COMPOSITION IN

MODERN ENGLISH
 PLAN
 Definition
 Structure of compounds
 The meaning of compounds. Motivation
 Classification of compounds
 Criteria of compounds
 KEY TERMS
 Compounding or composition is a word-forming process based on joining
two or more stems together, e.g. workplace, long-standing, ice cream.
 The head of a compound is its structural and semantic center which
determines the word class, meaning and syntactic functions of the whole
compound in a sentence, e.g. a website is a site on the web, state-
financed is understood as financed by the state, a fruit market is a market
that sells fruit.
 Non-idiomatic compounds have clear motivation, their meaning is
transparent and can be inferred from the meanings of its constituents, e.g.
a latecomer is a person who comes late.
 Idiomatic compounds lack motivation; there is no connection between the
lexical meanings of the bases and the meaning of the pattern and the
meaning of the compound, e.g. a sweet-tooth is a person who likes sweet
food and drink; eyewash is something said or done to deceive a person.
 Compounds proper are formed by joining together bases of independently
existing words, e.g. age-long, looking-glass.
 Derivational compounds, or compound derivatives include at least one
base which is not a free form, i.e. can’t be used as an independently
functioning word, e.g. long-legged, three-cornered, frontbencher.
 KEY TERMS
 Subordinate compounds consist of the head and the adjunct, e.g. hot
dog, bookmark, classroom. The head identifies the entity and the
adjunct modifies, restricts or specifies its features.
 In coordinate compounds both constituents are semantically equal,
they belong to the same word class and often to the same semantic
group, e.g. brain drain, bitter-sweet.
 Juxtaposition is a mere placing two elements together side by side,
e.g. age-long, heartbeat, bedroom. The compound joined by
juxtaposition are called neutral.
 Morphological way of compounding presupposes that there are linking
letters – vowels –i- and –o-, e.g. handicraft, speedometer, or
consonant –s-, e.g. spokesman, statesman.
 Syntactic compounding involves prepositions, conjunctions, articles
and sometimes other words coming between the bases of a compound,
e.g. mother-in-law, up-and-coming, good-for-nothing, editor-in-chief,
out-of-work.
 Semi-affix is a free form that can function as a suffix or prefix, e.g.
outlive, overcrowded, businesslike, bullet-proof.
 CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING
SENTENCES
 We understand how important it is that you can work
safely and support your employees’ health and wellbeing.

 Make sure you put everything back in its proper place.

 The government has produced guidance to help ensure

workplaces are safe.

 The examples above demonstrate that words that exist

separately in language as free morphemes (1,2) can be
joined together into one compound (3). So, the central
idea of compounding is that it is possible to make a
lexical item out of words that are free lexical items
themselves. So, compounds are words consisting of words.
 DEFINITION
 Composition, or compounding, is a way of
forming a new word by joining two or more
stems together. The components (or ICs) of the
compound word occur in the language as free
forms.
 e.g. raincoat, key-hole, bluebell, dark-green,
heart-breaking, weekend, well-wisher
 Compound words are inseparable vocabulary
units. The integrity of a compound may depend
on the unity of the stress, solid or hyphenated
spelling, semantic unity, unity of morphological
and semantic functioning, or upon the combining
effect of several of these factors.
 STRUCTURE OF COMPOUNDS
 Structurally compound words are characterized by the
specific order and arrangement in which bases follow one
another. The order in which 2 bases are placed within a
compound is rigidly fixed in Modern English and it is the
second individual constituent (IC) that makes the head-
member of the word, i.e. its structural and semantic
centre, e.g.:
doghouse (the house for a dog)
state-financed (financed by the state)
dancing-hall (hall for dancing)
 The types that do not conform to this principle are
represented by compounds with prepositions or
conjunctions or loan-compounds.
e.g. passer-by, daughter-in-law, stick-in-the-mud, court
martial, governor general, lords spiritual
PECULIARITIES OF COMPOUNDS:
PRONUNCIATION
 Phonetically compounds are also marked by a specific structure of
their own. No phonemic changes of bases occur in composition but
the compound word acquires a new stress pattern different from
the stress in the separate words. For example, ‘key’ and ‘hole’
possess their own stress, but when the stems of these words are
brought together to make up a new compound ‘keyhole’, the latter
is given a different stress pattern – a unity stress on the first
component in our case.
 Compound words have 3 stress patterns:
 a high stress on the first component, e.g.:

