linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

) that consists of more than one

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of

word formation In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either: * the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or * the creation of new lexemes in a particular language Morphological A common method of word form ...

that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. A compound that uses a space rather than a

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes ( figure ...

concatenation In formal language theory and computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining character strings end-to-end. For example, the concatenation of "snow" and "ball" is "snowball". In certain formalisations of concatena ...

is called an open compound or a spaced compound; the alternative is a closed compound. The meaning of the compound may be similar to or different from the meaning of its components in isolation. The component stems of a compound may be of the same part of speech—as in the case of the English word ''footpath'', composed of the two

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

s ''foot'' and ''path''—or they may belong to different parts of speech, as in the case of the English word ''blackbird'', composed of the

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...

''black'' and the noun ''bird''. With very few exceptions, English compound words are stressed on their first component stem. As a member of the Germanic family of languages,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

is unusual in that even simple compounds made since the 18th century tend to be written in separate parts. This would be an error in other Germanic languages such as Norwegian, Swedish,

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

. However, this is merely an orthographic convention: As in other Germanic languages, arbitrary

noun phrase In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...

s, for example "girl scout troop", "city council member", and "cellar door", can be made up on the spot and used as compound nouns in English too. For example, German "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän" would be written in English as "Danube steamship company captain" and not as "Danubesteamshipcompanycaptain". The process occurs readily in all Germanic languages for different reasons. Words can be concatenated both to mean the same as the sum of two words (e.g. german: Pressekonferenz, lit=press conference, link=no) or where an adjective and noun are compounded (e.g. da, hvidvinsglas, lit=white wine glass, link=no). This can create a plethora of large, but valid words in these languages, by compounding compound words with several more. The addition of affix morphemes to words (such as

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry g ...

es or

prefixes A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...

, as in ''employ'' → ''employment'') should not be confused with nominal composition, as this is actually

morphological derivation Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as For example, ''unhappy'' and ''happiness'' derive from the root word ''happy.'' It is differentiat ...

. Some languages easily form compounds from what in other languages would be a multi-word expression. This can result in unusually long words, a phenomenon known in German (which is one such language) as or ''tapeworm words''.

Sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

s also have compounds. They are created by combining two or more sign stems. So-called "

classical compounds Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical a ...

" are compounds derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots.

Formation of compounds

Compound formation rules vary widely across language types. In a

synthetic language A synthetic language uses inflection or agglutination to express syntactic relationships within a sentence. Inflection is the addition of morphemes to a root word that assigns grammatical property to that word, while agglutination is the combina ...

, the relationship between the elements of a compound may be marked with a case or other

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...

. For example, the

compound consists of the lexemes (sea captain) and (license) joined by an ''-s-'' (originally a

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can a ...

suffix); and similarly, the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

lexeme contains the archaic genitive form of the lexeme (family). Conversely, in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

compound, the word בֵּית סֵפֶר (school), it is the head that is modified: the compound literally means "house-of book", with בַּיִת (house) having entered the construct state to become בֵּית (house-of). This latter pattern is common throughout the

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant and ...

, though in some it is combined with an explicit genitive case, so that both parts of the compound are marked, e.g. Arabic عبد الله ''ʕabd-u l-lāh-i'' (servant-NOM DEF-god-GEN) "servant of-the-god: the servant of God".

Agglutinative language An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to remai ...

s tend to create very long words with derivational morphemes. Compounds may or may not require the use of derivational morphemes also. In

, extremely extendable compound words can be found in the language of chemical compounds, where, in the cases of biochemistry and polymers, they can be practically unlimited in length, mostly because the German rule suggests combining all

noun adjunct In grammar, a noun adjunct, attributive noun, qualifying noun, noun (pre)modifier, or apposite noun is an optional noun that modifies another noun; functioning similarly to an adjective, it is, more specifically, a noun functioning as a pre-modif ...

s with the noun as the last stem. German examples include (color television set), (radio remote control), and the often quoted jocular word (originally only two Fs, Danube-Steamboat-Shipping Company captain shat), which can of course be made even longer and even more absurd, e.g. ''Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmützenreinigungsausschreibungsverordnungsdiskussionsanfang'' ("beginning of the discussion of a regulation on tendering of Danube steamboat shipping company captain hats") etc. According to several editions of the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

, the longest published German word has 79 letters and is '' Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft ''("Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Electric tyMaintenance Building of the Danube Steam Shipping"), but there is no evidence that this association ever actually existed. In Finnish, although there is theoretically no limit to the length of compound words, words consisting of more than three components are rare. Even those with fewer than three components can look mysterious to non-Finnish speakers, such as (emergency exit). Internet folklore sometimes suggests that (Airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student) is the longest word in Finnish, but evidence of it actually being used is scant and anecdotal at best. Compounds can be rather long when translating technical documents from English to some other language, since the lengths of the words are theoretically unlimited, especially in chemical terminology. For example, when translating an English technical document to Swedish, the term "Motion estimation search range settings" can be directly translated to , though in reality, the word would most likely be divided in two: – "search range settings for motion estimation".

