Compounds
A
compound is formed when two words are added together to get a new word.
Sometimes the meaning may just add the two words together, a madman
is a man who is mad. But usually the
meaning of the compound is more than the sum of its parts. In British usage you
might guess that a girlfriend is a
friend who is a girl, that a sheepdog is
a dog that looks like a sheep or that an electric
chair is a wheelchair with a motor.
The
links between the two words in compounds are as complicated as the grammar of
the whole sentence. Here are some of the possibilities
-
madman (a
man who is mad), blackberry (a particular type of black berry), highchair (a
particular kind of chair that is high): the first word is an adjective that adds to the meaning of the noun
-
heartbreak (the state of a heart
that breaks), snakebite (when a snake
has bitten), cloudburst (a storm like a cloud
bursting): the first word is a subject
that goes with the following verb
-
watchmaker (a person who makes
watches; bookseller (a person who sells
books): the first word acts as the
object of the following verb with ‘-er’ added
-
fishing rod (a rod
for fishing), ironing board (board
for ironing), carving knife (a knife
that carves): the first word carries
out an action of the second.
But
there are a large number of other, seen in compounds with dog:
a lapdog (a dog that sits on a lap, with metaphorical uses), a puppydog
(a dog which is a puppy), a bulldog
(a dog which is like a bull), a sheepdog
(a dog that herds sheep), a police dog
(a dog used by the police), a watch-dog
(a dog that watches, with metaphorical uses), a hunting
dog (a dog used for hunting); etc.
Often
there are possible pairs of words, one a compound, one a simple combination.
Take colours:
a
white board/ a whiteboard the white
house/the White House
a
black bird/a blackbird
a black berry/a blackberry
a
blue bottle/a bluebottle
a red cap/a redcap
a
blue tooth/Bluetooth
a black bottom/the blackbottom
This
also demonstrates the lack of consistency over how a compound is spelt.
Sometimes there is a space between the words, The
White House, sometimes a hyphen XXX,
sometimes neither, blackberry. The
longer the word has been in English the more likely it is to have lost its space
and its hyphen. The OED records a progression from tea
bag 1898 to tea-bag in 1936 and teabag
in 1977. Pronunciation may be a better guide: compounds tend to be stressed on
the first word the White House,
non-compounds to have even stress the white
house. A famous example debated by linguists is the
lighthouse versus the light
house, or even better the lighthouse
keeper versus the light house-keeper.
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