produce and understand correctly. Extremely long
compounds are therefore disfavored not for structural but for processing reasons.
The structural cohesion and integrity of a compound may depend upon unity
of stress, solid or hyphenated spelling, semantic unity, unity of morphological and
syntactic functioning or, more often, upon the combined effect of several of these,
or similar phonetic, graphic, semantic, morphological or syntactic factors.
The integrity of a compound is manifested in its indivisibility, the impossibility of including another word or word-group between its elements. If, for example, speaking about a sunbeam we can insert some other word between the article
a and the noun, e.g. a bright sunbeam, a bright and unexpected sunbeam, because the article a is a separate word, no such insertion is possible between the
stems sun and beam, for they are not words but morphemes. [Arnold, 1986:76]
The vast majority of compounds are interpreted in such a way that the lefthand member somewhat modifies the right-hand member. Thus, a film society is a
kind of society (namely one concerned with films), a parks commissioner is a
commissioner occupied with parks, to deep-fry is a verb designating a kind of frying, knee-deep in She waded in knee-deep water tells us something about how deep
the water is, and so on.
We can thus say that such compounds exhibit what is called a modifierhead structure. The term head is generally used to refer to the most important
unit in complex linguistic structures. In our compounds it is the head which is
modified by the other member of the compound. Semantically, this means that the
set of entities possibly denoted by the compound (i.e. all film societies) is a subset
of the entities denoted by the head. (i.e. all societies).
19
With regard to their head, compounds in English have a very important systematic property: their head always occurs on the right-hand side (the so-called
right-hand head rule). [Williams, 1981:248] The compound inherits most of its
semantic and syntactic information from its head. Thus, if the head is a verb, the
compound will be a verb (e.g. deep-fry), if the head is a count noun, the compound
will be a count noun (e.g. beer bottle), if the head has feminine gender, the compound will have feminine gender (e.g. head waitress).
Another property of the compound head is that if the compound is pluralized
the plural marking occurs on the head, not on the non-head. Thus, parks commissioner is not the plural of park commissioner; only park commissioners can be the
plural form of park commissioner. In the existing compound parks commissioner,
the plural interpretation is restricted to the non-head and not inherited by the whole
compound.
Some compounds are made up of a determining and a determined part,
which may be called determinant and the determinatum, according to
Marchand H. . The second stem, in our case beam, is the basic part, the determinatum. The determinant sun serves to differentiate it from other beams. The determinatum is the grammatically most important part which undergoes inflection
(e.g. sunbeams, brothers-in-law, passers-by).
There are non-idiomatic compounds with a perfectly clear motivation: the
meanings of the constituents add in creating the meaning of the whole and name
the referent either directly or figuratively, for example, the word seaman was not
difficult to understand at first, it meant a man professionally connected with the
sea. The word differentiated in this way a sailor from the rest of mankind. When
aviation came into being the same formula with the same kind of motivation was
used to coin the compound airman and also aircraft and airship to name the
machines designed for air-travel, differentiating them from seagoing craft.
Spaceman, spacecraft and spaceship built on the model of airman, aircraft and airship are well understood even when heard for the first time. The
20
semantic integrity of the compounds seaman, airman, spaceman, aircraft, spacecraft, airship and spaceship is based on the fact that, as the conquest of sea, air and
outer space advanced, new notions were created, notions possessing enough relevant distinctive features to ensure their separate existence. The logical integrity of
the combinations is supported by solid spelling and by the unity of stress. Such
transparent compounds can be transformed into free phrases: air-mail = mail conveyed by air.
