Compounding/Composition

Definition silkworm 蚕 honey-bee 蜜蜂 tear gas 催泪弹 Each expresses one concept. They are called compounds.

Compounding/Composition

Form of writing silkworm honey-bee tear gas

solid

hyphenatedopen

Compounding/Composition

Differences between compounds and free phrases:

tear gas easy chair good friend red rose

compounds

free phrase

Compounding/Composition

Characteristics: 1. Stress pattern: `— — compound `tear gas `easy chair —`— free phrase good `friend red

`rose

The stress falls on the first element in C. The stress falls on the second in FP.

Compounding/Composition

2. Meaning: black mail: 　 hot potato: 　　　　 dog days: 　 the youngest daughter:

讹诈棘手的问题三伏天

老闺女

Compounding/Composition

3. Grammatical features ： 　 easy chair red tape fine art hot line

easier chair

reddest tapefinest art

cold line

compounds

free phrase

Formation of compounds

Word classes of compounds: Most compounds are nouns and

adjectives Next come verbs. Compounds of other part of speech are

few. everyday, something, nobody,

whatever, nowhere, within, underneath, into, upon

Formation of compounds

1. Noun compounds end product, information

highway, netspeak heartbeat, toothache breakwater, swearword software, deadline sleepwalking, airconditioning

n + n

n + vv + na + nn + v-ing

Formation of compounds

washing machine, cleaning lady stockholder, crime reporter outbreak, downfall have-not, sit-in going-over, carryings-on up-bringing

英汉对照

v-ing+nn+v+eradv+vv+advv-ing+advadv+v-ing

Formation of compounds

2. Adjective compounds n+v-ing

n+a a+a n+v-ed a/adv+v-ed

record-breaking, time-consuminga+v-ing high-sounding, easy-goingblood-thirsty, love-sick

bitter-sweet, dark-blueheart-felt, custom-builthard-won, well-written

Formation of compounds

a/adv+n-ed num+n num+n-ed adv+v-ing v-ed+adv v-ing+a a+n

honey-mouthed, sharp-tongueddouble-decker, two-leg

one-eyed, six-fingered

out-going, on-coming

worn-out, washed-upburning-hot, freezing-coldfull-length, red-letter

Formation of compounds

v+n v+adv (1), (3) and (5) are very productive.

英汉对照

break-neck, cut-ratethrow-away

Formation of compounds

3. Verb compounds Through conversion honeymoon to honeymoon firstname to firstname sweet-talk to sweet-talk

Formation of compounds

Through backformation proof-reading to proofread breast-feeding to breast-feed bottle-feedingto bottle-feed chain-smoker to chain-smoke mass-production to mass-produce

英汉对照

Formation of compounds

Lexicalization 词化 1. Hyphenation pay to take home take-home-pay ahead of schedule ahead-of-sched

ule devil may care devil-may-care twist and turn twist-and-turn round the clock round-the-clock

Formation of compounds

Example: too-eager-not-to-lose champion a middle-of-the-road politician A spirited discussion sprung up

between a young girl who says that women had outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era and a major who says that they haven’t.

Formation of compounds

2. Rearrangement (nouns) a worm that glows a person who designs computers cup for drinking walk in one’s sleep fly like a dragon

glowworm

computer-designerdrinking-cupsleep-walkingdragonfly

Formation of compounds

(adjectives) take breath made at home mean well sick for missing home weary of war retarded in language

breath-takinghome-madewell-meanthomesickwar-weary

Language-retarded

Formation of compounds

Compounding is the easiest means to use to make new words.

If we need a word which is not found, we can easily make one by lexicalization through hyphenation or rearrangement.