Subclasses

Semantic classification

A common semantic classification of compounds yields four types: *endocentric *exocentric *copulative *appositional An

endocentric In theoretical linguistics, a distinction is made between endocentric and exocentric constructions. A grammatical construction (for instance, a phrase or compound) is said to be ''endocentric'' if it fulfils the same linguistic function as one ...

compound (''

tatpuruṣa Sanskrit inherits from its parent, the Proto-Indo-European language, the capability of forming compound nouns, also widely seen in kindred languages, especially German, Greek, and also English. However, Sanskrit, especially in the later stages o ...

'' in the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the la ...

tradition) consists of a ''

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may not ...

'', i.e. the categorical part that contains the basic meaning of the whole compound, and modifiers, which restrict this meaning. For example, the English compound ''doghouse'', where ''house'' is the head and ''dog'' is the modifier, is understood as a house intended for a dog. Endocentric compounds tend to be of the same part of speech (word class) as their head, as in the case of ''doghouse''. An

exocentric In theoretical linguistics, a distinction is made between endocentric and exocentric constructions. A grammatical construction (for instance, a phrase or compound) is said to be ''endocentric'' if it fulfils the same linguistic function as one o ...

compound (''

bahuvrihi A ''bahuvrihi'' compound (from sa, बहुव्रीहि, tr=bahuvrīhi, lit=much rice/having much rice, originally referring to fertile land but later denoting the quality of being wealthy or rich) is a type of compound word that denotes ...

'' in the Sanskrit tradition) is a

hyponym In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other ...

of some unexpressed semantic category (such as a person, plant, or animal): none (neither) of its components can be perceived as a formal head, and its meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts. For example, the English compound ''white-collar'' is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing. In an exocentric compound, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents. For example, a ''must-have'' is not a verb but a noun. The meaning of this type of compound can be glossed as "(one) whose B is A", where B is the second element of the compound and A the first. A bahuvrihi compound is one whose nature is expressed by neither of the words: thus a ''white-collar'' person is neither white nor a collar (the collar's colour is a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...

for socioeconomic status). Other English examples include ''barefoot''. Copulative compounds (

dvandva A dvandva ('pair' in Sanskrit) is a linguistic compound in which multiple individual nouns are concatenated to form an agglomerated compound word in which the conjunction has been elided to form a new word with a distinct semantic field. For ins ...

in the

tradition) are compounds with two semantic heads, for example in a gradual scale (such a mix of colours). Appositional compounds are lexemes that have two (contrary or simultaneous) attributes that classify the compound.

Syntactic classification

Noun–noun compounds

All natural languages have compound nouns. The positioning of the words (i.e. the most common order of constituents in phrases where nouns are modified by adjectives, by possessors, by other nouns, etc.) varies according to the language. While Germanic languages, for example, are left-branching when it comes to noun phrases (the modifiers come before the head), the Romance languages are usually right-branching. In

, compound nouns can be open, hyphenated, or solid, and they sometimes change orthographically in that direction over time, reflecting a

semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and compu ...

identity that evolves from a mere

collocation In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words ...

to something stronger in its unification. This theme has been summarized in

usage The usage of a language is the ways in which its written and spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers", as opposed to idealized models of how a languag ...

guides under the aphorism that "compound nouns tend to solidify as they age"; thus, ''child bearing'' becomes '' childbearing'', or a noun such as ''street car'' begins as open in most attestations and then becomes ''street-car'' and eventually ''

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

''; see '' English compound § Compound nouns'' for more information. German, a fellow

West Germanic language The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into ...

, has a somewhat different orthography, whereby compound nouns are virtually always required to be solid or at least hyphenated; even the hyphenated styling is used less now than it was in centuries past. In French, compound nouns are often formed by left-hand heads with prepositional components inserted before the modifier, as in ''chemin-de-fer'' 'railway', lit. 'road of iron', and ''moulin à vent'' 'windmill', lit. 'mill (that works)-by-means-of wind'. In Turkish, one way of forming compound nouns is as follows: ''yeldeğirmeni'' 'windmill' (''yel'': wind, ''değirmen-i'': mill-possessive); ''demiryolu'' 'railway' (''demir'': iron, ''yol-u'': road-possessive). Occasionally, two synonymous nouns can form a compound noun, resulting in a tautology. One example is the English word '' pathway''.

