NOUN COMPOUND IN ENGLISH

Transcription

1 NOUN COMPOUND IN ENGLISH By Ni Luh Ketut Mas Indrawati ABSTRACT This paper aims at analyzing and describing the English compound specifically the English noun compound. Compound is a combination of two or more words of which meaning cannot always be predicted from the meaning of each part. In English, words, especially adjectives and nouns, are combined into compound structures in a variety of ways. This article attempts to discuss the formal characteristics and types of the English noun compound. The theory of compound was adopted for further analysis. The finding shows that the formal characteristics of the English noun compound are: the noun compounds have primary stress on the first constituent, the semantic unity of a noun compound is reflected in an orthographic, the meaning of the noun compound cannot be predicted from the meaning of the parts. The orthographic characteristics can be solid, hyphenated, and open. The types involved are Subject and Verb, Verb and Object, verb and adverbial, verb-less, subject and complement, combiningform and Bahuvrihi Keywords: noun compound, formal characteristics, types. I. INTRODUCTION The study of the structure of words and the rules governing the formation of word in a language is referred to as morphology. Matthews (1974:41) classifies morphology into two branches, they are inflectional morphology and word formation which are also called lexical morphology. Inflectional morphology deals with the various forms of lexemes whereas wordformation deals with the formation of new lexemes from given bases. This is in line with what Booij (2007:75) mentions that in many languages, compounding or composition is the most frequently used to make new lexemes. According to Booij (2007:75) the common property of a compound is that it consists of the combination of lexemes into larger words. Compounding consists of the combination of two words, in which one word modifies the meaning of the other, the head. This means that

2 compounds have a binary structure. for examples: in Dutch, huis-vrouw house wife, German, Rot-light red light, in Greek organo-pektis instrument player/musician, in Indonesian, meja makan dining table. He further distinguishes compounds into two in terms of the semantic relation of the words in combination. They are endocentric compounds which means that the category of the whole construction is identical to that of one of its constituents such as bedchamber (is a room where there is a bed), bedclothes (are linens and blankets for a bed), bedtime (is a time one goes to be). And the other one is exocentric compound that is a compound which lack of a head, such as pickpocket, a highbrow, and egghead. Fromkin et. al (1990:132) state that new words can be formed by stringing together other words to create compound words. The kinds of combinations that exist in English have no limit, this can be seen in the examples: frigidaire is a compound formed by combining the adjective frigid and the noun, air; bittersweet is formed by combining adjective bitter and adjective sweet, poorhouse from adjective poor and noun, house. They also discuss compounds in terms of stress pattern, meaning, and universality. Bauer (1983) refers to compound as a lexeme containing two or more potential stems. Since each potential stem contains at least two roots (if one of the potential stems making up the compound is itself a compound, the resultant form may contain more than two roots, as in waste paper basket). Quirk et.al (1985) refer to a compound as a lexical unit consisting of more than one base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word ie: taxfree, trouserleg, blue- eyed. It can be stated that compound is a combination of two or more words of which meaning cannot always be predicted from the meaning of each part. Since it consists of more than one stems or words and it has unpredictable meaning, it is interesting to be discussed. This article attempts to discuss one type of compounds in English that is noun compound. The problems that were raised in this article can be formulated as follows: (1) What are the formal characteristics of the English noun compound? (2) What are the types of the English noun compound?

3 The theory applied in finding the answer of the questions above is the theory of noun compound by Quirk et.al (1985) II. MATERIALS AND METHODS This paper attempts to describe the noun compound in English therefore the appropriate approach was descriptive method. The aim of descriptive method is to describe the data and the findings of the data analysed is applicable only for the current study. The data of this study were taken from the English novel entitled New Moon written by Stephenie Meyer. This novel was choosen since it involves a lot of noun compounds. The techniques of collecting the data covers: reading the novel and marking the noun compound, classifying the noun compound based on the forms and types of noun compound, rechecking the chosen data to see whether there are some mistakes, preparing the selected data to be analyzed. The data were interpreted to elaborate the characteristics of the forms and types of noun compound. This is done, first by describing the English compound then focusing on the noun compounds and later on the forms, finally on the types. The analyses based on the specified problems and theoretically presented descriptively and qualitatively. framework were III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Quirk et.al (1985) refer to a compound as a lexical unit consisting of more than one base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word. They argue that compounding can take place within any of the word classes, however in terms of its productivity they focuss on noun and adjective compounds. The distinction between noun compounds and adjective compounds are based on the grammaticl analysis of the elements involved in a canonical example, together with an informal indication of the relationship between them.

