COMPOUND WORDS, BLENDS

AND PHRASAL WORDS

Hamza Shahid
40252193020
COMPOUNDS VERSUS PHRASES
• Compounds are words which are formed by combining roots, and much
smaller category of phrasal words.

• It will be a little bit difficult to differentiate whether a pair of such roots

constitutes a compound word or phrase,

• But there are enough clear cases to show that the distinction between
compounds are phrases is valid.
For Example:
1) hair net hairnet
‘Net made of hair’ ‘Net for covering hair’

2) white house White House

‘house that is white’ ‘Residence of the US President’

3) toy factory toy factory

‘factory that is a toy’ ‘Factory where toys are made’
COMPOUND VERB
• Verb formed by compounding are much less usual
than verbs derived by affixation.

Compound verbs have four (4) structure,

they are:

 verb-verb (VV): Stir-fry, freeze-dry

 noun-verb (NV): hand-wash, air-condition
 adjective-verb (AV): dry-clean, whitewash
 Preposition-verb (PV): underestimate, outrun, input
COMPOUND ADJECTIVE
• A compound adjective is formed when two or more adjectives
work together to modify the same noun.
Compound adjective have three structures,
they are:
 noun-adjective (NA): sky-high, coal black
 adjective-adjective (AA): grey-green, red-hot
 preposition-adjective (PA): underfall, overactive
 COMPOUND NOUNS
• A compound noun is made up of two or more words used together as a single noun.
• Compound noun have four structures, they are:

 verb-noun (VN): swearword, playtime

 noun-noun (NN): basketball, hairnet
 adjective-noun (AN): Greenland, blackboard
 Preposition-noun (PN): indoor, overcoat
 Gerund-Noun : Drawing room, writing desk, walking stick
 BLENDS
• Blend is a kind of compound which at least one component is reproduced only partially.
Most blends are formed by one of the following methods:
1) The beginning of one word is added to the end of other word
For example: brunch = breakfast + lunch
Smoke + fog = Smog

2) The beginning of two words are combined.

For example: cyborg = cybernetic + organism

3) Two words are blended around a common sequence o sounds

For example:
Motel= motor & hotel
Californication= California & fornication
 ACRONYMS
• Kind of truncation that a component of a blend can undergo reduction to just one sound (or
letter), usually the first.

• NATO (for North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

• ANZAC (for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps)

• RAM (for random access memory)

• Intermediate between an acronym and a blend is Sonar (from sound navigation and ranging).
COMPOUNDS CONTAINING BOUND
COMBINING FORMS
• Most of the compounds that we have looked at so far involve roots that are
free forms.

• Vocabulary of English, especially in scientific and technical areas includes

• A huge repertoire of compounds that are made up of bound roots, known as

combining forms.

• Anthropology, sociology, cardiogram, electrocardiogram, retrograde,

retrospect, plantigrade
 Anthropology

anthrop(o) + (o)logy

‘human’ ‘science or study’

‘science or study of human beings’
Plantigrade
Planti + grade
‘sole (of foot)’ ‘walking’

‘walking on the soles of the feet’

PHRASAL WORD
Phrasal words are complex item that function as word, yet whose internal
structure is that of a clause or a phrase rather than of a compound.

An example of phrasal word is

Jack-in-the-box
structurally
has the appearance of a noun phrase

Parallel to the phrases

People in the street
or
Book on the shelf
THE END