Verb–noun compounds

A type of compound that is fairly common in the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...

is formed of a verb and its object, and in effect transforms a simple verbal clause into a noun. In

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, for example, such compounds consist of a verb conjugated for the second person singular imperative followed by a noun (singular or plural): e.g., ''rascacielos'' (modelled on "skyscraper", lit. 'scratch skies'), ''sacacorchos'' 'corkscrew' (lit. 'pull corks'), ''guardarropa'' 'wardrobe' (lit. 'store clothes'). These compounds are formally invariable in the plural (but in many cases they have been reanalyzed as plural forms, and a singular form has appeared). French and Italian have these same compounds with the noun in the singular form: Italian ''grattacielo'' 'skyscraper', French ''grille-pain'' 'toaster' (lit. 'toast bread'). This construction exists in English, generally with the verb and noun both in uninflected form: examples are ''spoilsport'', ''killjoy'', ''breakfast'', ''cutthroat'', ''pickpocket'', ''dreadnought'', and ''know-nothing''. Also common in English is another type of verb–noun (or noun–verb) compound, in which an argument of the verb is incorporated into the verb, which is then usually turned into a

gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiabl ...

, such as ''breastfeeding'', ''finger-pointing'', etc. The noun is often an instrumental complement. From these gerunds new verbs can be made: ''(a mother) breastfeeds (a child)'' and from them new compounds ''mother-child breastfeeding'', etc. Verb-noun compounds derived from classical languages tend to be nouns; rarely, a verb-noun

classical compound Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical ...

can be a verb. One example is '' miscegenate'', a word that literally falls into disuse nowadays, which is derived from a Latin verb and a Latin noun. In the Australian Aboriginal language Jingulu, a Pama–Nyungan language, it is claimed that all verbs are V+N compounds, such as "do a sleep", or "run a dive", and the language has only three basic verbs: ''do'', ''make'', and ''run''. A special kind of compounding is incorporation, of which noun incorporation into a verbal root (as in English ''backstabbing'', ''breastfeed'', etc.) is most prevalent (see below).

Verb–verb compounds

Verb–verb compounds are sequences of more than one verb acting together to determine clause structure. They have two types: *In a

serial verb The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause.Tallerman, M. (1998). ''Understanding Syntax''. London: A ...

, two actions, often sequential, are expressed in a single clause. For example, Ewe ''trɔ dzo'', lit. "turn leave", means "turn and leave", and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been d ...

''jā-kar dekh-o'', lit. "go-CONJUNCTIVE PARTICIPLE see-IMPERATIVE", means "go and see". In

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

, a Dravidian language, van̪t̪u paːr, lit. "come see". In each case, the two verbs together determine the semantics and argument structure. Serial verb expressions in English may include ''What did you go and do that for?'', or ''He just upped and left''; this is however not quite a true compound since they are connected by a conjunction and the second missing arguments may be taken as a case of

ellipsis The ellipsis (, also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term origin ...

. *In a compound verb (or ''complex predicate''), one of the verbs is the primary, and determines the primary semantics and also the argument structure. The secondary verb, often called a vector verb or explicator, provides fine distinctions, usually in temporality or

aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

, and also carries the

inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defi ...

(tense and/or agreement markers). The main verb usually appears in conjunctive participial (sometimes ''zero'') form. For examples,

''nikal gayā'', lit. "exit went", means 'went out', while निकल पड़ा ''nikal paRā'', lit. "exit fell", means 'departed' or 'was blurted out'. In these examples निकल ''nikal'' is the primary verb, and गया ''gayā'' and पड़ा ''paRā'' are the vector verbs. Similarly, in both English ''start reading'' and Japanese 読み始める ''yomihajimeru'' "read-CONJUNCTIVE-start" "start reading", the vector verbs ''start'' and 始める ''hajimeru'' "start" change according to tense, negation, and the like, while the main verbs ''reading'' and 読み ''yomi'' "reading" usually remain the same. An exception to this is the passive voice, in which both English and Japanese modify the main verb, i.e. ''start to be read'' and 読まれ始める ''yomarehajimeru'' lit. "read-PASSIVE-(CONJUNCTIVE)-start" ''start to be read''. With a few exceptions, all compound verbs alternate with their simple counterparts. That is, removing the vector does not affect grammaticality at all nor the meaning very much: निकला ''nikalā'' '(He) went out.' In a few languages both components of the compound verb can be finite forms: Kurukh ''kecc-ar ker-ar'' lit. "died-3pl went-3pl" '(They) died.' *Compound verbs are very common in some languages, such as the northern

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

Hindustani and

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

, and

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant im ...

