A course In Modern English Lexicology

§ 35. Correlation Types
of Compounds. the correlation with variable word-groups makes it possible to classify them into four
major classes: adjectival-nominal, verbal-nominal, nominal and verb-adverb compounds.
I. A d j e c t i v a l - n o m i n a l comprise four subgroups of compound adjectives, three of them are proper compounds and one derivational. All four subgroups are productive and semantically as a rule motivated. The main constraint on the productivity in all the four subgroups is the lexical-semantic types of the head-members and the lexical valency of the head of the correlated word-groups.
Adjectival-nominal compound adjectives have the following patterns: 1) the polysemantic n+a pattern that gives rise to two types: a) compound adjectives based on semantic relations of resemblance with adjectival bases denoting most frequently colours, size, shape, etc. for the second IC. The type is correlative with phrases of comparative type as A +as + N, e.g. snow-white, skin-deep, age-long, etc.
b) compound adjectives based on a variety of adverbial relations. The type is correlative with one of the most productive adjectival phrases of the A + prp + N type and consequently semantically varied, cf. colour-blind, road-weary, care-free, etc.
2) the monosemantic pattern n+ven based mainly on the 154
Table 2
Productive Types of Compound Adjectives
Free Phrases
Compound Adjectives
Compounds Proper
Derivational
Pattern
Semantic Relations
Compounds
1) (a). as white as snow
snow-white
—
n + a
relations of resemblance
(b). free from care; rich care-free, oil-rich,
—
n + a
various adverbial relations
in oil; greedy for power; power-greedy, pleasure-
tired of pleasure
tired
c o v e r e d
w i t h
snow; snow-covered
—
n + ven
instrumental (or agentive
bound by duty
duty-bound
relations)
3) two days
(a) two-day (beard) (a)
— ‘
num + n
quantitative relations
seven-year (plan)
w i t h ( h a v i n g ) long legs
—
long-legged
[(a + n) + -ed]
possessive relations
instrumental, locative and temporal relations between the ICs which are conditioned by the lexical meaning and valency of the verb, e.g. state-owned, home-made. The type is highly productive. Correlative relations are established with word-groups of the Ven+ with/by + N type.
3) the monosemantic пит + п pattern which gives rise to a small and peculiar group of adjectives, which are used only attributively, e.g. (a) two-day (beard), (a) seven-day (week), etc. The type correlates with attributive phrases with a numeral for their first member.
4) a highly productive monosemantic pattern of derivational compound adjectives based on semantic relations of possession conveyed by the suffix -ed. The basic variant is [(a+n)+ -ed], e.g. low-ceilinged, long- legged.
The pattern has two more variants: [(пит + n) + -ed), l(n+n)+ -ed], e.g.
one-sided, bell-shaped, doll-faced. The type correlates accordingly with phrases with (having) + A+N, with (having) + Num + N, with + N + N
or with + N + of + N.
The system of productive types of compound adjectives is summarised in Table 2.
The three other types are classed as compound nouns. Verbal-nominal and nominal represent compound nouns proper and verb-adverb derivational compound nouns. All the three types are productive.
II. V e r b a l - n o m i n a l compounds may be described through one derivational structure n+nv, i.e. a combination of a noun-base (in most cases simple) with a deverbal, suffixal noun-base. The structure includes four patterns differing in the character of the deverbal noun- stem and accordingly in the semantic subgroups of compound nouns. All the patterns correlate in the final analysis with V+N and V+ prp +N type which depends on the lexical nature of the verb:
1) [ n+(v+-er)] , e.g. bottle-opener, stage-manager, peace-fighter. The pattern is monosemantic and is based on agentive relations that can be interpreted ‘one/that/who does smth’.
2) [ n+( v+ -ing)], e.g. stage-managing, rocket-flying. The pattern is monosemantic and may be interpreted as ‘the act of doing smth’. The pattern has some constraints on its productivity which largely depends on the lexical and etymological character of the verb.
3) [n+(v+ -tion/ment)], e.g. office-management, price-reduction. The pattern is a variant of the above-mentioned pattern (No 2). It has a heavy constraint which is embedded in the lexical and etymological character of the verb that does not permit collocability with the suffix -ing or deverbal nouns.
4) [n+(v + conversion)], e.g. wage-cut, dog-bite, hand-shake, the pattern is based on semantic relations of result, instance, agent, etc.
III. N o m i n a l c o m p o u n d s are all nouns with the most polysemantic and highly-productive derivational pattern n+n; both bases re generally simple stems, e.g. windmill, horse-race, pencil-case. The pattern conveys a variety of semantic relations, the most frequent are the relations of purpose, partitive, local and temporal relations. The pattern correlates with nominal word-groups of the N+prp+N type.
IV. V e r b - a d v e r b compounds are all derivational nouns, highly productive and built with the help of conversion according to the 156
Table 3
Productive Types of Compound Nouns
Free Phrases
Compound Nouns
Compounds
Derivational
Pattern
Proper
Compounds
Verbal — Nominal Phrases 1. the reducer of 1) price-reducer 2)
—
[n + (v + -er)] [n + (v +
prices to reduce 2. the reducing of prices
price-reducing 3)
-ing)] [n + (v + -tion/-
prices 3. the reduction of prices to shake 4. the
price-reduction 4)
ment)] [n + (v + conver-
shake of hands hands
hand-shake
sion)]
Nominal Phrases 1) a tray for
1) ash-tray 2) bot-
—
[n’ + n1]
ashes 2) the neck of the bottle 3)
tle-neck 3) coun-
a house in the country 4) a ship
try-house 4) steam-
run by steam 5) the doctor is a
ship 5) woman-
woman 6) a fish resembling a
doctor 6) sword-
sword
fish
Verb — Adverb Phrases
a break-down a [(v + adv) + conversion]
to break down to cast
castaway a run-
away to run away
away
pattern l(v + adv) + conversion]. The pattern correlates with free phrases V + Adv and with all phrasal verbs of different degree of stability. The pattern is polysemantic and reflects the manifold semantic relations typical of conversion pairs.
The system of productive types of compound nouns is summarised in Table 3.
The actual process of building compound
§ 36. Sources of Compounds words may take different forms: 1) Compound words as a rule are built s p o n t a n e o u s l y according to productive distributional formulas of the given period. Formulas productive at one time may lose their productivity at another period. Thus at one time the process of building verbs by compounding adverbial and verbal stems was productive, and numerous compound verbs like, e.g. outgrow, offset, inlay (adv + v), were formed. The structure ceased to be productive and today practically no verbs are built in this way.
2) Compounds may be the r e s u l t of a g r a d u a l p r o c e s s of s e m a n t i c i s o l a t i o n and structural fusion of free wordgroups. Such compounds as forget-me-not — ‘a small plant with blue flowers’; bull’s-eye — ‘the centre of a target; a kind of hard, globular candy’; mainland — ‘a continent’ all go back to free phrases which became semantically and structurally isolated in the course of time. The words that once made up these phrases have lost, within these particular formations, their integrity, the whole phrase has become isolated in form, specialised in meaning and thus turned into an inseparable unit — a word having acquired semantic and morphological unity. Most of the syntactic compound nouns of the (a+n) structure, e.g. bluebell, blackboard, mad-doctor, are the result of such semantic and structural isolation of free word-groups; to give but one more example, highway was once actually a high way for it was raised above the surrounding countryside for better drainage and ease of travel. Now we use highway without any idea Of the original sense of the first element.
1. Compound words are made up of two ICs,