Compound words are words consisting of at least two stems which occur in the language as free forms.
Most compounds have the primary stress on the first syllable, e.g., blackboard.
Compound adjectives and numerals have two primary stresses, e.g. hot-tempered, new-born, seventy four, ninety one.
Major Types of Word-formation
Compounds are binary in structure (consist of two or more constituent lexemes), e.g., vacuum-cleaner manufacturer → vacuum-cleaner and manufacturer, while vacuum-cleaner → vacuum and cleaner.
Compounds usually have a head constituent. It is a part of the word which determines the syntactic properties of the whole lexeme, e.g. snow-white → the nounsnow and the adjectivewhite. White is the head constituent of snow-white.
Major Types of Word-formation
Compound words can be found in all major syntactic categories:
· nouns: sunlight, longboat;
· verbs: window shop; safeguard;
· adjectives: duty-bound, ice-cold;
· prepositions: into, onto, upon.
Major Types of Word-formation
Morphologically compounds are classified according to the structure of immediate constituents:
· consisting of simple stems: strawberry, blackbird;
· where at least one of the constituents is a derived stem: gascooker, mill-owner;
· where one of the constituents is a clipped stem: V-day, Xmas;
· where one of the constituents is a compound stem: football player, wastepaper basket.
Major Types of Word-formation
Structurally compounds can be:
words which are formed by a mere juxtaposition, i.e. without any connecting elements: e.g. saleboat, schoolboy, heartbreak, sunshine;
stems which are connected with a vowel or a consonant placed between them: e.g. salesman, handicraft.
