1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics. Lexical units

Phоnetiсallу compounds are 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 motivating words (key, hole = keyhole, each possess their own stress but when the stems of these words are brought together to make up a new compound word the latter is given a different stress pattern). Compound words have three stress patterns:
a) a high or unity stress on the first component as in ‘honeymoon, doorway, etc.
b) a double stress, with a primary stress on the first component and a weaker, secondary stress on the second component, e.g. ´blood-`vessel, ´mad-`doctor.

3. 
   It is not infrequent, however, for both ICs to have level stress as in, e.g., ‘arm-'chair, ‘icy-'cold, ‘grass-'green, etc.
   

Graphically most compounds have two types of spelling — they are spelt either solidly or with a hyphen. It is true that hyphenated spelling by itself may be sometimes misleading, as it may be used in word-groups to emphasise their phraseological character as in e.g. daughter-in-law, man-of-war, brother-in-arms. The two types of spelling typical of compounds and this makes the problem of distinguishing between compound words and word-groups especially difficult.
Semantically compound words are generally motivated units. The meaning of the compound is first of all derived from the’ combined lexical meanings of its components. In compound words semantic relations between the base and the stem on which the word is built is more obvious.
Morphologically compound words are characterised by the specific order and arrangement in which bases follow one another. The order in which the two bases are placed within a compound is rigidly fixed in Modern English and it is the second IC that makes the head-member of the word, i.e. its structural and semantic centre. The head-member is of basic importance as it ‘preconditions both the lexico-grammatical and semantic features of the first component.
The meaning of the compound is derived not only from the combined lexical meanings of its components, but also from the meaning signalled by the patterns of the order and arrangement of its ICs. The semantic centre of the compound is the lexical meaning of the second component modified and restricted by the meaning of the first.
There are different classifications of compound words:

1. 
   From the point of view of degree of semantic independence: coordinative compounds – the two ICs are semantically equally important (oak-tree, girl-friend, Anglo-American); and subordinative 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 compound as in stone-deaf, age-long which are obviously adjectives, a wrist-watch, road-building, a baby-sitter which are nouns.
   
2. 
   From part of speech they form: compound words are found in all parts of speech, but the bulk of compounds are nouns and adjectives. Each part of speech is characterised by its set of derivational patterns and their semantic variants.
   
3. 
   From the point of view of the means by which the components are joined together compound words may be classified into: words formed by merely placing one constituent after another in a definite order; compound words whose ICs are joined together with a special linking-element — 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 may be also classified according to the nature of the bases: Compounds proper are formed by joining together bases built on the stems. Derivational compounds, e.g. long-legged, three-cornered, a break-down, a pickpocket, those that have derivational affixes in their structure – blue-eyed, golden-haired, film-goer, lady-killer).
4) The description of compound words through the correlation with variable word-groups makes it possible to classify them into four major classes: adjectival-nominal (snow-white, age-long, care-free), verbal-nominal (office-management, price-reduction, wage-cut, hand-shake), nominal (windmill, horse-race, pencil-case) and verb-adverb compounds (break-down, runaway, castaway).
14. Compounding in English
Word compounding (word composition) is a universal way of deriving new words. It is also one of the most ancient, productive and active types of word-formation in English. About 1/3 of all derived words in modern E. are compounds.
Word compounding – is a kind of word-formation based on combining 2 immediate constituents ( компонент) where each is a derivational base: noun + noun – raincoat; adj +adj – darkblue; adj + noun – bluebell; verb + prep – make-up; obj. group – forget-me-not.
The roof can be joined directly or by the connective from the point of view of meaning they are motivated, part. and non-motivated.
The meaning of mot. is understood directly from the meaning of its components (apple tree)
In part. mot. the meaning of one root is either wickeaned or lost (chatterbox).
In non-mot. the meaning is either lost of ………………. by the new orig. meaning (buttercup – лютик).
From the point of view the form comp. present an intr. study. They may have solid hyphenated or separate spelling. It is not always easy to differentiate compound words from word-combination. There are some criteria of differentiation: 1. Compounds unlike combinations posses one stress. 2. They have a sem …………………. (new meaning differs from their components meaning). 3. They are usually written as one word.
Compounds undergo derivation when der. affixation added to them (typewrite + er, blue-eye +ed).
Compound verbs are derived from nouns (to baby-sit).
Shortening – when spelling is simplified (night – nite). The tendency is proper to all styles: clipping, abbreviation, blending.
Clipping – is a reduction of a word to one or 2 syllables: professor – prof, middle – mid.
Abbreviation – is the way of building new words out of initial letters: NATO, TV.
Blending – is a compounding by means of produced words: fog +smoke -- smog


15. Abbreviation.
Shortening is a comparatively new way of word-building, which has achieved a high degree of productivity nowadays, especially in American English.
Shortenings are produced in two different ways:

1. 
   To make a new word from a syllable of the original word. The word may lose its beginning (phone – from telephone, fence – from defence) , it’s ending (hols – for holidays, vac – for vacation, props – for properties, ad – from advertisement) or both the beginning and the ending (flu – from influenza, fridge – from refrigerator).
   
2. 
   To make a new word from the initial letters of a word group: a) If the abbreviated written form tends itself to be read as though it were an ordinary English word and sounds like an English word, it will be read like one. The words thus formed are called acronyms,U.N.O. ['ju:neu] from the United Nations Organisation, NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, SALT—Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
   

b) The other subgroup consists of initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading retained, i.e. pronounced as a series of letters. B.B.C. from the British Broadcasting Corporation, M.P. from Member of Parliament. This type is called initial shortenings. They are found not only among formal words, such as the ones above, but also among colloquialisms and slang. So, g. f. is a shortened word made from the compound girl-friend.
Both types of shortenings are characteristic of informal speech in general and of uncultivated speech particularly. Here are some more examples of informal shortenings: Movie (from moving-picture), gent (from gentleman), specs (from spectacles), exhibish (from exhibition), posish (from position), Billery (Bill+Hillery).

1.