, where as many as 20% of verb forms in running text are compound. They exist but are less common in other Indo-Aryan languages like

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language Marathi (; ''Marāṭhī'', ) is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Mahara ...

and

Nepali Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...

, in

Tibeto-Burman languages The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

like Limbu and Newari, in

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...

like Turkish and Kyrgyz, in

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, and in northeast Caucasian languages like Tsez and Avar. *Under the influence of a

Quichua Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia (''Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. The most widely spoken dialects are Chimboraz ...

substrate speakers living in the Ecuadorian

altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at t ...

have innovated compound verbs in Spanish: :''De rabia puso rompiendo la olla'', 'In anger (he/she) smashed the pot.' (Lit. from anger put breaking the pot) :'' Botaremos matándote'' 'We will kill you.' (Cf. Quichua ''huañuchi-shpa shitashun'', lit. kill-CP throw.1plFut. :Likewise in Hindi: तेरे को मार डालेंगे ''tere ko mār DāleNge'', lit. "we will kill-throw you"). *Compound verb equivalents in English (examples from the internet): :''What did you go and do that for?'' :''If you are not giving away free information on your web site then a huge proportion of your business is just upping and leaving.'' :''Big Pig, she took and built herself a house out of brush.'' *Caution: In descriptions of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and other

Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ...

the term 'compound verb' refers to noun-plus-verb compounds, not to the verb–verb compounds discussed here.

Parasynthetic compounds

Parasynthetic compounds are formed by a combination of compounding and

derivation Derivation may refer to: Language * Morphological derivation, a word-formation process * Parse tree or concrete syntax tree, representing a string's syntax in formal grammars Law * Derivative work, in copyright law * Derivation proceeding, a proc ...

, with multiple lexical stems and a derivational affix. For example, English ''black-eyed'' is composed of ''black'', ''eye'', and ''-ed'' 'having', with the meaning 'having a black eye'; Italian ''imbustare'' is composed of ''in-'' 'in', ''busta'' 'envelope', ''-are'' (verbal suffix), with the meaning 'to put into an envelope'.

Compound adpositions

Compound

preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

s formed by prepositions and nouns are common in English and the Romance languages (consider English ''on top of'', Spanish ''encima de'', etc.). Hindi has a small number of simple (i.e., one-word) postpositions and a large number of compound postpositions, mostly consisting of simple postposition ''ke'' followed by a specific postposition (e.g., ''ke pas'', "near"; ''ke nīche'', "underneath").

Examples from different languages

Chinese (traditional/simplified Chinese; Standard Chinese

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

/Cantonese

Jyutping Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK), an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK advocates fo ...

): *學生/学生 'student': 學 ''xué''/''hok6'' learn + 生 ''shēng''/''sang1'' living being *太空/太空 'space': 太 ''tài''/''taai3'' great + 空 ''kōng''/''hung1'' emptiness *摩天樓/摩天楼 'skyscraper': 摩 ''mó''/''mo1'' touch + 天 ''tiān''/''tin1'' sky + 樓 ''lóu''/''lau2'' building (with more than 1 storey) *打印機/打印机 'printer': 打 ''dǎ''/''daa2'' strike + 印 ''yìn''/''yan3'' stamp/print + 機 ''jī''/''gei1'' machine *百科全書/百科全书 'encyclopaedia': 百 ''bǎi''/''baak3'' hundred + 科 ''kē''/''fo1'' (branch of) study + 全 ''quán''/''cyun4'' entire/complete + 書 ''shū''/''syu1'' book *謝謝/谢谢 'thanks': Repeating of 謝 ''xiè'' thank Dutch: * 'disability insurance': 'labour' + 'inaptitude' + 'insurance'. * 'sewage treatment plant': 'sewer' + ''water'' 'water' + 'cleaning' + 'installation'. * 'birthday calendar': 'birthday' + 'calendar'. * 'customer service representative': 'customers' + 'service' + 'worker'. * 'university library': 'university' + 'library'. * 'possibilities for advancement': 'through' + 'grow' + 'possibilities'. Finnish: * 'dictionary': 'word' + 'book' * 'computer': 'knowledge data' + 'machine' * 'Wednesday': 'middle' + 'week' * 'world': 'land' + 'air' * 'railway station': 'iron' + 'road' + 'station' * 'electricity meter': 'three-phase kilowatt hour meter' Abwasserbehandlungsanlage