The semantic integrity of a compound is, on the other hand, very often idiomatic in its character, so that the meaning of the whole is not a mere sum of its elements. A compound is very different in meaning from a corresponding syntactic
group. Thus, a blackboard is very different from a black board. Its essential
feature is being a teaching aid: not every board of a black colour is a blackboard. A
blackboard may be not a board at all but a piece of linoleum or some other material. Its colour is not necessarily; it may be brown or somewhat else. Thus, blackboard = a board which is black. A chatterbox is not a box, it is a person who
talks a great deal without saying anything important: the combination is used only
figuratively. The same metaphorical character is observed in the compounds:
slowcoach- a person who acts and thinks slowly (not a vehicle); a fuss-pot- a
person easily-exited and nervous about trifles; blackleg- a strike breaker;
blackmail- getting money or some other profit from a person by threats; bluestocking- a woman affecting literary tastes and learning.
The analysis of the semantic relationship existing between the constituents
of a compound presents many difficulties.
Many compounds may be explained in different ways: thus spacecraft
may be analysed as a craft travelling in space (place) or a craft designed for
travelling in space (purpose).
Other different relations are expressed by the same determinant: ear-ache
(place)- an ache in the ear; earmark (comparison)- a mark like an ear; earlobe
(part)- a lobe of the ear; eardrop (purpose)- a drop for the ear (medicine); ear21
noun phrase
blckboard
a black bard
a board to write on
While the compound stress rule makes correct predictions for the vast majority of nominal compounds, it has been pointed out (e.g. by Liberman and Sprout
[1992], Bauer [1998]) that there are also numerous exceptions to the rule.
In the above paragraph we have explored the basic general characteristics of
compounds. We have found that compounds can be analyzed as words with binary
structure, in which roots, words and even phrases are possible elements. We also
saw that compounds are right-headed and that the compound inherits its major
properties from its head. Furthermore, compounds exhibit a regular compoundspecific stress pattern that differs systematically from that of phrases.
22
25
Chapter II. The Analysis of the Usage of the Compound Words in the Novel
Emma by Jane Austen
In this chapter we are going to analyze the compounds that occur in the
novel Emma by Jane Austen. It is obvious that the majority of the occurring
compounds are compound nouns and compound adjectives but there are also
compound adverbs and compound verbs.
relationships between the two elements seem more like those which hold in N+N
compounds than those which hold in V+N compounds.
e.g. And as for James, you may be very sure he will always like going to
Randalls, because of his daughter's being housemaid there. P.4
e.g. Whenever I see her, she always curtseys and asks me how I do, in a very
pretty manner; and when you have had her here to do needlework, I observe she
always turns the lock of the door the right way and never bangs it. P.4
e.g. Some people even talked of a promise to his wife on her deathbed, and
others of the son and the uncle not letting him. P.6
e.g. It had been built many years ago for a ball-room, and while the
neighbourhood had been in a particularly populous, dancing state, had been occasionally used as such; P.104
e.g. She went, however; and when they reached the farm, and she was to be
put down, at the end of the broad, neat gravel walk, which led between espalier
apple-trees to the front door. P.98
e.g. If I find him conversable, I shall be glad of his acquaintance; but if he is
only a chattering coxcomb, he will not occupy much of my time or thoughts. P.80
Verb + noun
We distinguishe two distinct patterns within this category. The first is
where the noun is the direct object of the verb. These compounds are all exocentric
e.g. You have drawn two pretty pictures; but I think there may be a thirda
something between the do-nothing and the do-all. P. 6
The second pattern is where the noun is not the direct object of the verb. These
compounds are all endocentric .
e.g. My first enjoyment," replied John Knightley, as they passed through
the sweep-gate, "will be to find myself safe at Hartfield again. P. 63
Noun + verb
27
The pattern does not appear to be productive and there is the problem of
knowing whether the second element is a noun or a verb.