`honeymoon, `doorway, `doorkey

 a double stress, with a primary stress on the first component and a

weaker, secondary stress on the second component, e.g.:

‘blood-`vessel, ‘washing-ma`chine, ‘snow`ball
 it is not infrequent, however, for both components to have level

stress, especially in compound adjectives, e.g.:

arm-chair, icy-cold, grass-green, Afro-American
PECULIARITIES OF COMPOUNDS:
SPELLING
 Graphically, most compounds have 2 types of
spelling – they are spelt either solidly or with a
hyphen, e.g.:
 bedroom, milkman, shortlist, bookcase,
 dress-maker, baby-sitter, kind-hearted, all-
destroying
 The 2 types of spelling typical of compounds,
however, are not rigidly observed and there are
numerous fluctuations between solid and hyphenated
spelling, on the one hand, and spelling with a break
between the components, on the other, especially in
the nominal compounds of the n+n type. The spelling
of these compounds varies from author to author and
from dictionary to dictionary.
THE MEANING OF COMPOUNDS.
MOTIVATION
 The meaning of the compound is made up of the combined
lexical meaning of the bases and the structural meaning of
the pattern. The semantic center of the compound is the
lexical meaning of the second component modified and
restricted by the meaning of the first one. They are called
‘determinatum’ and ‘determinant’.
 In the compound ‘sunlight’, the second stem ‘light’ is the
basic part, determinatum. The first element ‘sun’ is
determinant, it serves to differentiate is from other ‘lights’
(moonlight, candlelignt, lamplight, candlelight, lamplight,
limelight. The determinatum is the grammatically most
important part which undergoes inflections.
 The mere change of the order of the bases brings about the
change in the meaning, e.g.:
 life-boat – boat life, fruit-market – market-fruit
NON-IDIOMATIC AND IDIOMATIC
COMPOUNDS
Non-idiomatic compounds have a perfectly clear motivation.
The meaning is quite transparent and can be deduced from
the meanings of its ICs. The non-idiomatic compounds can
be easily transformed into free phrases, e.g.:
 airmail – mail delivered by air
 latecomer – a person who comes late

Idiomatic compounds lack motivation altogether, i.e. there

is no connection between the lexical meaning of the bases,
the structural meaning of the pattern and the meaning of
the compound, e.g.:
 eyewash – something said or done to deceive a person
 fiddlesticks – rubbish
 night-cap – a drink taken before going to bed at night
 sweet-tooth – a person who likes sweet food and drink
 CLASSIFICATION OF
COMPOUNDS

 Compound words may be classified according

to different principles. There are 4 main
principles of classification:
 1). from the point of view of the way the
components are linked in a compound
syntactically;
 2). from the functional point of view;
 3). from the point of view of means by
which the components are joined together;
 4). according to the nature of the bases.
 RELATIONS BETWEEN THE
STEMS OF COMPOUNDS

