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talkie, helter-skelter.
This subgroup stands very much apart. It is very
often referred to pseudo-compounds and considered by some linguists ir-
relevant to productive word-formation owing to the doubtful morphemic
status of their components. The constituent members of compound words
of this subgroup are in most cases unique, carry very vague or no lexical
meaning of their own, are not found as stems of independently functioning
words. They are motivated mainly through the rhythmic doubling of fanci-
ful sound-clusters.
Coordinative compounds of both subgroups (a, b) are mostly restricted
to the colloquial layer, are marked by a heavy emotive charge and possess
a very small degree of productivity.
c) The bases of a d d i t i v e compounds such as”
a queen-bee, an ac-
tor-manager,
unlike the compound words of the first two subgroups, are
built on stems of the independently functioning words of the same part of
speech. These bases often semantically stand in the genus-species rela-
tions. They denote a person or an object that is two things at the same
time. A
secretary-stenographer
is thus a person who is both
a stenogra-
pher
and
a secretary, a bed-sitting-room (a bed-sitter)
is both
a bed-
room
and
a sitting-room
at the same time. Among additive compounds
there is a specific subgroup of compound adjectives one of ICs of which is
a bound root-morpheme. This group is limited to the names of nationali-
ties such as
Sino-Japanese, Anglo-Saxon, Afro-Asian,
etc.
Additive compounds of this group are mostly fully motivated but have
a very limited degree of productivity.
However it must be stressed that though the distinction between co-
ordinative and subordinative compounds is generally made, it is open to
doubt and there is no hard and fast border-line between them. On the con-
trary, the border-line is rather vague. It often happens that one and the
same compound may with equal right be interpreted either way — as a
coordinative or a subordinative compound, e.g.
a woman-doctor
may be
understood as ‘a woman who is at the same time a doctor’ or there can be
traced a difference of importance between the components and it may be
primarily felt to be ‘a doctor who happens to be a woman’, cf. also
a
mother-goose, a clock-tower.
In s u b o r d i n a t i v e 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 IC. The
second IC thus is the semantically and grammatically dominant part of the
word, which preconditions the part-of-speech meaning of the whole com-
pound as in
stone-deaf, age-long
which are obviously adjectives,
a wrist-
watch, road-building, a baby-sitter
which are nouns.
Subordinative compounds make the bulk of Modern English c o m-
p ou nd wor ds, a s t o pr oduc t i vit y m ost of t he pr oduc t i ve types
are subordinative compounds.
F u n c t i o n a l l y compounds are viewed
as words of different parts of speech. It is the
head-member of the compound, i.e. its second IC that is indicative of the
grammatical and lexical category the compound word belongs to.
147
§ 3 1 . Different Parts of Speech
Compound words are found in all parts of speech, but the bulk of com-
pounds are nouns and adjectives. Each part of speech is characterised by
its set of derivational patterns and their semantic variants. Compound ad-
verbs, pronouns and connectives are represented by an insignificant num-
ber of words, e.g.
somewhere, somebody, inside, upright, otherwise,
moreover, elsewhere, by means of,
etc. No new compounds are coined
on this pattern. Compound pronouns and adverbs built on the repeating
first and second IC like
body, ever, thing
make closed sets of words
some
any
every
no
}
+
}
body
thing
one
where
On the whole composition is not productive either for adverbs, pro-
nouns or for connectives.
Verbs are of special interest. There is a small group of compound verbs
made up of the combination of verbal and adverbial stems that language
retains from earlier stages, e.g.
to bypass, to inlay, to offset.
This type
according to some authors, is no longer productive and is rarely found in
new compounds.
There are many polymorphic verbs that are represented by morphemic
sequences of two root-morphemes, like
to weekend, to gooseflesh, to
spring-clean,
but derivationally they are all words of secondary derivation
in which the existing compound nouns only serve as bases for derivation.
They are often termed pseudo-compound verbs. Such polymorphic verbs
are presented by two groups:
1)
verbs formed by means of conversion from the stems of compound
nouns as in
to spotlight
from a
spotlight, to sidetrack
from
a side-track,
to handcuff
from
handcuffs, to blacklist
from
a blacklist, to pinpoint
from a
pin-point;
2)
verbs formed by back-derivation from the stems of compound
nouns, e.g.
to babysit
from
a baby-sitter, to playact
from
play-acting, to
housekeep
from
house-keeping, to spring-clean
from
spring-cleaning.
From the point of view of the means by which
the components are joined together compound
words may be classified into:
1) Words formed by m e r e l y p l a c i n g o n e c o n -
s t i t u e n t a f t e r a n o t h e r in a definite order which thus is
indicative of both the semantic value and the morphological unity of the
compound, e.g.
rain-driven, house-dog, pot-pie (cf. dog-house, pie-pot).
