3. Composition

Composition is forming new words by combining stems so that the whole is characterized by formal and semantic unity. This word-building type is productive in nouns and adjectives. Composition in verbs and in other parts of speech is very rare. Most polyradical verbs are the result of conversion (to honeymoon, to blacklist) or of back-formation (to typewrite was formed from typewriter or typewriting).

a) Ways of Forming Compounds.

From the point of view of the ways of combining stems compound words fall into:

1) words formed by means of mere juxtaposition of stems (e.g., sitting-room, seashore);

2) words formed with special linking elements -o-, -i-, -s-, (e.g., Anglo-American, tradesman, handicraft). Linking elements have no meaning. Their function is purely structural. Words like mother-of-pearl, son-in-law rather belong to the first type, because -of- and -in- are morphemes, they are meaningful.

The actual process of building compounds may take two forms:

1) Compound words can be built spontaneously according to productive patterns of the time, e.g., peace-fighter (Noun stem + Noun stem), runaway (V stem +Adj. stem), age-long (Noun stem + Adj. stem), etc.;

2) Compound words can be formed by means of a gradual process of semantic and structural isolation and fusion of free word-groups, e.g., lily-of-the-valley, brother-in-law, highway. Most of these compounds are nouns with the structure Adj. Stem + Noun stem, e.g., bluebell, blackboard.

b) Structural and Semantic Characteristics of Compound Words.

Compound words acquire structural and semantic integrity. They are spelt solidly or with a hyphen, they have unity of stress and structural cohesion, which ensures their structural integrity and distinguishes them from word groups. Compare: a blackboard and a black board. Compound words express one single notion, too, unlike similar phrases, e.g., a blackbird and a black bird.

From the morphological point of view compound words may consist of simple stems (sunflower), a simple stem and a derived stem (shop assistant), two derived stems (walkie-talkie, opener-upper). There are also compounds with a compound stem (aircraft-carrier).

One of the stems is usually the structural and semantic centre of the compound word, its basic part, which determines its part of speech belonging. In most cases it is the final constituent of the word, e.g., sunshine, but it is not always so. Cf.: brother-in-law. This part of the compound word is called the determinatum. It is the changeable part of the word, which can take inflections. E.g., schoolchildren, brothers-in-law, airplanes. The other part of the compound word (its determinant) modifies the meaning of the determinatum, gives additional information about it. For example, in the nouns sunshine and moonshine the morpheme -shine is the determinatum, which is modified by the determinants sun- and moon-.

Compound words may consist of stems of different parts of speech. For example, compound nouns may have the following structure:

N stem + N stem (toothache),

Ger. stem + N stem (cloakroom),

V stem + N stem (cutthroat),

Adj. stem + N stem (bluebell),

V stem + Adv. stem (breakdown) and so on.

According to relations between the constituents compound words fall into syntactic and asyntactic ones. The structural patterns of syntactic compounds correspond to the current syntactic patterns (e.g., hothouse = Adj. + N); the structural pattern of asyntactic ones does not (e.g., sky-blue – N + Adj.).

From the point of view of the degree of independence of their stems compound words are classified into the coordinative and the subordinate types. In coordinative compounds both the IC's are equally important, e.g., fighter-bomber, actor-manager. Here belong reduplicative compounds, e.g., fifty-fifty, compounds with rhyme and ablaut germination, e.g., zig-zag, helter-skelter, and additive compounds, e.g. kitchen-diner, Afro-American. In subordinate compounds one constituent is the structural and semantic centre, and the other is subordinated to it, e.g., popcorn, blackberry. It is in most cases the last IС that is this structural and semantic centre.

From the point of view of their motivation compounds may be non-idiomatic and idiomatic. Non-idiomatic compounds are morphologically motivated; their meanings are derived from the meanings of constituent stems and the word-building pattern (e.g., classroom, schoolboy). Idiomatic compounds are not motivated morphologically; they may be motivated semantically, e.g., slowcoach, or demotivated, e.g., hangover.

Another semantic classification of compounds is into endocentric and exocentric ones. In endocentric compounds the determinatum serves as a generic name of the referent, and the determinant – as its specific characteristic, e.g., sunshine, moonshine. The determinatum -shine is the semantic centre of the compounds.

In exocentric compounds there is no semantic centre – there is no determinatum, but the whole word is its specific description. The name of the referent is only implied, it is outside the word, and it can be explicated by transforming the compound into a phrase, e.g., a scarecrow is ‘the object to scare birds away’.

Semantic relations between the stems of compound nouns and adjectives are quite numerous and variegated. For example, the word-building pattern Noun stem + Noun stem can have the following meanings, representing the relations between the IC's:

of purpose	N (1) for N (2)	dinner (2) – jacket (l)	a jacket for dinners
partitive	N (1) is a part of N (2)	door (2) - knob (1)	the knob of the door
of place or time	N (1) (in; of; at; with) N (2)	country (2) - house (l); spring (2) - time (l)	a house in the country the time of spring
appositive	N (1) is N (2)	woman (1) - doctor (2)	the doctor is a woman
instrumental or agentival	N (1) (run; caused; worked) by N (2)	wind (2) mill (l)	a mill worked by the wind

For more details see the textbooks by I.V.Arnold, R.S.Ginzburg.

Note: It is difficult to draw a line of demarcation between compound words and corresponding phrases. The criteria for that are formal unity (one primary stress, solid or hyphenated spelling, fixed order of morphemes) and semantic unity (one notion is expressed). But there exist a lot of borderline cases, e.g., there may be 3 ways of spelling: matchbox, match-box and match box. In many cases not all the formal criteria are fulfilled, e.g., in compound adjectives there are two primary stresses: 'sky-'blue.

c) Derivational Compounds.

There is a particular word-building pattern in English, which combines derivation (affixation) and composition. In this case two stems are combined but the unity of the word is ensured by the derivational suffix, which refers to the whole, but not to the stem to which it is added. E.g., long-legged, shortsighted, go-getter, do-gooder.

Composition and derivation take place simultaneously here. There is a difference between the following seemingly similar words: 1) mill-owner, 2) honeymooner, 3) left-hander. Mill-owner is a compound consisting of a simple and a derived stem; honeymooner is obtained by adding a derivational suffix -er to the compound stem (it is a suffixal word); left-hander is the combined result of derivation and composition, it is a derivational compound.

This process, which is also called phrasal derivation, is rather productive.