Concept of Compoundhood

Definition

Generally In linguistics, the process of compounding and its rules and regulatory related to

compounding is compoundhood. A compound is a word containing a stem that is made up of

more than one root (commonly a noun, verb, or adjective).

Headedness

Each compound is made up of a different category of the word on the left plus a verb on the right.

Even if both parts of a compound contribute to the meaning of the compound, it’s the head of a

compound that determines its category. We say that English is a head-final language because

in English the second part of the compound determines the category of the compound.

In many compounds, the head determines the category and also constrains the meaning of the

compound.

For example :

 dog food is a kind of food, not a kind of dog

 yoga pants are a kind of pants, not a variety of yoga.

Compounds like this, where the meaning relationship between the head and the whole compound

is obvious, are called Endocentric. But in some compounds, the meaning relationship is not so

transparent.

For example:

 a redhead is a person, not a kind of head

 a workout is not a particular kind of out

Compounds where the meaning of the head does not predict the meaning of the compound are

said to be Exocentric.
Criteria

There are 5 criteria in compoundhood :

1. Orthographic

2. Phonological

3. Morphological

4. Syntactic

5. Semantic

1. Orthographic

 Spelling of compound words adopt one of 3 forms

- Open form (Examples: jump rope, voice mail, think tank)

- Hyphenated form (Examples: nature-nurture, get-together, clean-cut, well-

known)

- Solid form (Examples: chatterbox, bigmouth, brainwash)

 Rules of thumb

- Nominal compounds usually written in solid form

- Adjectival compounds very often written with a hyphen

- Verbal compounds generally written in open form

- Shorter words more likely to be solid

- Older words more likely to be solid

2. Phonological

 Chomsky and Halle’s “Compound Stress Rule” and “Nuclear Stress Rule”

- compounds tend to only have one stress per word

- compounds in English generally bear stress on the left hand constituent

- phrases in English generally bear stress on the right hand constituent

Noun Phrases Nominal Compounds

a black boárd bláckboard

a green hoúse greénhouse

black bírd bláckbird

red tóp réd-top

3. Morphological

Some scholars argue that compounds adopt the Integrity Principle:

a word is an individual unit and no element can be inserted in between the word, but only at

the beginning or the end

Examples:

- lipstick is not written as lipssticks

- classroom is not written as classesroom

4. Syntactic

 Inseparability test: no element can be inserted between the two constituents of a

compound

Examples: the white, luminous house vs. *The White luminous House
  Coordination ellipsis test: coordination ellipsis can occur in phrases, but not in

compounds

a. Large fish and small fish are in the same tank.

b. Large and small fish are in the same tank.

c. Flying fish and small fish are in the same tank.

d. Flying and small fish are in the same tank.

5. Semantic

 Lexicalization: since compounds are single lexical units, they must be separate,

individual entries in standard dictionaries

- Example:

flying fish = bony fish of the family exocoetidae, capable of long gliding flights out

of water.

Classification of Compounding

Word Class Grammatical Semantic

Classification Classification Classification

•based on part of •based on •based relationship

speech of grammatical links between the
compound between meaning of a
constituents compound and
those of its
constituents
• Word Class Classification

• Grammatical Classification

Compounds

Subordinate Attributive Coordinate

- head- - the two constituents - he two
complement are in apposition to constituents are in
- e.g. apple cake each other apposition to each
- e.g. snail mail other
- e.g. girlfriend
• Semantic Classification (Headedness)

Endocentric compounds Exocentric compounds

head (usually right hand constituent) head is not explicitly expressed

confers its core meaning to the
compound

left hand constituent limits, specifies or head is considered to be external to

modifies head the compound

head is found inside the compound often metaphorical connotations