Verb + verb
This pattern is extremely rare, and probably not productive .
e.g. Her name was not mentioned;and there was so striking a change in
all this, and such an ill-judged solemnity of leave-taking in his graceful acknowledgments, as she thought, at first, could not escape her father's suspicion. P. 75
Adjective + noun
It can be difficult to decide whether a given adjective + noun collocation is a
compound or simply a noun phrase. The criterion taken as distinguishing between
the two here is stress: nuclear stress on the adjective indicates a compound; nuclear
stress on the noun indicates a noun phrase. Adjective + noun phrases are frequently
turned into compounds by a change in stress .
e.g. It was her own universal good-will and contented temper which worked
such wonders. P. 10
e.g. and she was sorry to find from Mrs. Goddard that Harriet was liable to
very bad sore-throats, and had often alarmed her with them." Mr. Elton looked all
alarm on the occasion, as he exclaimed. P.59
Particle + verb
This is quite a productive pattern .
e.g. They lived beyond their income, but still it was nothing in comparison of
Enscombe: she did not cease to love her husband, but she wanted at once to be the
wife of Captain Weston, and Miss Churchill of Enscombe. P.265
Adverb + noun
On the other hand, this is a very restricted pattern, partly because only adverbs of
time or place occur in such compounds Another problem is that this class is not
28
distinct from the previous class, since many of the particles can be interpreted as
adverbs showing time or place.
e.g. Some time afterwards it was, "I think Mrs. Goddard would be very much
surprized if she knew what had happened. P.28
e.g. Neither would Mr. Knightley's downright, decided, commanding sort of
manner, though it suits him very well; P. 17
Verb + particle
The majority of words of this form are nominalizations of phrasal verbs. Recent
examples are :
e.g. Miss Nash has put down all the texts he has ever preached from since he came
to Highbury. P.40
e.g. "I shall never let that book go out of my own hands," said she. P.42
e.g. Well, my dears, how does your book go on? P. 42
e.g. Yes, she would be, but that she thinks there will be another put-off. P. 65
Phrase compounds
One more class which can be covered in the category of noun compounds and he
calls it Phrase Compounds. These compounds can be described as constructions
where an entire phrase seems to be involved in the formation of a new word .
Examples: son-in-law, whisky-and-soda, forget-me-not, etc.
e.g. It is a sort of prologue to the play, a motto to the chapter; and will be
soon followed by matter-of-fact prose. P. 40
e.g. He was not a great favourite with his fair sister-in-law. P.51
29
3.5
4.5
10
Verb+noun
Noun+verb
1.8
0
Ver+verb
3.2
Adjective+noun
73
Particle+verb
Adverb+noun
Verb+particle
Phrase compounds
The above diagram presents the frequency of the compound words according
to the parts of speech of their constituents. We excerpted 100 sentences which contain compounds form the literary work under analysis. From whole the sample,
73% are formed form nouns, 10% form verbs and particles, 4.5% represent examples of words with adjective+noun stems. The most frequent compounds are the
nouns with a double noun stem.
e.g. Anxious to separate herself from them as far as she could, she soon
afterwards took possession of a narrow footpath. P.48
e.g. but I cannot think of any tolerable pretence for going in;no servant
that I want to inquire about of his housekeeperno message from my father. P. 46
e.g. In this age of literature, such collections on a very grand scale are not
uncommon. Miss Nash, head-teacher at Mrs. Goddard's, had written out at least
three hundred; P.37
2) Compound words whose components are joined together with a linking element, compounds of this type are found both in nouns and in adjectives. The components of compound words of this type are mostly joined with the help
of the linking vowel [ou] and occasionally the vowel [ i ].
e.g. Harriet's parentage became known. She proved to be the daughter of a
tradesman, rich enough to afford her the comfortable maintenance which had ever
been hers, and decent enough to have always wished for concealment. P.258
In this example the components of compound nouns are joined with the
help of the linking consonant [s/z]. However, this way of linking the components
of a compound present just a small group of words
1) Compounds with linking elements represented by preposition or conjunction
stems:
e.g. He was not a great favourite with his fair sister-in-law. P. 51
e.g. He was arm-in-arm with Mr. Cole. P. 41
The Frequency of Compound Words according to
the type of linking
15
20
Juxtaposition
65
Linking Letter
Linkin Preposition
31
The above diagram illustrates the frequency of the compound words according the type of linking. The most frequent way is through juxtaposition. This
overwhelming percentage is due to the fact that it is the simplest way to create a
new compound word.
