Class Work

ENG 312.1 (HMe)

1. The following words have all been formed by compounding. Draw a tree structure for each word.
(Hint: If you are in doubt as to the lexical category of the compound, remember that the category of the
head determines the category of the word.)

a) football
b) yardstick
c) sunbather
d) in-crowd
e) fastfood
f) software
g) freeze-dry
h) overbook

2. Examine the following compounds and answer the questions below.

A B

a) bigmouth h) cutthroat

b) skinhead i)pickpocket

c) kill-joy j) spoilsport

d) bath towel k) crybaby

e) death blow l) brain-dead

f) bird-brain m) blow-dry

g) Walkman n) armchair
 i. For each of the compounds in column A, determine whether they are endocentric or exocentric.
ii. How do you form the plural of Walkman and bigmouth? (Hint: See Table 4.17. Also, pay special
attention to the pronunciation of mouth. Is it any different here from what is it when it is used as
an independent word?)

3. The words in column 2 have been created from the corresponding word in column 1. Indicate the
morphological process responsible for the creation of each word in column 2.

Column 1 Column 2

a) automation → automate

b) humid →humidifier

c) information, entertainment →infotainment

d) love, seat →loveseat

e) progress →progress
i)