 There are 2 types of syntactic inner relations

between the elements in compound words:
the relations of coordination and
subordination.
 Accordingly, compound words fall into 2
classes: coordinate compounds and
subordinate.
 COORDINATE COMPOUNDS
 In coordinate compounds both constituents are semantically equal. The
constituent bases belong to the same class and most often to the same semantic
group. Coordinate compounds make up a comparatively small semantic group.
 They fall into 3 subgroups:
 a). Reduplicative compounds which are made up by the repetition of the same
bases, e.g.:
dum-dum, fifty-fifty, goody-goody, hush-hush, ta-ta
 b). Compounds formed by joining phonetically varied rhythmic twin forms,
which may vary the vowel or the consonant.
 The variation of the consonant brings about the so-called ‘rhyme-motivated
compounds’ in which the rhyme between the two elements is the major
motivating factor in the formation. Very often the constituent members of this
group are in most cases unique and do not function as independent words. They
carry very vague or no lexical meaning of their own. Some English linguists refer
to them as ‘pseudo-compounds’, e.g.: brain-drain, gang-bang, nitty-gritty, teeny-
weeny
 The variation of the vowel brings about the so-caller ‘ablaut-motivated
compounds’, e.g.: chit-chat, flip-flop, shilly-shally, sing-song
 Coordinate compounds of both subgroups (a,b) are mostly restricted to the
colloquial layer, they are marked by a heavy emotive charge and possess a very
small degree of productivity.
 COORDINATE COMPOUNDS
(CONTINUATION)
 c). Additive compounds are made up of stems of the
independently functioning words of the same part of speech.
They denote a person or a thing performing two functions at the
same time.
For example, secretary-stenographer is a person who is both a
secretary and a stenographer; bed-sitter is a room that serves as
a bedroom and a sitting room.
This pattern is becoming rather productive, e.g.:
jazz-rock, owner-occupier, bitter-sweet, deaf-mute
 Among additive compounds there is a specific group of compound

adjectives in which one of ICs is a bound root-morpheme. This

group is limited to the names of nationalities, e.g.:
Anglo-Saxon tribes, Austro-Italian border, Euro-American relations,
Greco-Roman art, Sino-Japanese trade
Additive compounds of this group are mostly fully motivated but
have a very limited degree of productivity.
 SUBORDINATE COMPOUNDS
 In subordinate compounds the components are neither structurally
nor semantically equal in importance but are based on the
domination of the head-member, which is, as a rule, the second
element of the compound word. It is semantically and
grammatically dominant part of the words, which preconditions the
part-of-speech meaning of the whole compound, e.g.:
stone-deaf (adjective); baby-sitter (noun)
 Subordinate compounds make the bulk of MnEnglish compounds; they
are also most productive.
 There is no rigid borderline between coordinate and subordinate

compounds. It often happens that the same compound may with

equal right be interpreted either way – as a coordinate or a
subordinate compound.
For example, woman-doctor may be understood as a woman who is at
the same time a doctor, or it may be regarded as an appositional
compound the first element of which marks the sex of a person.
Other examples of this kind – boy-friend, manservant.
 Note that for animals we use pronouns: she-goat, he-cheetah.
 PARTS OF SPEECH

