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Compound Words, Blends, and Phrasal Words: A. Compounds Vs Phrases
Compound Words, Blends, and Phrasal Words: A. Compounds Vs Phrases
Compound Words, Blends, and Phrasal Words: A. Compounds Vs Phrases
By: Group 3
2015
A. Compounds Vs Phrases
Definition
Phrases Compounds
Green house: House that is green Greenhouse: House where delicate
plants are reared
Black board: Board that is black Blackboard: Board for writing on
white house : house that is (the) White House : residence
white of the US President
1. Stress
The underlined words on both examples are where the stress puts on. The
stress on the first words are classified as phrases, while compounds are in
1. Semantic
unpredictable.
B. Classification
1. Compound verbs
Verbs formed by compounding are much less usual than verbs derived by affixation.
Nevertheless, a variety of types exist which may be distinguished according to their
structure:
verb–verb (VV): stir-fry, freeze-dry
noun–verb (NV): hand-wash, air-condition, steam-clean
adjective–verb (AV): dry-clean, whitewash
preposition–verb (PV): underestimate, outrun, overcook
Only the PV type is really common, however, and some compounds with under-,
over- and out- do not need to be classed as lexical items. For example, out- can create a
transitive verb meaning ‘outdo in Xing’ from any verb denoting a competitive or
potentially competitive activity (e.g. outsail, outsing, outswim), while new words with
over- can also be created freely (e.g. overpolish, overcriticise, overbleach).
2. Compound adjectives
A compound adjective is a single adjective comprising more than one word. The
words in a compound adjective are usually grouped together using hyphens (-).
According to their structure, compound adjectives are divided into:
noun–adjective (NA): sky-high, coal-black, oil-rich
adjective–adjective (AA): grey-green, squeaky-clean, red-hot
preposition–adjective (PA): overactive
As with verbs, it is the type with the preposition over as its first element that
seems most productive, in that new adjectives of this type, with the meaning ‘too X’, are
readily acceptable: for example overactive, the head of the compound is the adjective
active derived from the verb act. In structure, therefore, this adjective is not a mere string
of morphemes (over + act + -ive), but rather a nested structure: [over [act-ive]].
3. Compound nouns
A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. It is with nouns
that compounding really comes into its own as a word forming process in English.
compound noun are divided into:
verb–noun (VN): swearword
noun–noun (NN): hairnet
adjective–noun (AN): blackboard
preposition–noun (PN): in-group, outpost
4. Headed and Headless Compound
Headed Compounds are compound words which the meaning IS specified by its
words e.g.: Blackboard
(Blackboard is a dark surface on a wall or frame which a teacher writes on with
chalk)
Headless Compounds are compound words which the meaning IS NOT specified by
its words e.g. : Bigwig
(Bigwig is a person who has an important or powerful position)
1. Blends in the morphological literature differ a great deal, but most treatments
converge on a definition of blends as words that combine two (rarely three or more)
words into one, deleting material from one or both of the source words.
Example: Smog (smoke + fog) noun mixture of fog and smoke
2. Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words. Intermediate between
an acronym and a blend is sonar (from sound navigation and ranging). The use of
capital letters in the spelling of some of these words reflects the fact that speakers are
aware of their acronym status. It does not follow that any string of capital letters
represents an acronym. If the conventional way of reading the string is by
pronouncing the name of each letter in turn, as with USA and RP (standing for the
‘Received Pronunciation’ of British English), then it is not an acronym but an
abbreviation. It is clear from these examples that acronym is in active use for the
creation of new vocabulary.
Examples:
NASA :National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Or
IMO : In My Opinion
It is clear from these examples that acronym is in active use for the creation of
new vocabulary.
The meaning of the whole is clearly determinable from that of the parts, anthrop
(o)-‘human’ plus –(o)logy ‘science or study’ yields a word that means ‘science or study of
human beings’.
E. Phrasal Words
Phrasal word is complex item that its internal structure is phrase and it functions as
word.
Compare:
1. Jack-in-the-box
Its plural: Jack-in-the-boxes
2. Book on the shelf
Its plural: Books on the shelf
Example no. 1 is phrasal word, it is treated as a word, not phrase, so the plural suffix (s)
is addes in the end.