DIPLOMA IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
Linguistics:
Compounding & Acronym
Lecturer’s Name:
Puan ‘Aliyatulmuna
Prepared By:
Radin Mardhiana Binti Izaddin
Compounding
Definition: Two or more existing words put together
Compounding is the morphological operation that-in general-puts together two free forms and gives rise to a new word. The importance of compounding stems from the fact that there are probably no languages without compounding, and in some languages (e.g. Bahasa Melayu) it is the major source of new word formation. Compounds are particularly interesting linguistic constructions for a number of reasons. First, they constitute an anomaly among grammatical constructions because they are “words,” but at the same time exhibit a type of “internal syntax.” Compounds, furthermore, represent a contact point between several crucial linguistic and non-linguistic notions such as syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships, syntax and morphology, and linguistic knowledge and pragmatic knowledge. As for the relationship between syntax and morphology, it has often been observed that compounds are the morphological constructions that are closest to syntactic constructions, to the extent that there is no general agreement on which component of the grammar is responsible for their formation.
Compounding forms a word out of two or more root morphemes. The words are called compounds or compound words. In Linguistics, compounds can be either native or borrowed. Native English roots are typically free morphemes, so that means native compounds are made out of independent words that can occur by themselves. In other words, compounding also known as the word formation process in which two or more lexemes combine into a single new word. Compound words may be written as one word or as two words joined with a hyphen. Compounds may be compositional, meaning that the meaning of the new word is determined by combining the meanings of the parts, or