German: * 'skyscraper': 'clouds' + 'scraper' * 'railway': 'iron' + 'track' * 'automobile': 'power' + 'drive' + 'machinery' * 'barbed wire': 'barb/barbed' + 'wire' *: literally cattle-marking- and beef-labeling-supervision-duties-delegation law Ancient Greek: * ''philosopher'': φίλος ''phílos'' 'beloved' + σοφία ''sophíā'' 'wisdom' * ''dēmokratíā'' 'democracy': δῆμος ''dêmos'' 'people' + κράτος 'rule' * ''rhododáktylos'' 'rose-fingered': ῥόδον ''rhódon'' 'rose' + δάκτυλος ''dáktylos'' 'finger' (a

Homeric epithet A characteristic of Homer's style is the use of epithets, as in "rosy-fingered" Dawn or "swift-footed" Achilles. Epithets are used because of the constraints of the dactylic hexameter (i.e., it is convenient to have a stockpile of metrically fitting ...

applied to the Dawn) Icelandic: * 'railway': 'iron' + 'path' or 'way' * 'vehicle': ''farar'' 'journey' + ''tæki'' 'apparatus' * 'encyclopedia': 'everything' + 'study' or 'knowledge' + 'dictionary' ( 'words' + 'book') * 'telephone conversation': ''sím'' 'telephone' + ''tal'' 'dialogue' Italian: * 'centipede': 'thousand' + 'feet' * 'railway': 'iron' + 'way' * 'windscreen wiper': 'to wash' + 'crystal (pane of) glass' *pomodoro: pomo d'oro = apple of Gold = tomatoes *portacenere = porta cenere = ashtray Japanese: *目覚まし（時計） 'alarm clock': 目 ''me'' 'eye' + 覚まし ''samashi (-zamashi)'' 'awakening (someone)' (+ 時計 ''tokei (-dokei)'' clock) *お好み焼き ''

okonomiyaki is a Japanese savory pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and other ingredients (mixed, or as toppings) cooked on a '' teppan'' (flat griddle). Common additions include cabbage, meat, and seafood, and toppings include ''okonomiyaki'' ...

'': お好み ''okonomi'' 'preference' + 焼き ''yaki'' 'cooking' *日帰り ''higaeri'' 'day trip': 日 ''hi'' 'day' + 帰り ''kaeri (-gaeri)'' 'returning (home)' *国会議事堂 'national diet building': 国会 ''kokkai'' 'national diet' + 議事 'proceedings' + 堂 ''dō'' 'hall' Korean: *안팎 ''anpak'' 'inside and outside': 안 ''an'' 'inside' + 밖 ''bak'' 'outside' (As two nouns compound the consonant sound 'b' fortifies into 'p' becoming 안팎 ''anpak'' rather than 안밖 )

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

/Anishinaabemowin: *''mashkikiwaaboo'' 'tonic': ''mashkiki'' 'medicine' + ''waaboo'' 'liquid' *''miskomin'' 'raspberry': ''misko'' 'red' + ''miin'' 'berry' *''dibik-giizis'' 'moon': ''dibik'' 'night' + ''giizis'' 'sun' *''gichi-mookomaan'' 'white person/American': ''gichi'' 'big' + ''mookomaan'' 'knife' Spanish: * 'science fiction': , 'science', + , 'fiction' (This word is a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...

from the English expression ''

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

''. In English, the head of a compound word is the last morpheme: science ''fiction''. Conversely, the Spanish head is located at the front, so ''ciencia ficción'' sounds like a kind of fictional science rather than scientific fiction.) * 'centipede': 'hundred' + 'feet' * 'railway': 'iron' + 'lane' * 'umbrella': 'stops' + '(the) water' * 'keeping the head low in a bad mood': ''cabeza'' 'head' + ''bajo'' 'down' * 'seesaw' (contraction of 'goes up and down') * 'windshield wiper' is a nested compound: 'clean' + ''windshield'', which is itself a compound of 'stop' + 'breezes'. Tamil: * In ''Cemmozhi'' (Classical Tamil), rules for compounding are laid down in grammars such as Tolkappiyam and

Nannūl Nannūl ( ta, நன்னூல்) is a work on Tamil grammar written by a Jain ascetic Pavananthi Munivar around 13th century CE. It is the most significant work on Tamil grammar after Tolkāppiyam. The work credits Western Ganga vassal king ...