This means of linking the components is typical of the majority of Modern
English compounds in all parts of speech.
As to the order of components, subordinative compounds are often
classified as: a) a s у n t а с t i с compound in which the order of bases
runs counter to the order in which the motivating words can be brought
together under the rules of syntax of the language. For example, in vari-
able phrases adjectives cannot be modified by preceding adjectives and
noun modifiers are not placed before participles or adjectives, yet this kind
of asyntactic arrangement is typical of compounds, e.g.
red-hot,
148
§ 32. Means of Composition
bluish-black, pale-blue, rain-driven, oil-rich.
The asyntactic order is
typical of the majority of Modern English compound words; b) s y n t a c -
t i c compounds whose components are placed in the order that resembles
the order of words” in free phrases arranged according to the rules of syn-
tax of Modern English. The order of the components in compounds like
blue-bell, mad-doctor, blacklist
(a+n)
reminds one of the order and ar-
rangement of the corresponding words in phrases a
blue bell, a mad doc-
tor, a black list
(A+N),
the order of compounds of the type
door-handle,
day-time, spring-lock
(n+n)
resembles the order of words in nominal
phrases with attributive function of the first noun
(N+N),
e.g.
spring time,
stone steps, peace movement.
2) Compound words whose ICs are joined together with a s p e c i a l
l i n k i n g - e l e m e n t — the linking vowels [ou] and occasionally
[i] and the linking consonant [s/z] — which is indicative of composition as
in, e.g.,
speedometer, tragicomic, statesman.
Compounds of this type
can be both nouns and adjectives, subordinative and additive but are rather
few in number since they are considerably restricted by the nature of their
components. The additive compound adjectives linked with the help of the
vowel [ou] are limited to the names of nationalities and represent a spe-
cific group with a bound root for the first component, e.g.
Sino-Japanese,
Afro-Asian, Anglo-Saxon.
In subordinative adjectives and nouns the productive linking element is
also [ou] and compound words of the type are most productive for scien-
tific terms. The main peculiarity of compounds of the type is that their
constituents are nonassimilated bound roots borrowed mainly from classi-
cal languages, e.g.
electro-dynamic, filmography, technophobia, video-
phone, sociolinguistics, videodisc.
A small group of compound nouns may also be joined with the help of
linking consonant [s/z], as in
sportsman, landsman, saleswoman,
bridesmaid.
This small group of words is restricted by the second compo-
nent which is, as a rule, one of the three bases
man-, woman-, people-.
The commonest of them is
man-.
1
Compounds may be also classified according
to the nature of the bases and the interconnec-
tion with other ways of word-formation into the so-called compounds
proper and’ derivational compounds.
C o m p o u n d s p r o p e r are formed by joining together bases
built on the stems or on the word-forms of independently functioning
words with or without the help of special linking element such as
door-
step, age-long, baby-sitter, looking-glass, street-fighting, handiwork,
sportsman.
Compounds proper constitute the bulk of English compounds
in all parts of speech, they include both subordinative and coordinative
classes, productive and non-productive patterns.
D e r i v a t i o n a l c o m p o u n d s , e.g.
long-legged, three-
cornered, a break-down, a pickpocket
differ from compounds proper in
the nature of bases and their second IC. The two ICs of the compound
long-legged
— ‘having long legs' — are the suffix
-ed
meaning ‘having'
1
See ‘Word-Structure’, § 3, p. 92,
149
§ 33. Types of Bases
and the base built on a free word-group
long legs
whose member words
lose their grammatical independence, and are reduced to a single compo-
nent of the word, a derivational base. Any other segmentation of such
words, say into
long
- and
legged-
is impossible because firstly, adjectives
like *
legged
do not exist in Modern English and secondly, because it
would contradict the lexical meaning of these words. The derivational ad-
jectival suffix
-ed
converts this newly formed base into a word. It can be
graphically represented as
long legs —> [(long-leg) +
-ed]
-> long-
legged.
The suffix
-ed
becomes the grammatically and semantically domi-
nant component of the word, its head-member. It imparts its part-of-
speech meaning and its lexical meaning thus making an adjective that may
be semantically interpreted as ‘with (or having) what is denoted by the
motivating word-group’. Comparison of the pattern of compounds proper
like
baby-sitter, pen-holder
[n+(v
+
-er)]
with the pattern of derivational
compounds like
long-legged
[(a+n) +
-ed]
reveals the difference: deriva-
tional compounds are formed by a derivational means, a suffix in case of
words of the
long-legged
type, which is applied to a base that each time is
formed anew on a free word-group and is not recurrent in any other type
of words. It follows that strictly speaking words of this type should be
treated as pseudo-compounds or as a special group of derivatives. They
are habitually referred to derivational compounds because of the peculiar-
ity of their derivational bases which are felt as built by composition, i.e. by
bringing together the stems of the member-words of a phrase which lose
their independence in the process. The word itself, e.g.
long-legged,
is
built by the application of the suffix, i.e. by derivation and thus may be
described as a suffixal derivative.