 Functionally compounds are viewed as words of different part of

speech. It is the head-member of the compound, i.e. its second
element that is indicative of the lexical and grammatical category the
compound word belongs to.
 Compound words are found in all parts of speech, but the bulk of
compounds are nouns and adjectives. Compound adverbs, pronouns
and connectives are represented by an insignificant number of words,
e.g.: somewhere, otherwise, inside, whatever, moreover
No new compounds are coined on this pattern.
 Verbs are of special interest. Derivationally they are all words of
secondary derivation. They are often called pseudo-compounds. They
are represented by 2 groups:
1). verbs formed by means of conversion from compound nouns or
attributive phrases, e.g.: to spotlight, to handcuff, to blacklist, to
side-track, to daydream
2). verbs formed by back derivation from compound nouns by dropping the
suffix ‘-er’ or ‘-ing’, e.g.: to baby-sit – baby-sitter; to house-keep –
house-keeper
 MEANS OF COMPOSITION
 From the point of view of the means by which the components
are joined together compound words are classified into 3
groups:
 a) Words that are formed by merely placing one constituent
after another in a definite order. This means of linking the
components is typical of the majority of Modern English
compounds. It is called juxtaposition, e.g.: door-handle, wind-
driven, gooseflesh
 b) In compound words individual constituents (ICs) are joined
together with a special linking element – the linking vowel [ou]
and occasionally [i] and the linking consonant [s]. This is a
morphological way of forming compounds, e.g.: speedometer,
tragicomic, statesman
 c) Compound words are formed syntactically with the help of
prepositions and conjunctions, e.g.: lady-in-waiting, editor-in-
chief, officer-in-charge, out-of-work, good-for-nothing, up-and-
coming
 MORPHOLOGICAL WAY OF
FORMING COMPOUNDS
 Compounds of this type can be both nouns and adjectives,
subordinate and coordinate, but they are rather few in number.
 The additive compound adjectives linked with the help of the
vowel [ou] are limited to the names of nationalities and
represent a specific group with a bound root for the first
component, e.g. Anglo-American, Afro-Asian
 The linking element [ou] occurs in compound words (nouns and
adjectives) that stand for scientific terms. The main peculiarity
of the compounds of this type is that their constituents are
non-assimilated bound roots borrowed mainly from classical
languages, e.g. electrodynamics, sociolinguistic, filmography
 A small group of compound nouns may be also formed with the
help of the linking consonant [s/z]. the second element is , as a
rule, one of the three bases: man, woman, people, e.g.:
sportsman, saleswoman, bridesmaid, townspeople
 TYPES OF BASES:
STRUCTURAL TYPOLOGY
 Compounds may be also classified according to
the structure of the bases. We distinguish 2
groups: compounds proper and derivational
compounds.
 Compounds proper are formed by joining
together bases of independently functioning
words with or without the help of special linking
elements, e.g.: doorstep, age-long, handiwork,
looking-glass
 Compounds proper constitute the bulk of English
compounds in all parts of speech; they include
both subordinate and coordinate classes,
productive and non-productive patterns.
 COMPOUNDS PROPER:
SUBDIVISION
 Compounds proper may be subdivided into 4
groups:
1). compounds consisting of simple stems, e.g.
film-star, apple-cart, oil-rich, hotbed, blood-red
2). compounds where at least one of the
constituents is a derived stem, e.g. chain-smoker,
tin-opener, baby-sitter, speechwriter
3). compounds where at least one of the
constituents is a clipped stem, e.g. con-man, L-
driver, V-Day, H-film
4). compounds where at least one of the
constituents is a compound, e.g. wastepaper-
basket
DERIVATIONAL COMPOUNDS
 Derivational compounds (or compound derivatives)
differ from compounds proper in the nature of
bases, one of their ICs (usually the second) is not a
free stem, e.g. long-legged, three-cornered, front-
bencher
 This group includes derivational compound nouns
and derivational compound adjectives.
 The structural integrity of such compounds is insured
by the suffixes ‘-ed’ or ‘-er’ which refer not to the
last component but to the combination as a whole.
 Professor A.I. Smirnitsky called them ‘grammatical
compounds’ because they are formed in MnE with a
regularity of grammatical forms.
 DERIVATIONAL COMPOUNDS
 The derivational compound nouns are formed with the
help of the suffix ‘-er’ which is usually used in the
patterns n.stem + n.stem + -er.
e.g. honey-mooner, frontbencher, brain-truster
The first element may be a numeral, adjective, participle or
verb stem, e.g. first-nighter, go-getter
 The derivational adjectives are formed with the help of
the highly productive suffix ‘-ed’ based on the following
patterns: adj. (numeral) + n. stem+ -ed, e.g. long-legged,
three-cornered
 The derivational compounds may often become the basis
