The Morpho-Semantics of English Compound Words: Formation, Meaning and Productivity
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linguistics
school essay
published 17/12/2007
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The ability to compound words in the English language has always been a very productive method of adding new words to the lexicon. Compound words are generally formed in one of two ways, as root compounds or synthetically. Whichever way they are formed, the rightmost constituent is always the grammatical head of the compound in English. Synthetic compounds are those with a grammatical head that is derived from a verb plus an affix, for example truck driver (drive + er) or truck driving (drive + ing). A root compound is one that is made by combining two or more free morphemes: for example tree house. The noun house is modified by the noun tree resulting in the root compound tree house, a type of house found in a tree.
Table of Contents
- The formation of compound words.
- Compound words in written form.
- Compound word lexical categories.
- The productivity of english compounds.
