An introduction to English compounds Prof. María Emma Ramos

English compounds are “collocations that are in such frequent use that they have come to be thought of as established words of the language” (Kingdon 1958, 146)

Compounds as two-word units Words undergo certain processes since they appear in the language as individual units until they reach the state of monolithicity. Monolithicity: the last stage in a process which consists in the up-grading of units which are first paired into syntactic groups, then become collocations, later composite lexemes and compounds and may finally end up developing in the direction of monolithicity, i.e. the unit becomes one word. (Zenobi 1992, 35)

Examples:   deaf and ‘blind: syntactic group – double stressed   New ‘World: collocation (the two items start losing individuality: a world that is new plus a newly acquired meaning)– double stressed  ‘paper money: composite lexemes/compound – single stressed  ‘cupboard: monolithicity (new lexical item)– single stressed

 Understanding this process does not always help us to work out if a two-word unit is single or double-stressed.  “The stressing of English-type compounds presents the foreign student of the language with one of his major problems, the difficulty being to know how many stresses the compound takes”. (Kingdon 1958, 146)

DOUBLE-STRESSED COMPOUNDS  Material/ingredient + noun  Apple ‘pie  Brick ‘wall (intentionally created – ‘raindrop, unintentionally created)  Exceptions: Juice: ‘orange juice Cake: ‘chocolate cake Bread: ‘brown bread Water: ‘mineral water Paper: ‘carbon paper ‘Cornflakes Milk: ‘chocolate milk

 Place/time + noun  Shop ‘window  Morning ‘paper (Exceptions → street/gate : ‘Oxford Street - ‘South Gate)  Specific reference + noun  kitchen ‘sink  Organization + noun A  cademy A‘ward  Value + noun  pound ‘note -  dollar ‘bill  Noun in the genitive + noun  teacher’s ‘pet

 Verb –ing + noun  rolling ‘stone (= a stone THAT rolls)  running ‘water (= water THAT runs)  Adjective + -ed or -ing:  big- ‘boned,  broad- ‘chested,  cold- ‘hearted,  easy- ‘going,  good- ‘natured,  old- ‘fashioned.  Also: SELF + -ing:  self ‘supporting  Noun + -ed/participle:  middle ‘aged -  self ‘centered

 N1 + N2 (both referents)  baby ‘boy -  twin ‘sister  Adjective + noun  direct ‘object -  compact ‘disk  Noun + adjective  user ‘friendly -  crystal ‘clear  Adjective + Adjective  light ‘blue  Latin A‘merican

SINGLE-STRESSED COMPOUNDS  Noun (DO) + noun (agent) ‘record player – ‘lie detector  Noun (type of-no specific reference) + noun ‘family name – ‘crime rate – ‘savings account  Material + noun (unintentionally created) ‘breadcrumb – ‘raindrop

 -ing + noun: ‘walking stick (a stick FOR walking) ‘shopping list (a list FOR shopping)  Noun (DO) + -ing: ‘time-consuming – ‘language teaching  Verb + Noun: ‘talk show  Noun + Verb: ‘firefly ‘sunshine

 Noun + participle (N is usually the subject of P): ‘action-packed – ‘terror-stricken – ‘pear-shaped – ‘type-written  Abbreviation + noun: ‘A-level – ‘U-turn – ‘V-neck

On a final note, Read your notes for a few less productive rules and for the many exceptions to the rules.

John Wells himself wrote on his blog: “The stressing of compound nouns is a notorious difficulty for EFL. Although the basic rule is clear (the main stress goes on the first element of a compound), there are not only several well- established classes of exceptions (e.g. if the first element names a place, time, material, or ingredient), but there is also a long tail of cases where all one can say is that there is no firmly established pattern.(…)

I quite often get s from NNS EFL teachers asking me for the stress pattern of this or that compound not listed in dictionaries. I may supply an answer, but I would be less than honest if I claimed to be always entirely certain whether it was the correct answer.”