4 They describe the formal characteristics of the English compounds in terms of prosodic pattern; that is primary stress on the first constituent, the semantic unity of the English compound is reflected in the orthographic, the orthographic characteristics can be solid, hyphenated, and open. Quirk et al (1985:1568) also state that compounding can generally be seen as prefixation with open-class items, but it does not mean that a compound can be formed by placing any lexical item in front of another. The examples given are: (a) look at that dog in the street. (b) she put the glass on the table. Except for nonce basis, another street dog or another table glass cannot be accepted as a response. The relation between items brought together in compounding must be that it is reasonable and useful to classify the second element in terms of the first. Therefore a compound XY will be such a Y as may have X essentially predicated of it, while the same XY sequence as a noun phrase is more likely to be a certain Y that happens to have X predicated ot it. This distinction is endorsed by the welknown use of initial stress in compounds: a blackbird (contrast the phrase, a,grey bird). Quirk et al (1985) classify the English noun compound into seven types based on the grammatical function of its word category. They are subject and Verb, verb and Object, verb and Adverbial, Verb-less, Subject and Complement, Combining form and Bahuvrihi. 3.1 The characteristics of the English Noun Compound The English compound noun is a compound or combination of two or more stems or words as a result its grammatical category is a noun. Most compound nouns in English are formed by nouns modified by other nouns or adjectives. This type of compound is considered to be very productive in English and can be seen from three different criteria. These criteria distinguish the English noun compound and the other syntactical structure in English. They include: Orthographic Criteria Solid In terms of spelling compound has three diferent ways of wrtiting. They are:

5 The first element of compound is followed by another without a space. This can be seen in the following data: (1) My drizzly new hometown in Forks.. (Meyer, 2006: 9) (2) I panicked as Edward walked toward us through the glaring sunlight. (Meyer,2006: 9) (3)...a thousand rainbow shards like he was made of crystal or? (Meyer, 2006: 9) The words, hometown, sunlight, and rainbow in data (1) (3) take the position of a noun in the sentences, the compound word, hometown is the head of the Noun Phrase (NP) in my drizzly new hometown; sunlight is the head of the NP the glaring sunlight, and rainbow is the head of the NP thousand rainbow hence they belong to noun compounds. Seen from the way they are written they belong to solid criteria since there is no space in between the two words combined Hyphenated In hyphenated compound, a short stroke (-) is used to join parts of the compound. As presented in the following data. (1) The Quileutes had their superstitions about the "cold ones," the blood-drinkers that were enemies to their tribe, (Meyer, 2006: 59) (2) If I were an oath-breaker, too. (Meyer, 2006: 81) (3) " I'm sure the leech-lover is just dying to help us out!" (Meyer, 2006: 210) Blood-drinkers, oath-breaker, and leech-lover in data (1)-(3) are all noun compounds. They take the positions of the head of the NP where they occur. Seen from how they were spelt they belong to hyphenated criteria since the words in the compounds were separated by a hyphen or a short stroke Open The orthographic characteristic of this type of compound is with a space between the first and the other element. For examples: (1) They were all waiting in the huge white living room; when I walked through the door,. (Meyer, 2006: 23) (2).. holding a pink birthday cake, more roses, a stack of glass plates,. (Meyer, 2006: 23)