of further derivation, e.g.: left-handedness, absent-
mindedness.
 Words of this type are treated as pseudo-compounds or a
special group of derivatives.
 DERIVATIONAL COMPOUNDS
(CONTINUATION)
 There exists a semantic group of derivational compound
nouns denoting agents. They are built on an attributive
and verb/nominal type of phrases. Semantically they are
only partially motivated and are marked by a heavy
emotive charge.
e.g. a kill-joy – one who kills enjoyment
a sweet-tooth – one who likes sweet food
 The meaning of the compound cannot be deduced for
their second IC cannot be understood as their structural
and semantic center. These compounds belong to
grammatical and lexical groups different from those
their components do. These compounds are all animate
nouns while their second ICs belong to inanimate nouns.
The meaning of the active agent is not found in either of
its components.
 DERIVATIONAL COMPOUNDS
(ENDING)
 These types of compound nouns are often termed
‘bahuvrihi’ (the Sanskrit terminology) or
exocentric compounds, i.e. words whose
semantic centre is outside the combination, in
contrast to endocentric compounds in which the
second element is its semantic centre.
e.g. redskin is not a type of skin (exocentric
compound)
armchair is a type of chair (endocentric
compound)
 This small group of derivational nouns is of
restricted productivity but they are emotionally
and stylistically coloured.
 CRITERIA OF COMPOUNDS
 Separating compounds from word groups is no easy task
and shcolars do not agree on the question of relevant
criteria.
 The first criterion is graphic. Solid and hyphenated
spelling is indicative of a compound noun. It may be
argued, however, that there is no consistency in English
spelling in this respect. With different dictionaries and
different authors and sometimes even with the same
author the spelling varies, so that the same vocabulary
unit may exist in a solid spelling (headmaster,
loudspeaker) and with a break within the components
(head master, loud speaker).
 The lack of the uniformity in spelling is the chief reason
why many authors consider this criterion insufficient and
combine it with the phonic criterion of stress.
 CRITERIA OF COMPOUNDS
(CONTITUATION)
 There is a marked tendency in English to give compounds a
heavy stress on the first component, or a heavy stress on the
first component and a secondary stress on the second
component.
e.g. `sunrise, `goldfish, `teenager, `prison-breaker, `fine-looking
 This rule, as we know, does not hold with compound adjectives
which have double stress, e.g.: `Afro-`American, `Afro-
`Asiatic, `Anglo-`Catholic, `Turko-`Russian.
 However, stress can be of no help in solving this problem
because word-stress may depend on phrasal stress or on the
position of the compound in the sentence.
 Besides, the stress may be phonological and help differentiate
the meaning of compounds, e.g.: `overwork – extra work,
`over`work – hard work injuring one’s health.
 As we see, phonological criterion holds for certain types of
words only.
 CRITERIA OF COMPOUNDS
(CONTITUATION)
 Professor Smirnitsky introduces morphological criterion
of compounds. It may be applied when there are
connective elements whichensure the integrity of
compounds. The presence of such elements [i], [ou],
[s/z] leaves no doubt that the combination is a compound
but the number of compounds containing connective
elements is relatively insignificant. So the criterion of
structural integrity is also insufficient.
 Some scholars advocate the semantic criterion and
define a compound as a combination forming a unit
expressing a single idea which is not identical in meaning
to the sum of the meanings of its components in a free
word group. From this point of view ’dirty work’ with its
figurative meaning ‘dishonourable proceedings’ is a
compound, while ‘clean work’ is a phrase.
 SEMI-AFFIXES
 The problem of distinguishing a compound from a derivative is
actually equivalent to distinguishing a stem from an affix. In most
cases the task is simple enough: the immediate constituents of a
compound are free forms, whereas a derivative contains bound forms
as its ICs.
 There are, however, some borderline cases which present difficulties.
Some elements of the English vocabulary occurring as independent
units (‘man, berry, land, proof, wise’) have been very frequent as
the second elements of words. They seem to have acquired valency
similar to that of affixes. They are unstressed, and the vowel sounds
have been reduced, and their lexical meaning is weakened. As these
elements seem to come somewhere in between the stems and
affixes, the term ‘semi-affixes’ has been offered to designate them.
Semi-affixes received this name, because semantically, functionally,
structurally and statistically they became more like affixes and roots.
Their meaning is as general as that of affixes. They determine the
lexico-grammatical class the word belongs to. Compare, for example,
‘sailor’ and ‘seaman’ where ‘-man’ is a semi-suffix.
 SEMI-AFFIXES (CONTINUATION)

