Word Formation Compounding

Word formation is a great resource of English language. It encompasses different mechanisms through which lexical units can be created:

• Compounding: A combination of words or parts of them.

• Affixation: Adding affixes or suffixes to the base.

• Conversion: Linguistic elements changing their grammatical category, e.g. the use of verbs as nouns and vice versa, etc.

Today we are going to speak about Compounding

Units forming compounds can be solid (“trademark”), hyphenated (“shop-lifting”) and open (“sales manager”).

Compounding involves all the grammar categories: nouns, adverbs, adjectives, etc.

-noun+noun: “jobhunter”; “wineglass” (hyponym of “glass”), “skinhead”;

-noun+verb: “windfall”, “sunshine”;

-noun+adverb: “environment-friendly”, “consumer-friendly”;

-noun+adjective: “cost-efficient”; “fat-free”;

-verb+ noun: “pass-book”, “pickpocket”;

-verb+verb: “make-believe”;

-preposition+noun: “afternoon”; “after-hour”;

-adjective+noun: “redskin”, “fast-food”, “software”.