English Compounds

Ministry of Science and Education of Moldova

The University of Humanities of Moldova

Diploma  Paper

,,English  Compounds’’

Scientific adviser : Rujin  Tatiana

Elaborated by IV year student :   Gîrlea Simion

CHIŞINAU  2001

CONTENT

Introduction.

Chapter I.

1.1    Structure  of  compounds................................................................[pic 1]

1.    Classification ...................................................................................

1.3    Specific  features.............................................................................

Chapter II

1. Compound Nouns...........................................................................
2. Compound Adjectives.....................................................................
3. Semi-affixes of compounds.............................................................
4. New word-forming pattern in composition.....................................

Conclusion...............................................................................................

Bibliography...........................................................................................

Introduction

1.A common device for word-making one that has been productive at every period of the English language , is compounding , which consists of joining two or even more words to form a new entity.  

        Composition is a device by means of which new words are formed as a result                of the semantic – grammatical combination of two or more words ( also roots or stem ). The graphic and phonetic elements may also be taken into account.

        Words of the fundamental stock have provided the language with a basis for the formation of such compounds in great number.

        It  is striking that almost any combination of parts of speech may be employed in this way , though some combinations are far more common than others , some are usual and some have not been favored equally in every period.

        The essence of a compound word is that it shall form a single idea . But there are different degrees of closeness in the merging of the separate elements of a compound. It is therefore practically impossible to draw a rigid line of demarcations between compounds and free syntactical groups.

         It should be noted that in compounds which most frequently occur , the last element expresses a general meaning whereas the prefixed element renders it less general. Thus motor ship is a ship but only a particular kind of ship ; water lily is a lily  , but only a particular kind of lily.

          We do not get a true compound so long as the component parts both retain their natural and full signification and their original syntactical relations.

(Compare ; slow coach  -  slowcoach ; blue bell  -  bluebell.)

          The simplest form of compounds is the welding if two words that already exist in the language ; broadcast , news – boy , water – mill , water – way  …

          It is worth  mentioning that a number of early native compounds have died out or have replaced by French or Latin borrowings that are  not compounds , as when treasure replaced gold-hoard and when medicine superseded leech – craft.

Latin and French lack the compound making ability of English. There is no reason why some grammarians assert in this connection that the making of compounds in Modern English is practically extinct. H. West for instance , holds that the power of coining new words by composition seems to have perished through the influence of French . According to West  , Modern English possesses it no longer. We can hardly adhere to this statement for it is altogether erroneous. History shows that a great many compounds were formed in English long after the introduction of Norman French.

         There is disagreement as to whether compounds are acquired as single lexical units or whether compounds are created from their parts. In her famous study Berco asked young children why compounds like Thanksgiving and Sunday have the names they do. Children who were quite competent in creating new compounds (they could for example create the term wughouse for the home of an imagining animal)  did not , in turn , analyze compounds in terms of their parts. They did not think Thanksgiving had anything to do with giving thanks but rather with eating turkey. And for them Sunday is called Sunday because that is when you go to church.

          Even though many language use compounding to create new words second language learners often find these forms difficult. Learners are not always sure whether the compound is possible for example an American Sign  Language student describing the collection of sap from rubber trees wrote. ,, Every day one times a line , So then that  thing is like water . Rubber water maybe ,, If the L.1 and L.2 both use compounding extensively learners may try to translate the L.1 forms directly to the L.2. Nemser (1991) gives examples of such loan translations: ill-car for ambulance from the German  Krankenwagen, Alp dream for nightmare  from the German Alt traum and sidejump meaning an extramarital adventure from Seitensprung.

It must also be mentioned that beginning with the period of the Industrial Revolution ( the second half of the 18th century ) compound words and compound nouns of a technical or scientific character have developed hand in hand with men’s inventions and discoveries attaining impressive figures, for example there are 197 technical – scientific compounds with air:

                   e.g.           Aircraft, airport, airman…    

          In comparison with simple words of the same category the number of compounds is several times larger.

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