 ‘man’ is most frequent of semi-affixes. Its

combining activity is very great, e.g.: countryman,
seaman, spacemen, clergyman, fireman, postman.
 The second element ‘-man’ is considerably
generised semantically and approaches in meaning
a suffix of a doer ’-er’ or ‘-ist’.
 The fading of the lexical meaning is especially
evident when the words containing this element
are applied to women.
 The great combining capacity characterizes the
elements ‘-like’, ‘-proof’, and ‘-worthy’ so that
they may be also referred to as semi-affixes, e.g.:
godlike, businesslike, unladylike.
 SEMI-AFFIXES (CONTINUATION)
 The element ‘-proof’ is extremely
productive so it seems right to include it
among semi-affixes, e.g.: damp-proof, fire-
proof, bomb-proof, water-proof, shock
proof, age-proof.
 Sometimes occasional words are formed in
this way, e.g.:
kissproof (about lipstick)
foolproof (about mechanisms simple to handle)
rabbit-proof (about a fence)
 SEMI-AFFIXES (CONTINUATION)
 The semi-suffix ‘worthy’ combines with nouns to form
adjectives describing people or things that observe or merit
whatever the nouns refer to.
e.g. trustworthy – worthy of confidence
creditworthy – financially sound enough to justify the
extension of credit
newsworthy – sufficiently interesting to the general public
to be reported (as in a newspaper)
awardworthy – deserving an award
 The semi-suffix also combines with nouns to form adjectives

that describe vehicles which are in a good condition and are

safe for travelling.
e.g. seaworthy – fit or safe to travel on the sea
airworthy – fit for operation in the air
roadworthy – fit for use on the road
 SEMI-AFFIXES (CONTINUATION)
 H. Marchant chooses to include among the semi-affixes also the
elements ‘-wise’ and ‘-way’.
 The semi-suffix ‘-wise’ combines with nouns to form words

which describe actions or states that are similar to those of the

people or things referred to by the nouns. For example, if
something moves ‘clockwise’, it moves in a circle and in the
same direction as the hands of a clock.
 Other examples with the semi-suffix ‘wise’ in this meaning:

crab-wise, hammer-wise, monkey-wise, sailor-wise, and

sleepwalker-wise.
 The semi-suffix ‘wise’ also combines with nouns, and

occasionally with adjectives and adverbs.

e.g. vote-wise
calorie-wise
menu-wise
dollarwise
 SEMI-AFFIXES (CONTINUATION)
 Among the newest semi-suffixes we may count –free, -
monger, -oholic/-aholic, -friendly, -burger, which can
form new words freely.
 The suffix -oholic/-aholic, meaning a person obsessed
with or addicted to, is becoming very productive. The
earliest formation based on this suffix was probably
workaholic, which seemed to have been coined around
1968. The medial vowel of its model was rather
arbitrarily changed from ‘o’ to ‘a’, and to this day ‘a’
remains rather commoner.a fairly high proportion of
these formation refer to particular sort of food and drink
obsessions, but compulsive collectors or buyers
featureprominently too: clothesaholic, shopaholic,
chocoholic, creamaholic, molkaholic,jadeaholic,
tinfoilaholic.
 SEMI-AFFIXES (ENDING)
 Semi-affixes may also be used in preposition
like prefixes: info-, eco-, narco-, Euro-,
techno-, mini-, maxi-, self-.
 Possibly the best-known example of a word
that shows signs of being turned into a prefix
is cyber-; it would take a few pages just to
list all the new words that have been formed
with it.
 The factors conducive to transition of free
forms into semi-affixes are high semantic
productivity, adaptability, combinatorial
capacity (high valency) and brevity.
QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL

 Define composition as a way of forming new words. What do we call the words which
appear as a result of compounding?
 What are the structural features of compounds? What is the head of a compound?
 What are the phonetic peculiarities of compound words?
 How are the compounds spelled?
 What ingredients make up the meaning of a compound word?
 What is the difference between non-idiomatic and idiomatic compounds?
 What classifications of compounds do you know? What are the principles of
classification?
 What is the difference between compounds proper and derivational compounds?
 What structural types of compounds proper do you know?
 What structural types of derivational compounds do you know?
 What compounds are called exocentric and why?
 What parts of speech do compounds in English present?
 Why are compound verbs called pseudo-compounds?
 What is the difference between coordinate and subordinate compounds?
 How are the components in a compound joined?
 What are the criteria of distinguishing compounds from word groups? How reliable are
they?
 What is a semi-affix? Name the most frequent of semi-affixes and give examples with
them.