4. Compound Words Flashcards
(11-15) (22 cards)
What’s the controversial problem of linguistics?
Compound words.
What does Bally call a compound? Why?
A syntagma (a syntactic string of words).
What are the relations in compound words?
Member to each other;
The whole to its members;
Correlation with equivalent free phrases;
What can you say about stress criterion in compound words?
It differs. For example: “BLACKboard” and “black BOARD”.
Compare compound and syntagma.
Compound. It’s one part of the sentence: “weekend”;
Syntagma. It’s considered to be as different parts of the sentence: “the end of the week”;
Common feature: both have the function of nomination and are similar in meaning.
Find determinant and determinatum in the word “sunbeam”. What are det-nt and det-um?
Determinant. It’s the one determining. Helps to differentiate a word from others.
Determinatum. It’s the one being determined.
In the word “sunbeam” we have a determinant “sun” and a determinatum “beam”. The determinant helps us differentiate a word from others. In this case, we have a SUNbeam.
What are the types of compound relations?
Subordinative/Attributive. They’re the most numerous;
Copulative/Additive. Those are non-syntagmatic collocations: bitter-sweet (bitter and sweet). They’re not so numerous;
Regarding determinant and determinatum, compounds can be…
Endocentric/Non-idiomatic. Determinant and determinatum are clear: slow-coach, blackboard. They need no explanations. They’re easy to understand.
Exocentric/Idiomatic. Determinatum is implied and lies outside: killjoy, lady-killer, wall-flower. They can cause confusion if you don’t know them.
Handicraft.
What’s “i” in the word? What is it terminologically called?
A connective element, also infix.
What are the types of “s” in compounds?
It could be of two origin: possessive/genitive and from a plural form: statesman, salesman.
What can you say about the stress in compounds?
Compound words usually have a single stress, but that doesn’t always work with adjectives: ‘absent-‘minded (adj.), ‘tallboy (n.), ‘slowcoach (n).
Recall unproductive semi-affixes.
Wise, wright, monger, ment.
What are the percentages of compounds according to POS?
15% nouns, 4% adjectives (of the whole vocabulary).
What are the ways of compounding?
Proper. Stem + stem: ice-cold, handicraft;
Derivational. Compound stem + simple/derived one: penholder;
According to classifications, compounds can have…
Linking elements;
No linking elements;
What’s the classification for distributional formulas?
Syntactic. Follows the syntactic rules: blackboard (a black board), a know nothing (to know nothing);
Asyntactic. Would be normal in a phrase or a sentence: red hot (so hot that it is red). The patterns can be: adj. + adj. (pale-blue), noun + participle (weather-beaten);
What do the productive, numerous groups of nouns derive from?
Verbs with postpositives, or more rarely with adverbs: blackout, comedown, dropout, etc.
What are the types of compound meanings when it comes to motivation?
Clear motivation: door-handle, hand-bag;
Unclear motivation: flower-bed, wall-flower;
What’s bahuvrihi? What does it come from? What’s its formula? What’s its tone?
It’s borrowed from the grammarians of ancient India. It designates striking features a person/animal possesses.
The formula: adj. stem + noun stem (wooden-leg uncle).
It possesses a depreciative ironical emotional tone: bigwig - a person of importance.
What’s the oldest way of forming words? For what languages?
Compounding, for the English, Germanic, Indo-European languages.
What’s simplification for compounds?
These are words that used to be compounds, but now are considered to be regular: daisy - day’s eye.
What are the types of compounds?
Reduplicative. Onomatopoeic repetitions: hush-hush, blah-blah, murmur;
Ablaut. Pseudo-morpheme repeated with different vowels: knickknack, tip-top;
Rhyming. Joined to rhyme: boogie-woogie, harum-scarum, helter-skelter;