6 (3) In just the opening credits, four people got blown up and one got beheaded. (Meyer, 2006: 137) Similar to the compounds in and 4.1.2, the compounds; living room, glass plates, and opening credits also belong to noun compounds, however the way how they are written is different. They are written with space between the two words in the compounds. They are written like the spelling of a phrase, with space between the words. Fromkin et. al (1990:133) argue that whether a compound is spelled with a space between two words, with a hyphen, or with no separation at all is idiosyncratic Semantic criteria Semantically, noun compound is distinguished from ordinary syntactic constructions as having a meaning which may be related to, but cannot simply be infered from the meaning of its parts. For examples: (1) And then Mike stumbled out of the bathroom, his face ashen and covered in sweat. (Meyer, 2006: 140) (2) Alice's eyes gleamed in the dim light of a reading lamp in the row behind us. (Meyer, 2006: 283) (3) He followed me out into the downpour and helped me load both of the heavy bikes into the back of my truck. (Meyer, 2006: 83) The meanings of the noun compound, bathroom, and reading lamp, in data (1) and (2) can still be predicted from the meaning of their constituents. The meaning of room and bath are still maintained in the compound, bathroom (bathroom is a room where there is a bath), so is the meaning of reading and lamp in reading lamp (reading lamp which is used for reading or X reads with a lamp /lamp is an instrument). However, the meaning of the noun compound, downpour in data (3) does not relate to the meaning of the individual parts at all. Downpour means a heavy fall of rain that often starts suddenly Prosodic features The prosodic pattern of compound can often be identified as having a primary stress on the second element.

7 (1) He beamed. "Just last night. This is the maiden voyage." (Meyer, 2006: 134) (2) The pilots leaned out of the cockpit, chatting with them as they (Meyer, 2006: 277) (3) The Quileutes had their superstitions about the "cold ones," the blood-drinkers that were enemies to their tribe, (Meyer, 2006: 59) The noun compounds; maiden voyage, cockpit, and blood-drinkers in data (1) (3) are all stressed in the first parts, / 'meidən vojidჳ/, / 'kοkpit/, and / 'blλd-driŋkerz/. The assignment of stress distinguishes the noun compound from a noun phrase. The noun phrase is stressed in the second word. 3.2 The types of the English Noun Compound Quirk et al (1985) distinguish seven types of noun compound based on the grammatical function of its parts in the combination. The seven types of the noun compounds are presented in the following section The type of Subject and Verb Subject + deverbal noun The English noun compound consisting of Subject + deverbal noun can be seen in the following data. (1) Surely, as a rule, some little bit of moonlight would filter down, (Meyer, 2006: 54) (2) I couldn't remember how long it had been since nightfall. (Meyer, 2006: 54) The structure of the noun compounds; moonlight, and nightfall in data (1) - (2) can be interpreted as The moon lights, and The night falls (the moon is the Subject in the clause the moon lights so is the night in the night falls and both light and fall are verbs which are the deverbalized when combined with the moon and night to form noun compound). Quirk et al (1985) mention that this type of noun compound in English is very productive verb + Subject The data below show the examples of the noun compound consisting of verb and subject. (1), watching out for driftwood that might trip me. (Meyer, 2006: 196) (2) I knew the right way to avoid a riptide. (Meyer, 2006: 233)

8 The word category for the word, drift is a verb and so is the word, rip, while wood is a noun and so is tide. The structure interpretation of their combination is that; Wood drifts and Tide rips to become noun compounds under the process of inversion resulting; driftwood and rip tide. Quirk et al (1985) mention that this type of noun compound in English is weakly productive Verbal noun in ing + subject This type of noun compounds is very productive in English. The following data show the examples of it. (1) "Bella," she hissed, her voice a little too loud in the darkened cabin full of sleeping humans.(meyer, 2006: 282) (2) "It's a private tour," Alice said, flashing an alluring smile. (Meyer, 2006: 290) The structure of the noun compounds in the above data is analyzed as: human sleep and smile allurs. These turn into noun compounds sleeping human and alluring smile with the pattern verbal noun-ing ( noun that is formed from the verb and suffix ing) + subject ( noun human in the first data and smile in the second) The type of Verb and Object Object + de-verbal noun The noun compound with this type is moderately productive according to Quirk et al (1985). The following data show the examples of it. (1) young Alice alone would bring to our little household (Meyer, 2006: 311) (2) " If anyone sets up a roadblock, it will be behind us." (Meyer, 2006: 286) Household, and roadblock in data (1)-(2) are considered to have the type of Verb and Object specifically with the pattern Object + devebal noun. The structure of these noun compounds can be interpreted as: X holds the house, and X blocks the road, hence they belong to the type of Verb and Object Object + Verbal noun in ing The following data show noun compounds with the pattern, Object +Verbal noun in ing. (1) I tried to clear my throat and then winced; the throat-clearing felt like stabbing a knife down there. (Meyer, 2006: 238)

