Compounding & Inflection
What is Compounding?
Process of combining two or more words (free morphemes) to create a new word and also
called “Composition” from the Latin for “put together”
Example : black + board = blackboard.
Compounds are written as;
One Word (Sunglasses)
Two Hyphen Words (Life-Threatening)
Two Separate Words (Football Stadium)
SUBCLASSES OF COMPOUND WORD
Endocentric Compound – the categorical part that contains the whole meaning of the compound.
Modifiers which restricts its meaning
EXAMPLE:
Doghouse
Playground
Exocentric Compound - Is a compound construction that lacks a head word: that is, the construction as
a whole is not grammatically and/or semantically equivalent to either of its parts. Also called a headless
compound.
Its meaning often cannot be transparently guess from its constituent parts.
EXAMPLE:
Scarecrow, Redhead, Pickpocket, Showoff, Paperback
Copulative Compounds – compounds with two semantic heads.
Can be recognized by the possibility of adding “and” between the two heads.
EXAMPLE:
Bittersweet, Sleepwalk
Appositional Compounds – refers to the lexemes that have two (contrary) attributes which classify the
compound.
EXAMPLE:
Player-coach
Types of Compound
Compound Adjective - Is made up of two or more words that act as a single idea to modify a noun.
Also called a phrasal adjective or a compound modifier.
General rule, the words in a compound adjective are hyphenated when they come before a
noun (a well-known actor.)
EXAMPLE:
This is a four-foot table.
Beware of the green-eyed monster.
Compound Adverb - A compound adverb is formed by an adverb being paired with a noun, adjective or
verb.
Compound adverbs are used to modify a verb, adjective or even another adverb. Compound
adverbs may be written as one word , two words or with a hyphen.
EXAMPLE:
One word:
Thereafter, sometimes
Two words:
Early on, very well
With a hyphen:
Self-consciously, in-house
Compound noun (or nominal compound) is a construction made up of two or more nouns that function
as a single noun.
Arbitrary spelling rules, compound nouns can be written as seperate words, as words linked
by hyphens like sister-in-law as one word like schoolteacher.
An Amalganated Compound is a compound noun which from no longer clearly reveals its
origin.
EXAMPLE:
With a hyphen:
Dry-cleaning, daughter-in-law, well-being
One word
Toothpaste, haircut, bedroom
Compound tense is a traditional term for a verb construction that uses more than one word to express a
meaning related to time.
A verb construction that uses only one word is called a simple tense.
Compound tenses are made up of auxiliary verbs (or helping verbs) combined with other
verb forms. The perfect, past perfect (also known as pluperfect), progressive and (in some
cases) future are forms traditionally regarded as compound tenses in English.
EXAMPLE:
I have eaten.
I had been there.
Compound verb is made up of two or more words that function as a single verb.
Conventionally, verbs compounds are written as either one word ("to housesit") or two
hyphenated words ("to water-proof")
Also called a compound (or complex) predicate.
Can be a phrasal verb or a prepositional verb that behaves either lexically or syntactically as a
single verb.
In such cases, a verb and its particle may be separated by other words ("drop the essay off"). This
structure is now more commonly known as a multi-word verb.
The term compound verb can also refer to a lexical verb along with its auxiliaries; in traditional
grammar, this is called a verb phrase.
EXAMPLE:
Prepositional verb
Believe in, ask for, rely upon.
Phrasal verb
Tear up, take away, take down, work on
With auxiliaries
Was swimming, will be considering, will meet, are running
Single word
Color-code, double-click, rely on, wear away, water-proof
Rhyming Compound - The initial word is repeated identically except for the first letter, which changes
unpredictably. If a line of poetry ended on the first component of these words, the second component
could complete the next line (assuming the poem rhymes, of course).
EXAMPLE:
Creepy-crawly, dilly-dally, fuddy-duddy,hanky-panky
Root Compound - Is a compound construction in which the head element is not derived from a verb.
Also called a primary compound or an analytic compound. Contrast with synthetic compound.
EXAMPLE:
Housewife, blackbird, overcoat, off-white
Synthetic Compound - Is a type of compound that parallels a verbal construction, with the head derived
from a verb and the other element functioning as an object. Also known as a verbal compound. Contrast
with root compound.
is a type of word formation in which compounding and derivationare combined.
EXAMPLE:
Dishwasher, taxi driver, watchmaker
Suspended Compound - Is a set of compound nouns or compound adjectives in which an element
common to all members is not repeated. Also called suspensive hyphenation.
A hyphen and a space follow the first element of a suspended compound. (A hyphen with a
space after it is called a hanging hyphen.)
EXAMPLE:
Post-test, pre-test, four-foot
Distinguishing Features of Compounds
The rightmost morpheme determines the category of the entire word.
Greenhouse is a noun for its rightmost component is a noun.
Spoon-feed is a verb because feed belongs also to this category.
Nationwide is an adjective just as wide is.
A second distinguishing feature of compounds is that tense and plural markers cannot typically be attached to
the first element, although they can be added to the compound as a whole.
Plural of Compounds
Compounds generally follow the regular rule by adding the regular –s inflection to their last element.
The following two compounds are exceptional in taking the inflection on the first element:
Passer-by/passers-by
listener-in/listeners-in
A few compounds ending in -ful usually take the plural inflection on the last element, but have a less
common plural with the inflection on the first element:
Spoonful/spoonfuls or spoonsful
Mouthful/mouthfuls or mouthsful
Compounds ending in -in-law allow the plural either on the first element or (informally) on the last
element:
sister-in-law/sisters-in-law or sister-in-laws
Inflection
What is Inflection?
Refers to a process of word formation in which items are added to the base form of a word to express
grammatical meanings. The word "inflection" comes from the Latin word inflectere, meaning "to bend“.
Inflections take a variety of forms, they are most often prefixes or suffixes. They are used to express
different grammatical categories.
Inflections can also be used to indicate a word's part of speech.
Inflection Rules
Parts of speech Grammatical category Inflection Examples
Noun number -s, -es Flower to flowers
Glass to glasses
Noun, pronoun Case(genitive) -`s, -`, -s Paul - Paul’s Francis
- Francis’
It – its
pronoun Case(reflexive) -self, -selves Him – himself
Them- themselves
Verb Aspect(progressive) -ing Run - running
Verb Aspect(perfect) -en, -ed Fall- (has) fallen
Finish- (has) finished
Verb Tense(past) -ed Open - opened
Verb Tense(present) -s Open -opens
adjective Degree of -er Smart - smarter
comparison(comparative)
adjective Degree of -est Smart - smartest
comparison(superlative)
Conjugation
The is also known as conjugation.
There are over 200 words in the English language that do not.
These irregular verbs include be, begin, bid, bleed, catch, deal, drive, eat, feel, find, forget, go, grow,
hang, have, hide, leave, lose, meet, pay, prove, ride, ring, seek, send, shall, shine, show, sing, spin, steal,
take, tear, wear, and win