COMPOUNDING is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes.
Definition: a compound is usually defined (somewhat paradoxically) as a word that is made up of
two other words, a polylexemic lexeme , where a lexeme is the minimal unit of meaning/of lexis.
This definition requires a modification: there may be more than two words involved in the
formation of a compound, though there must be at least two.
Ex.: FREEDOM FIGHTER is a compound made up of two root-containing elements: free-dom +
fight-er
Why are windmill or combination lock unanimously considered as compounds while mercy killings
bill is not? It depends if we see a compound as a particular construction type, an entity with a
formal definition or as a lexical unit meeting certain criteria. According to the latter approach,
m.k.b. is not a compound in stricto sensu because it is syntactic in origin. However, at a formal
level, there is no formal distinction to be drawn between the two groups but the major distinction
between the lexical-item compounds and the headline compounds could actually be the frequency
of occurrence.
•In any case, there are a number of criteria that are generally accepted as correlating with
compound status, at least to a certain degree:
•ortographic criteria (although orthographic criteria cannot be robust, they are taken as a
powerful indicator in those languages for which they are relevant) compounds are assumed
to show their status by being written as single words.
There are a number of problems with such a criterion. First, in a language like English, there is
so much variation in the writing of two-word lexical items that even standard dictionaries
(supposed arbiters of the prescribed norm) are unable to agree rainforest, rain-forest, and rain
forest are all easily attestable, for example.
•phonological criteria there are a number of phonological ways in which status as single
words may be indicated. These may be segmental or suprasegmental. In English, for
example, stress is sometimes taken to be criterial, distinguishing most clearly between
examples like blackbird and black bird. And for examples like sky-blue, stress as the sole
criterion would suggest that they are compounds when used attributively (a sky-blue dress)
and not when used predicatively (her dress was sky-blue).
•morphological criteria it is sometimes claimed that since compounds are single lexemes,
the only inflection allowed in them must be the inflection that allows that single word’s
functioning in the sentence as a whole to be seen. Accordingly, internal words (words acting
as modifiers within the compound) are said to disallow inflections. There are instances in
which this appears to be true; there are other instances in which this rule appears to hold
most of the time, but not all of the time.
•In English, for example, plural is not usually marked on the modifying elements in
compounds so that even a noun like trousers, which rarely appears in the singular, has no
plural marking in the compound trouserpress (stirapantaloni). However, there is an
apparently increasing set of items in which internal plural marking is found: official secrets
act, suggestions box, weapons inspector.
