LinguisticsLesson 1 of 1 in the course Morphology

Compounding: Forms, Meaning, and Cross-Linguistic Patterns

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 4 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

This lesson introduces compounds as a basic process of word formation and explains how their written forms differ.

A compound is a lexeme consisting of more than one stem. A stem is the part of a word to which grammatical or word-forming material may attach. Compounding—also called composition or nominal composition—is the process of joining two or more words or signs to form a longer lexical unit.

All flashcards

Stem
The part of a word to which grammatical or word-forming material may attach.
Open, hyphenated, and closed compounds
Open compounds use a space, hyphenated compounds use a hyphen, and closed compounds have neither.
Semantic transparency in compounds
A compound is transparent when its meaning is readily inferred from its components; some compounds are less predictable.
Parasynthetic compound
A formation combining multiple lexical stems with a derivational affix.
Simultaneous sign compound
A sign compound in which the hands represent different lexical items at the same time.

Quiz questions

  1. What characterizes an endocentric compound?Answer: One component supplies the basic category of the whole.
  2. What characterizes an exocentric compound?Answer: Its semantic head is not one of its components.
  3. What characterizes a copulative compound?Answer: Two components function together as semantic heads.
  4. How does blending typically differ from ordinary compounding?Answer: Blending fuses portions of forms rather than combining full components in sequence.
  5. What is incorporation in word formation?Answer: An argument of a verb, often a noun, is included within the verbal root.

Based on the Wikipedia article Compound (linguistics), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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