9 (2).but gained one back for being in charge of the bookkeeping at my house until we were in Checker, (Meyer, 2006: 96) The noun compounds: throat-clearing and bookkeeping in the above data are included in the type of Verb Object the verbs are: clearing (clear which is affix in- ing to form noun as referred to as noun in -ing), and keeping (keeping which is affixed in- ing to form noun as referred to as noun in -ing). The Objects are throat in the first data and book in the second. The analyses of the noun compound structure in data (1) is : X clear throat, and in data (2) X keeps books Object + agential noun in er The English noun compound consisting of Object + agential noun in er can be seen in the following data. (1) ones," the blood-drinkers that were enemies to their tribe, (Meyer, 2006: 59) (2) If I were an oath-breaker, too. (Meyer, 2006: 81) The structure analyses of the noun compounds in the above data are: X drinks blood and X breaks oath. These turn into noun compounds blood-drinkers and oath-breaker with the pattern Object (blood and oath) and agential noun in er ( verbs: drink and that is formed from the verb and suffix ing) + subject ( noun human in the first data and smile in the second) Verb +Object There is only one noun compound with the pattern Verb +Object can be found in the data, as shown below: (1) Jacob's hand hovered over the handlebars, ready to. (Meyer, 2006: 121) Handlebars in the data above is a noun compound of which type is Verb and Object with the interpretation of structure: X handles bars. Handle belongs to a verb while bar is the Object of the verb handles. The other examples are: call-girl (X calls girl), punchball (X punches ball), push- button ( X pushes button), scarecrow (X scares crow) Verbal noun in ing + Object

10 data: The noun compound of which type is Verb and Object can be presented in the following (1) Alice grabbed his arm with a restraining hand. (Meyer, 2006: 307) (2) In just the opening credits, four people got blown up and one... (Meyer, 2006: 137) The noun compound, restraining hand in data (1) can be analyzed as X restrains hand and not hand restrains, and opening credits is analyzed as X opens credits, not credit opens. Therefore these noun compounds are categorized as the type Verb and Object. 3.3 The type of Verb and Adverbial verbal noun in ing +adverbial The English noun compound consisting of verbal noun in ing +adverbial can be presented in the following data. (1) They were all waiting in the huge white living room; when (Meyer, 2006: 23) (2) Alice's eyes gleamed in the dim light of a reading lamp in the. (Meyer, 2006: 283) The noun compounds, living room and reading lamp are both belong to the open class, they are written with space between the two elements in the compound. They are of the type Verb and Object with the analyses: living room, X lives in a room, and reading lamp, X read with lamp. While the pattern applied in the two constructions is verbal noun in ing +adverbial. Living, and reading are verbal nouns ending in -ing and room and lamp function as adverbials Adverbial + verbal noun in ing The data below show the examples of the type of Verb and Adverbial with the pattern adverbial + verbal noun in -ing. (1) but I'd been expecting some forewarning from the noisy rocks,(meyer, 2006: 197) (2) Billy and Charlie aren't going to be so easygoing about this." (Meyer, 2006: 107) Forewarning in the data above is a noun compound of which type is Verb and Adverbial with the analysis of structure: X warns fore or in advance. Warn is a verb and fore is an Adverbial. Easygoing also belongs to Verb and Adverbial type with the structure: X goes easily, go is a verb and easily is an adverbial of manner. The pattern of the elements in the compound is Adverbial + verbal noun in ing.