Derivational compounds or pseudo-compounds are all subordinative
and fall into two groups according to the type of variable phrases that
serve as their bases and the derivational means used:
a)
d e r i v a t i o n a l c o m p o u n d a d j e c t i v e s formed
with the help of the highly-productive adjectival suffix
-ed
applied to
bases built on attributive phrases of the
A+N, Num
+
N, N+N
type, e.g.
long legs, three corners, doll face.
Accordingly the derivational adjec-
tives under discussion are built after the patterns
[(a+n)
+
-ed],
e.g.
long-
legged, flat-chested, broad-minded;
[(num
+
n) + -ed],
e.g.
two-sided,
three-cornered;
[(n + n) +
-ed],
e.g.
doll-faced, heart-shaped.
b)
d e r i v a t i o n a l c o m p o u n d n o u n s formed mainly by
conversion applied to bases built on three types of variable phrases —
verb-adverb phrase, verbal-nominal and attributive phrases.
The commonest type of phrases that serves as derivational bases for
this group of derivational compounds is the
V
+
Adv
type of word-groups
as in, e.g.,
a breakdown, a break-through, a cast-away, a lay-out.
Se-
mantically derivational compound nouns form lexical groups typical of
conversion, such as an a c t or i n s t a n c e of the action, e.g.
a holdup
— ‘a delay in traffic’ from
to hold up
— ‘delay, stop by use of force’; a
r e s u l t of the action, e.g.
a breakdown
— ‘a failure in machinery that
causes work to stop’ from
to break down
— ‘become disabled’; an active
a g e n t or r e c i p i e n t of the action, e.g.
cast-offs
— ‘clothes that
the owner will not wear again’ from
to cast off
— ‘throw away as
150
unwanted’;
a show-off
— ‘a person who shows off from
to show off
—
‘make a display of one’s abilities in order to impress people’. Derivational
compounds of this group are spelt generally solidly or with a hyphen and
often retain a level stress. Semantically they are motivated by transparent
derivative relations with the motivating base built on the so-called phrasal
verb and are typical of the colloquial layer of vocabulary. This type of
derivational compound nouns is highly productive due to the productivity
of conversion.
The semantic subgroup of derivational compound nouns denoting
agents calls for special mention. There is a group of such substantives
built on an attributive and verbal-nominal type of phrases. These nouns are
semantically only partially motivated and are marked by a heavy emotive
charge or lack of motivation and often belong to terms as, e.g., a
kill-joy,
a wet-blanket — ‘
one who kills enjoyment’;
a turnkey
— ‘keeper of the
keys in prison’;
a sweet-tooth
— ‘a person who likes sweet food’;
a red-
breast
— ‘a bird called the robbin’. The analysis of these nouns easi l y
proves that they can only be understood as the result of conversion for
their second ICs cannot be understood as their structural or semantic cen-
tres, these compounds belong to a grammatical and lexical groups differ-
ent from those their components do. These compounds are all animate
nouns whereas their second ICs belong to inanimate objects. The meaning
of the active agent is not found in either of the components but is imparted
as a result of conversion applied to the word-group which is thus turned
into a derivational base.
These compound nouns are often referred to in linguistic literature as
“bahuvrihi” compounds or exocentric compounds, i.e. words whose se-
mantic head is outside the combination. It seems more correct to refer
them to the same group of derivational or pseudo-compounds as the above
cited groups.
This small group of derivational nouns is of a restricted productivity,
its heavy constraint lies in its idiomaticity and hence its stylistic and emo-
tive colouring.
The linguistic analysis of extensive language
data proves that there exists a regular correla-
tion between the system of free phrases and
all types of subordinative (and additive) compounds
1
. Correlation em-
braces both the structure and the meaning of compound words, it underlies
the entire system of productive present-day English composition condi-
tioning the derivational patterns and lexical types of compounds.
The s t r u c t u r a l correlation manifests itself in the morphological
character of components, range of bases and their order and arrangement.
It is important to stress that correlative relations embrace only minimal,
non-expanded nuclear types of phrases.
The bases brought together in compound words are built only on the
stems of those parts of speech that may form corresponding word-
1
Prof. A. I. Smirnitsky as far back as the late forties pointed out the rigid parallelism
existing between free word-groups and derivational compound adjectives which he termed
“grammatical compounds".
151
§ 34. Correlation between
Compounds and Free Phrases