32
mistress. The subgroup will contain abbreviations like: H-bag (handbag), Xmas
(Christmas). Unfortuanately we did not identify this type of compounds in our literary work under analysis.
Compounds, where at least one of the constituents is a compound stem:
e.g. A degradation to illegitimacy and ignorance, to be married to a
respectable, intelligent gentleman-farmer! P.33
The Frequency of the Compound Words according to the
Structure of the Imeadiant Constituents
0
3
30
Simple stems
A derived stem
67
A clipped stem
A compound stem
In the above diagram we see that the most frequent compounds are those
with simple stems 67%. The derived stems and compound stems are less used.
Compounds with clipped stems were not identified in the literary work under
analysis, this occur due to the fact that the majority of this type of compounds appeared in contemporary English, but as we deal with a literary work from 1815
the probability of identifying is minimized.
33
Conclusions
The definition of every basic notion represents a very difficult task; the
definition of a word is one of the most difficult tasks in linguistics, because even
the simplest word possesses different characteristics and aspects. A word may be
described as the basic unit of the language and it has a sound form because it
represents a certain arrangement of phonemes; it has its morphological structure,
representing also a certain arrangement of morphemes; and when it is used in
actual speech it may occur in different word forms, different syntactic functions
and signal various meanings. Being the central element of any language system,
the word is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax,
morphology and also for some other sciences that have to deal with language and
speech, such as philosophy and psychology, and probably quite a few other
branches of knowledge.
And if the word seems to be difficult to define, then the definition of a
compound word will be even more difficult. The most acceptable definition of a
compound word is that it consists of at least two words which occur in the
language as free forms. In a compound word the immediate constituents obtain
integrity and structural cohesion that make them function in a sentence as a
separate lexical unit.
While studying of the phenomena of compounding from the theoretical
point of view we have introduced the notion of word and compound word and reviewed several features of the compound words. Below I summarize the observations and conclusions that have resulted from my literature overview.
Word formation denotes the processes of creation of new lexical units;
The meaning of compound words is derived from the combined lexical
meaning of the components and meaning of the derivational pattern;
There are compounds involving nominal heads, verbal heads and adjectival
heads;
34
The most often met types of compounds in literary works are compound
nouns of the type noun + noun .
35
Bibliography
1. Akhmanova O., Lexicology:Theory and Method, Moscow, 1972
2. Adams V., An Introduction to Modern English Word Formation, London:
Longman, 1973
3. Adams V., Complex Words in English, London: Pearson Education, 2001
4. Aitchison J., Language Change: Progress or Decay?, Cambridge University
Press, 1991
5. Allen M., Morphological Investigations, University of Connecticut, 1978
6. Arnold I.V., English Lexicology, Moskva, 1986
7. Arnold I.V., The English Word, Moscova, 1973
8. Anderson S.R., Typological Distinctions in Word Formation, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1985
9. Bartolik L., Nominal Compounds in Technical English, Oregon, 1978
10.Bauer L., When is a sequence of two nouns a compound?, English Language
and Linguistics, 1998
11.Bauer L., Word Formation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983
12.Bloomfield L., Language, New York: Holt, 1933
13.Brown K.R., Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd edition), 2005
14.Carstairs-McCarthy A., An Introduction to English Morphology, Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2002
15.Chomsky N. & Halle M., The Sound Pattern of English, New York: Harper
and Row, 1968
16.Crystal D., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Cambridge
University Press, 2005
17.Dik S.C., Studies in Functional Grammar, London-New York: Academic
Press, 1980
18.Dik S.C., The Theory of Functional Grammar, Vol.II: Complex and Derived
Constructions, Berlin: Mouton, 1997
36
Sources
Austen Jane, Emma, Cambridge University Press, 2005
38
Appendix
1. Mr. Weston's dining-room does not accommodate more than ten
comfortably; and for my part, I would rather, under such circumstances, fall short
by two than exceed by two.