11 3.3.3 Adverbial + deverbal noun The English noun compound consisting of Adverbal + deverbal noun can be presented in the following data. (1) We were on a short stretch of unlit sidewalk. (Meyer, 2006: 71) (2) There was never enough homework to keep me busy. (Meyer, 2006: 91) The structure of noun compounds, sidewalk in data (1) can be analyzed as X walks on the side. Walk is a verb while On the side is an adverbial, therefore this noun compound is classified as the type of Verb and Adverbial with the pattern Adverbial + deverbal noun (walk in the compound is deverbal noun). The same analysis can be applied to the second data. Homework; X works at home, works is a verb while On the side is an adverbial and it is transformed into compound home work (home is an Adverbial and work is deverbal noun) Verb + adverbial The only data found in the data source that can be identified into this type is presented below (1) Jacob's hand hovered over the handlebars, ready to catch me if I needed him. (Meyer, 2006: 121) Handlebars is considered to have the type of verb and adverbial since it has instrumental characteristic. It can be analyzed as X handles with bars, handle is a verb and bars as the adverbial. 3.4 Verbless Verbless noun compound are presented in the following data: (1).. so that my back was tight against the brick wall,.(meyer, 2006: 294) (2), until I realized she was wearing an elbow-length, tan glove. (Meyer, 2006: 290) Brick wall and elbow-length are noun compounds of verbless type. Break (noun 1) and wall (noun 2) (noun 2 has noun 1 or noun 1 is made of noun 2) and elbow (noun 1) and length (noun2). There is no verb involves in the combination of the elements in the compounds Subject and Complement The noun compound of Subject and Complement type can be seen below.

12 (1) This made me brood over what Jared had said, about Jacob involving his "girlfriend." (Meyer, 2006: 223) (2) on the admission and the date on my tombstone are the same." (Meyer, 2006: 260) Girlfriend and tombstone are the examples of the type of Subject complement with the analysis; girlfriend (the friend is a girl), the friend is a Subject and a girl is a complement. While tombstone is analyzed as the stone is a tomb. 3.5 Combining-form According to Quirk et al (1985) the noun compound of this type is very productive in English. Typically the first element is neoclassical and does not occur as a separate noun base. The examples are given in the following data. (1) Under this shelter, raised on cinder blocks, was what looked to me like a completed automobile. (Meyer, 2006: 86) (2) that kept the claustrophobia from easing. (Meyer, 2006: 230) Automobile consists of auto which belongs to a noun and mobile is also a noun. In a compound the word auto is always the first element, and always in a close or never occur separately in the combination. Claustrophobia consists of claustro and phobia with the semantic relation the phobia of claustro Bahuvrihi The term bahuvrihi refers to the relation the compounds have with their referents, not to their pattern of formation. The examples are given below (1) The memory of Victoria, wild, catlike, lethal, was too strong in... (Meyer, 2006: 230) (2)..were only two patrons in the store, dedicated backpackers.. (Meyer, 2006: 79) The meanings of catlike and backpackers do not relate to the meaning of the parts that compose them. Catlike means cruel, none of the parts relate to its meaning. Catlike refers to a person who is cruel. While backpackers is derived from verb compound backpack which means traveling by carrying the equipment and clothes in a backpack, the addition of agentive marker er and then pluralised in s. Hence the noun compound backpackers means the person who travels by crrying the equipment and clothes in a backpack.

13 IV CONCLUSION Based on the discussion above it can be concluded that the English noun compounds have three formal characteristics; they are orthographic, prosodic, and semantic characteristics. In terms of orthography, the noun compounds take three forms; they are close (written without any space between the parts in the compound), hyphenated (written using hyphen in between the parts) and open (written with a space between the parts). The noun compound is always stressed in the first part. This distinguishes compound and the other constructions in English. The semantic of a compound cannot always be predicted from the meaning of the parts that compose it. All types of the English noun compounds proposed by Quirk et al (1985) they are: Subject and Verb, Verb and Object, verb and adverbial, verbless, subject and complement, combining-form, and Bahuvrihi. (Ni Luh Ketut Mas Indrawati, graduated from TEFL, MA Sydney University and S3 from Udayana University) Bibliography Bauer, Laurie English word formation. London: Cambridge University Press. Booij, Geert The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Morphology. New York: Oxford University Press. Fromkin et. al An Introduction to Language. London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,Inc. Matthwes, P.H Morphology an Introduction to the Theory of Word Structure. London: Cambridge University Press. Meyer, Stephenie New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company. Quirk, R et. al A Comprehensive English Grammar. London: Longman.