, in various forms, under the name ''punarcci''. Examples of compounds include kopuram from 'kō' (king) + ' puram' (exterior). Sometimes phonemes may be inserted during the blending process such as in kovil from 'kō' (king) + 'il' (home). Other types are like ''vennai'' (butter) from 'veḷḷai' (white) + 'nei' (

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from ...

); note how 'veḷḷai' becomes 'ven'. * In ''koṭuntamizh'' (Non-standard Tamil), parts of words from other languages may be morphed into Tamil. Common examples include 'ratta-azhuttam' (blood pressure) from the Sanskrit ''rakta'' (blood) and ''Cemmozhi'' 'azhuttam' (pressure); note how ''rakta'' becomes ''ratta'' in Tamil order to remove the consonant-cluster. This also happens with English, for examples ''kāpi-kaṭai'' (coffee shop) is from English ''coffee'', which becomes ''kāpi'' in Tamil, and the Tamil ''kaṭai'' meaning shop. Tłįchǫ Yatiì/Dogrib: *''dlòotsǫ̀ǫ̀'' 'peanut butter': ''dlòo'' 'squirrel' + ''tsǫ̀ǫ̀'' 'dung' *''eyakǫ̀'' 'hospital'': ''eya'' 'sick' + ''kǫ̀'' 'house' *''dè gotłeè'' 'kerosene': ''dè'' 'land' + ''gotłeè'' 'its fat' *''dǫ łèt'è'' 'bannock': ''dǫ'' ' boriginalpeople' + ''łèt'è'' 'bread'

Germanic languages

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engl ...

(including

), compounds are formed by prepending what is effectively a

namespace In computing, a namespace is a set of signs (''names'') that are used to identify and refer to objects of various kinds. A namespace ensures that all of a given set of objects have unique names so that they can be easily identified. Namespace ...

(disambiguation context) to the main word. For example, "

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ca ...

" would be a "ball" in the "foot" context. In itself, this does not alter the meaning of the main word. The added context only makes it more precise. As such, a "football" must be understood as a "ball". However, as is the case with "football", a well established compound word may have gained a special meaning in the language's

vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...

. Only this defines "football" as a particular type of ball (unambiguously the round object, not the

dance party A dance party (also referred to as a dance) is a social gathering where dancing is the primary activity. Some dance parties are held in a casual setting and open to the public, such as a rave, or those held in nightclubs. Other types of dance ...

, at that), and also the game involving such a ball. Another example of special and altered meaning is "starfish" – a

starfish Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ...

is in fact not a

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in modern biology. Also syntactically, the compound word behaves like the main word – the whole compound word (or phrase) inherits the

word class In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech ( abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are ass ...

and inflection rules of the main word. That is to say, since "fish" and "shape" are nouns, "starfish" and "star shape" must also be nouns, and they must take plural forms as "starfish" and "star shapes", definite singular forms as "the starfish" and "the star shape", and so on. This principle also holds for languages that express

definiteness In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...

by inflection (as in

North Germanic The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

). Because a compound is understood as a word in its own right, it may in turn be used in new compounds, so forming an arbitrarily long word is trivial. This contrasts to Romance languages, where prepositions are more used to specify word relationships instead of concatenating the words. As a member of the Germanic family of languages, English is unusual in that compounds are normally written in separate parts. This would be an error in other Germanic languages such as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German and Dutch. However, this is merely an orthographic convention: As in other Germanic languages, arbitrary

noun phrases In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...

, for example "girl scout troop", "city council member", and "cellar door", can be made up on the spot and used as compound nouns in English too.

Russian language

In the Russian language compounding is a common type of

, and several types of compounds exist, both in terms of compounded parts of speech and of the way of the formation of a compound. Compound nouns may be agglutinative compounds, hyphenated compounds (стол-книга 'folding table', lit. 'table-book', "book-like table"), or abbreviated compounds (

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

s: колхоз '

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...

'). Some compounds look like acronym, while in fact they are an agglutinations of type

+ word: Академгородок '

Akademgorodok Akademgorodok ( rus, Академгородок, p=ɐkəˌdʲemɡərɐˈdok, "Academic Town") is a part of the Sovetsky District of the city of Novosibirsk, Russia, located south of the city center and about west of Koltsovo. It is the educ ...

' (from ''akademichesky gorodok'' 'academic village'). In agglutinative compound nouns, an agglutinating infix is typically used: пароход 'steamship': пар + о + ход. Compound nouns may be created as noun+noun, adjective + noun, noun + adjective (rare), noun + verb (or, rather, noun +

verbal noun A verbal noun or gerundial noun is a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The sacking of the city was an epochal event" (''sacking'' is a noun formed from the verb ''sack''). ...