2. there was some satisfaction in considering with what self-denying, generous
friendship she had always wished and promoted the match; but it was a black
morning's work for her. P.3
3. She had been a friend and companion such as few possessed: intelligent,
well-informed, useful, gentle, knowing all the ways of the family, interested in all
its concerns, and peculiarly interested in herself p.3
4. The Woodhouses were first in consequence there. P.3
5. Highbury, the large and populous village, almost amounting to a town, to
which Hartfield, in spite of its separate lawn, and shrubberies, and name, did really
belong, afforded her no equals. P3
6. Mr. Weston is such a good-humoured, pleasant, excellent man, that he
slighted upon any account; and I am sure she will make a very good servant: she is
a civil, pretty-spoken girl; I have a great opinion of her. 4
9. Whenever I see her, she always curtseys and asks me how I do, in a very
pretty manner; and when you have had her here to do needlework, I observe she
always turns the lock of the door the right way and never bangs it.4
10. The backgammon-table was placed; but a visitor immediately afterwards
39
in this instance, dear papa, you cannot think that I shall leave off match-making."6
14. You have drawn two pretty pictures; but I think there may be a thirda
have felt;8
16. .but his second must shew him how delightful a well-judging and truly
amiable woman could be, and must give him the pleasantest proof of its being a
great deal better to choose than to be chosen, to excite gratitude than to feel it.8
17. The compliments of his neighbours were over; he was no longer teased by
being wished joy of so sorrowful an event; and the wedding-cake, which had been
a great distress to him, was all eat up.9
18. .unless he fancied himself at any time unequal to company, there was
scarcely an evening in the week in which Emma could not make up a card-table
for him.10
19. Real, long-standing regard brought the Westons and Mr. Knightley; and by
wonders.10
22. She was a plain, motherly kind of woman, who had worked hard in her
youth, and now thought herself entitled to the occasional holiday of a tea-visit;11
23. and having formerly owed much to Mr. Woodhouse's kindness, felt his
particular claim on her to leave her neat parlour, hung round with fancy-work,
whenever she could, and win or his fireside.11
24.She was so busy in admiring those soft blue eyes, in talking and listening,
40
and forming all these schemes in the in-betweens, that the evening flew away at a
very unusual rate; and the supper-table, which always closed such parties, and for
which she had been used to sit and watch the due time, was all set out and ready,
and moved forwards to the fire, before she was aware.12
25..and was always mentioned with approbation for his great good-nature
in doing something or other, was a single man;14
26.Neither would Mr. Knightley's downright, decided, commanding sort of
manner, though it suits him very well;17
27.One hears sometimes of a child being 'the picture of health;' now, Emma
always gives me the idea of being the complete picture of grown- up health.19
28.I will keep my ill-humour to myself.21
29.Is not this room rich in specimens of your landscapes and flowers; and
has not Mrs. Weston some inimitable figure-pieces in her drawing-room, at Randalls?"22
30.Miniatures, half-lengths, whole-lengths, pencil, crayon, and watercolours had been all tried in turn.23
31.Emma was half-ashamed of her friend for seeming so pleased and so
doubtful.26
32.The idea of Mr. Elton was certainly cheering; but still, after a time, she
was tender-hearted again towards the rejected Mr. Martin.29
33.You have cured her of her school-girl's giggle; she really does you credit31
34.Something has happened to delay her; some visitors perhaps." "Highbury
gossips!Tiresome wretches!"31
35.She is known only as parlour-boarder at a common school.32
36.A degradation to illegitimacy and ignorance, to be married to a
respectable, intelligent gentleman-farmer!"33
