Theme: Classification of compounds

THEME: Classification of compounds

PLAN.
I.INTRODUCTION

II.THE MAIN PART
1. The classification of compounds
2. Compound words classify
3. The coordinative compounds
III.CONCLUSION
IV. REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

The great variety of compound types brings about a great variety of classifications. Compound words may be classified according to the type of composition and the linking element; according to the part of speech to which the compound belongs; and within each part of speech according to the structural pattern. It is also possible to subdivide compounds according to other characteristics, i.e. semantically, into motivated and idiomatic compounds (in the motivat­ed ones the meaning of the constituents can be either direct or figura­tive). Structurally, compounds are distinguished as endocentric and exo-centric, syntac­tic and asyntactic combinations. A classification according to the type of the syntactic phrase with which the compound is correlated has also been suggested. Even so there remain some miscellaneous types that defy classification, such as phrase compounds, reduplicative compounds, pseudo-compounds and quotation compounds.
The classification according to the type of composition permits us to establish the following groups:
1) The predominant type is a mere juxtaposition without connecting elements: heartache n, heart-beat n, heart-break n, heart-breaking a, heart-broken a, heart-felt a.
2) Composition with a vowel or a consonant as a linking element. The examples are very few: electromotive a, speedometer n, Afro-Asian a, handicraft n, statesman n.
3) Compounds with linking elements represented by preposition or conjunction stems: down-and-out n, matter-of-fact a, son-in-law n, pepper-and-salt a, wall-to-wall a, up-to-date a, on the up-and-up adv (continually improving), up-and-coming, as in the following example: A'o doubt he'd had the pick of some up-and-coming jazzmen in Paris (Wain). There are also a few other lexicalized phrases like devil-may-care a, for­get-me-not n, pick-me-up n, stick-in-the-mud n, what's-her name n.
The classification of compounds according to the structure of imme­diate constituents distinguishes:
1) compounds consisting of simple stems: film-star;
2) compounds where at least one of the constituents is a derived stem: chain-smoker;
3) compounds where at least one of the constituents is a clipped stem: maths-mistress (in British English) and math-mistress (in American Eng­lish). The subgroup will contain abbreviations like H-bag (handbag) or Xmas (Christmas), whodunit n (for mystery novels) considered sub­standard;
4) compounds where at least one of the constituents is a compound stem; wastepaper-basket.
According to the type of word-formation:
a. compounds proper – are words made up of two derivative bases (red-current, goodwill);
b. derivational compounds – are words formed by affixation or conversion from a compound derivational base (blue-eyed, a breakdown);
c. pseudo-compounds – 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 fanciful sound-clusters (chi-chi).
2) According to degree of semantic independence of components:
a. subordinative (endocentric) – words where one of the derivative bases is the grammatical and semantical center of the word, as a rule – the second one – a head member. It expresses the general meaning of the word, and the first one specifies it (girlfriend);
b. coordinative (exocentric) – words where both components are equally important:
- reduplicated – formed by repeating the base blah-blah, chi-chi, hush-hush, fifty-fifty, bye-bye, ping-pong, chit-chat, riff-raff;
- rhyming walkie-talkie, hob-nob, willy-nilly;
- additive – denote an object or a person that is two things at a time Anglo-Saxon, an actor-manager.
3) According to linking element, the means of composition used to link the two ICs together:
neutral – formed by joining together two stems without connecting elements, e.g. scarecrow, goldfish, crybaby;
morphological – components are joined by a linking element, i.e. vowels ‘o’ and ‘i’ or the consonant ‘s’, e.g. handicraft, draftsman, speedometer;
syntactical – the components are joined by means of form-word stems, e.g. business-to-business, door-to-door, come-and-go, stock-in-trade.
4) According to way of naming the referent:
endocentric – the referent is named by one of the components and given a further characteristic by the other, e.g. sun-rise, colour-blind. In most cases, the second component specifies more narrowly the meaning of the right-hand component, which is the semantic head of the compound, for example, dog food is a type for food, cave man is a type of man;
exocentric – only the combination of both components names the referent. For example, scarecrow denotes the agent (a person or thing) who or which performs an action named by the combination of the stems. In this case it’s a person or a thing employed in scaring birds. Other examples: cutthroat, turn-coat, bigwig, fathead.
5) According to correlative relations with the system of free word-combinations:
idiomatic – the meaning of the whole is different from the meaning of corresponding free phrases, e.g. night-cap, butterfingers;
non-idiomatic – the meaning of the whole is the sum total of the meanings of the components, e.g. flowerbed, homeland.
The lexical meaning of compounds is determined by the lexical meanings of its bases and the structural meaning of its distributional pattern.
The distributional pattern shows the order and arrangement of the bases. Two compounds that have the same bases but different distributional patterns will have different meanings (a finger-ring, a ring-finger). As a rule a second base determines the part of speech meaning of the compound, e.g. redneck.
Word-building in English has a less word-building power as compared to other Germanic languages.