). Compound adjectives may be formed either per se (бело-розовый 'white-pink') or as a result of compounding during the derivation of an adjective from a multi-word term: Каменноостровский проспект () 'Stone Island Avenue', a street in

St.Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Reduplication in Russian Reduplication in Russian is used to intensify meaning in different ways. Reduplication is also observable in borrowed words, such as "" (; ping-pong) and "" (; zig-zag), but since the words were borrowed as is from other languages, they are not ...

is also a source of compounds. Quite a few Russian words are borrowed from other languages in an already-compounded form, including numerous "

s" or internationalisms: автомобиль 'automobile'.

Sanskrit language

Sanskrit is very rich in compound formation with seven major compound types and as many as 55 sub-types. The compound formation process is productive, so it is not possible to list all Sanskrit compounds in a dictionary. Compounds of two or three words are more frequent, but longer compounds with some ''running through pages'' are not rare in Sanskrit literature. Some examples are below (hyphens below show individual word boundaries for ease of reading but are not required in original Sanskrit). *हिमालय (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

Himālaya, decomposed as hima-ālaya): Name of the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

mountain range. Literally ''the abode of snow''. A compound of two words and four syllables. *प्रवर-मुकुट-मणि-मरीचि-मञ्जरी-चय-चर्चित-चरण-युगल (IAST pravara-mukuṭa-maṇi-marīci-mañjarī-caya-carcita-caraṇa-yugala): Literally, ''O the one whose dual feet are covered by the cluster of brilliant rays from the gems of the best crowns'', from the Sanskrit work

Panchatantra The ''Panchatantra'' (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story. ...

. A compound of nine words and 25 syllables. *कमला-कुच-कुङ्कुम-पिञ्जरीकृत-वक्षः-स्थल-विराजित-महा-कौस्तुभ-मणि-मरीचि-माला-निराकृत-त्रि-भुवन-तिमिर (IAST kamalā-kuca-kuṅkuma-piñjarīkṛta-vakṣaḥ-sthala-virājita-mahā-kaustubha-maṇi-marīci-mālā-nirākṛta-tri-bhuvana-timira): Literally ''O the one who dispels the darkness of three worlds by the shine of

Kaustubha Kaustubha () is a divine ruby or ''ratnam'' (gem) in Hindu mythology. This gem is in the possession of Vishnu, granting him the epithet of ''Kaustubhadhari''. It is believed in Hindu scriptures to be the most magnificent ''ratnam'' in all of cr ...

jewel hanging on the chest, which has been made reddish-yellow by the saffron from the bosom of Kamalā (

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Al ...

)'', an adjective of

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bei ...

in the Kakabhushundi

Rāmāyaṇa The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

. A compound of 16 words and 44 syllables. *साङ्ख्य-योग-न्याय-वैशेषिक-पूर्व-मीमांसा-वेदान्त-नारद-शाण्डिल्य-भक्ति-सूत्र-गीता-वाल्मीकीय-रामायण-भागवतादि-सिद्धान्त-बोध-पुरः-सर-समधिकृताशेष-तुलसी-दास-साहित्य-सौहित्य-स्वाध्याय-प्रवचन-व्याख्यान-परम-प्रवीणाः (IAST sāṅkhya-yoga-nyāya-vaiśeṣika-pūrva-mīmāṃsā-vedānta-nārada-śāṇḍilya-bhakti-sūtra-gītā-vālmīkīya-rāmāyaṇa-bhāgavatādi-siddhānta-bodha-puraḥ-sara-samadhikṛtāśeṣa-tulasī-dāsa-sāhitya-sauhitya-svādhyāya-pravacana-vyākhyāna-parama-pravīṇāḥ): Literally ''the acclaimed forerunner in understanding of the canons of Sāṅkhya,

Yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

Nyāya (Sanskrit: न्याय, ''nyā-yá''), literally meaning "justice", "rules", "method" or "judgment",Vaiśeṣika, Pūrva Mīmāṃsā,

Vedānta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...

, Nārada Bhakti Sūtra, Śāṇḍilya Bhakti Sūtra,

Bhagavad Gītā The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (ch ...

, the Ramayana of Vālmīki, Śrīmadbhāgavata; and the most skilled in comprehensive self-study, discoursing and expounding of the complete works of Gosvāmī Tulasīdāsa''. An adjective used in a panegyric of Jagadguru Rambhadracharya. The hyphens show only those word boundaries where there is no

sandhi Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...