37.Waiving that point, however, and supposing her to be, as you describe
her, only pretty and good-natured, let me tell you, that in the degree she
41
possesses them,34
38.till they do fall in love with well-informed minds instead of handsome
faces, a girl, with such loveliness as Harriet,34
39.He walked off in more complete self-approbation than he left for her.35
40.and found to his great surprize, that Mr. Elton was actually on his road to
London, and not meaning to return till the morrow, though it was the
whist-club night, which he had been never known to miss before;36
41.The Picture, elegantly framed, came safely to hand soon after Mr. Elton's
return, and being hung over the mantelpiece of the common sitting-room, he got up
to look at it, and sighed out his half sentences of admiration just as he ought;37
42.The Picture, elegantly framed, came safely to hand soon after Mr. Elton's
return, and being hung over the mantelpiece of the common sitting-room, he got up
to look at it, and sighed out his half sentences of admiration just as he ought;37
43.The Picture, elegantly framed, came safely to hand soon after Mr. Elton's
return, and being hung over the mantelpiece of the common sitting-room, he got up
to look at it, and sighed out his half sentences of admiration just as he ought;37
44.was the collecting and transcribing all the riddles of every sort that she
could meet with, into a thin quarto of hot-pressed paper, made up by her friend,
and ornamented with ciphers and trophies.37
45.In this age of literature, such collections on a very grand scale are not
uncommon. Miss Nash, head-teacher at Mrs. Goddard's, had written out at least
three hundred;37
46.It is a sort of prologue to the play, a motto to the chapter; and will be
soon followed by matter-of-fact prose."40
47.He was arm-in-arm with Mr. Cole. 41
48."There it is. There go you and your riddle-book one of these days."46
49.but I cannot think of any tolerable pretence for going in;no servant that
I want to inquire about of his housekeeperno message from my father."46
42
50.If I draw less, I shall read more; if I give up music, I shall take to carpetwork.47
51.and always gave her assistance with as much intelligence as good-will.47
52."And really, I do not think the impression will soon be over," said Emma,
as she crossed the low hedge, and tottering footstep which ended the narrow,48
53.Anxious to separate herself from them as far as she could, she soon
afterwards took possession of a narrow footpath. 48
54.I really am a most troublesome companion to you both, but I hope I am
not often so ill-equipped.49
55.but all the holidays of this autumn had been given to sea-bathing for the
children, and it was therefore many months since they had been seen in a regular
way by their Surry connexions50
56.He thought much of the evils of the journey for her, and not a little of the
fatigues of his own horses and coachman who were to bring some of the party the
last half of the way;50
57.the sixteen miles being happily accomplished, and Mr. and Mrs. John
Knightley, their five children, and a competent number of nursery-maids, all reaching Hartfield in safety.50
58.She was not a woman of strong understanding or any quickness; and with
this resemblance of her father, she inherited also much of his constitution; was delicate in her own health, over-careful of that of her children,50
59.Mr. John Knightley was a tall, gentleman-like, and very clever man;50
60.He was not a great favourite with his fair sister-in-law. 51
61.There he had not always the patience that could have been wished. Mr.
Woodhouse's peculiarities and fidgetiness were sometimes provoking him to a rational remonstrance or sharp retort equally ill-bestowed.51
62.It did not often happen; for Mr. John Knightley had really a great regard
for his father-in-law, and generally a strong sense of what was due to him;51
63.I believe he is one of the very best-tempered men that ever existed.52
43
64."How very pleasing and proper of him!" cried the good-hearted Mrs.
