compound words

1. what is a compound?

compounds are words formed by combining roots.

⁃ ex: bookshop, hard-working, download, ...
⁃ head of the compounds: endocentric vs. exocentric

endocentric compounds.
• the head is inside the compound
• the rightmost element is the head of the compound
+ ex: newspaper, textbook, classroom, handbag, bookstore ...

exocentric compounds.
• the head is not inside the compound (headless compound)
+ ex: showoff, redhead, breakdown, ...

⁃ when two words belong to the same category, the result is always the same
category: best-friend (n.), football (n.), airplane (n.), ...

there are 3 types of compound words (matter of style)

• open compound words: cell phone, cotton candy, card holder
• closed compound words: airport, background, bedroom, ...
• hyphenated compound words: check-in, empty-handed, runner-up, ...

there are 3 types of compounds

• compound nouns
• compound verbs
• compound adjectives
⁃ compounds containing BOUND combining forms

compound nouns
⁃ most productive
• verb - noun: washing machine, driving license, swimming pool,...
• noun - noun: motorbike, bottle water, google form,...
• adjective - noun: bystander, white board, website, full moon,...
• preposition - noun: underworld,

primary compound: textbook, basketball,

secondary compounds/ verbal compounds: tennis player,
compound verbs
⁃ not common as derivation
• verb - verb: kickstart, force-feed, sleepwalk,...
• noun - verb: sky-dive, carbon-copy, toothbrush, ...
• adjective - verb: double-book, fine-tune, ...
• preposition - verb: overbook, output, ...

compound adjectives
• noun - adjective: smoke-free, ice-cold, family-friendly,..,
• adjective - adjective: lovey-dovey, widespread, bittersweet, hardworking,...
• preposition - adjective: over-wide, underripe, above-mentioned,...
• preposition - noun: down stairs, off spring, overnight, underwater,...
• adjective - past participle: old-fashion, long-forgotten, ready-made, short-
lived, ...
• adverb - past participle: well-known, densely-populated, underwater, brightly-
lit,...
• adjective - present participle: good-looking, long-lasting, tight-fitting, quick-
thinking,...

2. what is compounding?

semantically
⁃ heads are modified and/ or classified by non-heads.
⁃ compounds generate a single category or behave to be single words.

syntactically
⁃ compounds are recursively constructed.
⁃ heads determine word categories and can be inflected.

phonologically
⁃ compound nouns: the primary stress is on the first element: bottle water,
website, whiteboard,...
⁃ compound adjectives: the stress is mostly on the last element: underwater, well-
known, long-lasting,...
⁃ compound verbs: the stress are mostly on the last element. (except V-V): sky-
dive, fine-tune, carbon-copy,...

exception to stress rules for compound nouns

⁃ material composition:gold medal, leather
compound words - 07/11/22
characteristics

2. semantically
+ modifiers/ classifiers by non-head
+ head word
+ one-word/ create a category

⁃ syntactically
+ can add 1 more element to the head

• phonologically
+ material composition: after a long time, the word become a category -> the stress is still
in the head word

• income tax return

• post office clerk
• seeing-eye dog: a type of dog
• five-year plan: a type of plan
• medical technician training program

+ literal meaning: meaning is formed by single parts of a word

+ idiosyncratic: unpredictable meaning

how to distinguish "phrases" and "compound words"

noun phrases compound nouns
1st stress 2nd stress
literal meaning idiosyncratic meaning
characteristics type of noun
can be added more words in between one-word (cannot added more words in
between)
ex: black board -> black metal board ex: blackboard
ex: train station coffee shop ex: fingernailpolish

⁃ a noun phrase containing 2 compound nouns, with the first one being a modifier

how to distinguish "verb phrases" and "phrasal verbs"

verb phrases phrasal verbs
meaning of prep. can be seen meaning of prep. cannot be seen
ex: look up in the sky ex: look up = search for word's
meaning in the dictionarry

compounds vs. phrases vs. phrasal verbs

phrase compound phrasal word

normal structure of a may have an internal has internal structure of
phrase structure that is different phrases but functions
from that of a phrase, and syntactically as words
function as a word
function as a phrase