. On including word boundaries with sandhi (vedānta=veda-anta, rāmāyaṇa=rāma-ayana, bhāgavatādi=bhāgavata-ādi, siddhānta=siddha-anta, samadhikṛtāśeṣa=samadhikṛta-aśeṣa, svādhyāya=sva-adhyāya), this is a compound of 35 words and 86 syllables.

Sign languages

Also in sign languages, compounding is a productive word formation process. Both endocentric and exocentric compounds have been described for a variety of sign languages. Copulative compounds or

, which are composed of two or more nouns from the same semantic category to denote that semantic category, also occur regularly in many sign languages. Th
sign
for ''parents'' in

Italian Sign Language Italian Sign Language or LIS (''Lingua dei Segni Italiana'') is the visual language used by deaf people in Italy. Deep analysis of it began in the 1980s, along the lines of William Stokoe's research on American Sign Language in the 1960s. Until ...

, for instance, is a combination of the nouns ‘father’ and ‘mother’. The sign for ''breakfast'' in

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

follows the same concept. The words ''eat'' and ''morning'' are signed together to create a new word meaning breakfast. This is an example of a sequential compound; in sign languages, it is also possible to form ''simultaneous'' compounds, where one hand represents one lexeme while the other simultaneously represents another lexeme. An example is the sign for ''weekend'' in

Sign Language of the Netherlands Dutch Sign Language ( nl, Nederlandse Gebarentaal or NGT; Sign Language of the Netherlands or SLN) is the predominant sign language used by deaf people in the Netherlands. Although the same spoken Dutch language is used in the Netherlands and ...

, which is produced by simultaneously signing a one-handed version of the sign for ''Saturday'' and a one-handed version of the sign for ''Sunday.'' In

there is another process easily compared to compounding. Blending is the blending of two morphemes to create a new word called a portmanteau. This is different from compounding in that it breaks the strict linear order of compounding.

Recent trends in orthography

Although there is no universally agreed-upon guideline regarding the use of compound words in the English language, in recent decades written English has displayed a noticeable trend towards increased use of compounds. Recently, many words have been made by taking syllables of words and compounding them, such as pixel (picture element) and bit (binary digit). This is called a

syllabic abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

. In Dutch and the

Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also ...

there is an unofficial trend toward splitting compound words, known in Norwegian as ''særskriving'', in Swedish as ''särskrivning'' (literally "separate writing"), and in Dutch as ''Engelse ziekte'' (the "English disease"). Because the Scandinavian languages rely heavily on the distinction between the compound word and the sequence of the separate words it consists of, this has serious implications. For example, the adjective ''røykfritt'' (literally "smokefree", meaning no smoking allowed) if separated into its composite parts, would mean ''røyk fritt'' ("smoke freely"). In Dutch, compounds written with spaces may also be confused, but can also be interpreted as a sequence of a noun and a

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can a ...

(which is unmarked in Dutch) in formal abbreviated writing. This may lead to, for example, ''commissie vergadering'' ("commission meeting") being read as "commission of the meeting" rather than "meeting of the commission" (normally spelled ''commissievergadering''). The German spelling reform of 1996 introduced the option of

ating compound nouns when it enhances comprehensibility and readability. This is done mostly with very long compound words by separating them into two or more smaller compounds, like ''Eisenbahn-Unterführung'' (railway underpass) or ''Kraftfahrzeugs-Betriebsanleitung'' (car manual). Such practice is also permitted in other Germanic languages, e.g. Danish and Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk alike), and is even encouraged between parts of the word that have very different pronunciation, such as when one part is a

loan word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

or an

Compounding by language

Classical compound Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical ...

s *

English compound A compound is a word composed of more than one free morpheme. The English language, like many others, uses compounds frequently. English compounds may be classified in several ways, such as the word classes or the semantic relationship of thei ...

s *

German compounds The nouns of the German language have several properties, some unique. As in many related Indo-European languages, German nouns possess a grammatical gender; the three genders are masculine, feminine, and neuter. Words for objects without obviou ...

Sanskrit compounds Sanskrit inherits from its parent, the Proto-Indo-European language, the capability of forming compound nouns, also widely seen in kindred languages, especially German, Greek, and also English. However, Sanskrit, especially in the later stages o ...

Notes

References

*Kortmann, Bernd: ''English Linguistics: Essentials'', Cornelsen, Berlin 2005. * ''The Oxford Handbook of Compounding'', eds. Lieber, Rochelle & Pavol Štekauer, 2009. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Plag, Ingo: ''Word-formation in English'', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003. *Scalise Sergio & Irene Vogel (eds.) (2010), ''Cross-Disciplinary Issues in Compounding'', Amsterdam, Benjamins.

External links