Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Aug 19, 2015 1:57:32 GMT 5.5
Nouns and adjectives can combine in various ways to form compound nouns and compound adjectives.
Bookstore is a store just like a stationery store, but it happens to be composed of two words, book and store. Similarly, roommate is a type of mate, windmill a type of mill, lunch break a kind of break, wall clock a type of clock, air pressure a type of pressure, and pressure cooker a type of cooker, and these are composed of two words each.
In each of these pairs, the second component (i.e., store, mate, mill, break, clock, pressure, and cooker) functions as the head while the first component functions as a modifier—it gives the type information of the person or thing indicated by the head word. The grammatical category (parts of speech) of the compound thus formed is determined by the category of the head word. All of the head words in the above examples are nouns, and thus the compounds are all compound nouns.
Compound words can further be compounded by other compounds. For example, we can have
Compound words take part in sentences as phrases, but when by themselves, they are different from phrases. They are not phrases and they behave like single words. For instance, the compound nouns above can take determiners before them and adjectives can modify them, in the same way non-compound single-word nouns:
There is no principled criteria as to whether compound words, say windmill, should be written as one word, as two words (wind mill) or as a hyphenated word (wind-mill).
Compound nouns permit ambiguity. For instance, consider the compound noun French history teacher. Does this mean (i) teacher of French history, or (ii) history teacher who is a French? The meaning depends on how you understand the structure as shown below.
We can combine adjectives with nouns (Adj-N) or nouns with nouns (N-N) to form compound nouns as in
We can also combine two adjectives (Adj-Adj) or nouns with adjectives (N-Adj) to form compound adjectives as in
Bookstore is a store just like a stationery store, but it happens to be composed of two words, book and store. Similarly, roommate is a type of mate, windmill a type of mill, lunch break a kind of break, wall clock a type of clock, air pressure a type of pressure, and pressure cooker a type of cooker, and these are composed of two words each.
In each of these pairs, the second component (i.e., store, mate, mill, break, clock, pressure, and cooker) functions as the head while the first component functions as a modifier—it gives the type information of the person or thing indicated by the head word. The grammatical category (parts of speech) of the compound thus formed is determined by the category of the head word. All of the head words in the above examples are nouns, and thus the compounds are all compound nouns.
Compound words can further be compounded by other compounds. For example, we can have
finance committeeand so on.
finance committee secretary
finance committee secretary election
finance committee secretary election scandal
Compound words take part in sentences as phrases, but when by themselves, they are different from phrases. They are not phrases and they behave like single words. For instance, the compound nouns above can take determiners before them and adjectives can modify them, in the same way non-compound single-word nouns:
the highly efficient finance committee secretaryThere is no theoretical limit to the length of compound words because the process of compounding can feed the compound being made endlessly: a compound noun is itself a noun and can be subject to further compounding. This property is called recursion and compounding in English is recursive.
There is no principled criteria as to whether compound words, say windmill, should be written as one word, as two words (wind mill) or as a hyphenated word (wind-mill).
Compound nouns permit ambiguity. For instance, consider the compound noun French history teacher. Does this mean (i) teacher of French history, or (ii) history teacher who is a French? The meaning depends on how you understand the structure as shown below.
lowlife (Adj-N)In the above type of compounds, the first element (low-, high-, car-, coffee-) receives the most stress when you speak them.
highland (Adj-N)
car race (N-N)
coffee table (N-N)
We can also combine two adjectives (Adj-Adj) or nouns with adjectives (N-Adj) to form compound adjectives as in
dark blue (Adj-Adj)In such compounds, the last element receives the most stress.
icy cold (Adj-Adj)
canary yellow (N-Adj)
iron hard (N-Adj)