John Knightley52
65.But you need not imagine Mr. Weston to have felt what you would feel
in giving up Henry or John. Mr. Weston is rather an easy, cheerful-tempered man,
than a man of strong feelings;53
66.She would keep the peace if possible; and there was something
honourable and valuable in the strong domestic habits, the all-sufficiency of home
to himself, whence resulted her brother's disposition to look down on the common
rate of social intercourse, and those to whom it was important.53
67.As a magistrate, he had generally some point of law to consult John
about, or, at least, some curious anecdote to give; and as a farmer, as keeping in
hand the home-farm at Donwell, he had to tell what every field was to bear next
year54
68."I am sorry to hear you say so, sir; but I assure you, excepting those little
nervous head-aches and palpitations which I am never entirely free from anywhere,56
69.This is just what Perry said. It seemed to him a very ill-judged
measure."58
70.Emma's attempts to stop her father had been vain; and when he had
reached such a point as this, she could not wonder at her brother-in-law's breaking
out.58
71.and she was sorry to find from Mrs. Goddard that Harriet was liable to
very bad sore-throats, and had often alarmed her with them." Mr. Elton looked all
alarm on the occasion, as he exclaimed,59
72.There is such perfect good-temper and good-will in Mr. Elton as one
cannot but value."61
73."My first enjoyment," replied John Knightley, as they passed through the
sweep-gate, "will be to find myself safe at Hartfield again."63
74.With such sensations, Mr. Elton's civilities were dreadfully ill-timed; but
44
she had the comfort of appearing very polite, while feeling very crossand of
thinking that the rest of the visit could not possibly pass without bringing forward
the same information again, or the substance of it, from the open-hearted Mr. Weston.64
75.I believe you did not hear me telling the others in the drawing-room that
we are expecting Frank.65
76."Yes, she would be, but that she thinks there will be another put-off.65
77.Mrs. Churchill rules at Enscombe, and is a very odd-tempered woman;
and his coming now, depends upon her being willing to spare him."66
78.He began with great earnestness to entreat her to refrain from visiting the
sick-chamber again67
79.If there had not been so much anger, there would have been desperate
awkwardness; but their straightforward emotions left no room for the little zigzags
of embarrassment.72
80.There she was welcomed, with the utmost delight, by her father, who had
been trembling for the dangers of a solitary drive from Vicarage Laneturning a
corner which he could never bear to think ofand in strange handsa mere common coachmanno James;72
81.She had taken up the idea, she supposed, and made every thing bend to
it.72
82.Her name was not mentioned;and there was so striking a change in all
this, and such an ill-judged solemnity of leave-taking in his graceful
acknowledgments, as she thought, at first, could not escape her father's suspicion.75
83.I should be as ready to acknowledge his merits as any other man; but I
hear of none, except what are merely personal; that he is well-grown and goodlooking, with smooth, plausible manners."80
84."You will excuse my being so much over-powered.80
85. If I find him conversable, I shall be glad of his acquaintance; but if he is
45
97.The worn-out past was sunk in the freshness of what was coming; and in
the rapidity of half a moment's thought, she hoped Mr. Elton would now be talked
of no more.99
98.Highbury, that airy, cheerful, happy-looking Highbury, would be his constant attraction.103
99.Their first pause was at the Crown Inn, an inconsiderable house, though
the principal one of the sort, where a couple of pair of post-horses were kept, more
for the convenience of the neighbourhood than from any run on the road;104
100. it had been built many years ago for a ball-room, and while the
neighbourhood had been in a particularly populous, dancing state, had been occasionally used as such;104
101. They lived beyond their income, but still it was nothing in comparison
of Enscombe: she did not cease to love her husband, but she wanted at once to be
the wife of Captain Weston, and Miss Churchill of Enscombe.265
102. Some time afterwards it was, "I think Mrs. Goddard would be very
much surprized if she knew what had happened.29
103. "I shall never let that book go out of my own hands," said she. P.42
104. Well, my dears, how does your book go on? P. 42
105. Harriet's parentage became known. She proved to be the daughter of a
tradesman, rich enough to afford her the comfortable maintenance which had ever
been hers,and decent enough to have always wished for concealment.258
47