Composition

2. Сomposition is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joining two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compound word depends on the following factors:

- the unity of stress,

- spelling,

- semantic unity,

- unity of morphological and syntactical functioning.

These are characteristics of compounds in all languages. For English some of these factors are not reliable. As a rule, English compounds have one uniting stress on the first component: hat-cover, best-seller. We can also have a double stress in English compouns, with the main stress on the first component and with a secondary stress on the second component: blood-vessel. The main stress can also be on the second component: snow-white, sky-blue. Besides, the stress may be phonological and help to differentiate the meaning of compounds: overwork – overwork, bookcase – bookcase.

Spelling in English compounds is not reliable as well. English compounds can have different spelling even in the same text: war-ship can be spelt through a hyphen, with a break or solidly.

The semantic unity of English compounds may be different. There are compounds in which the meaning of the whole is not a sum of meanings of its components: ghostwrite, skinhead, braindrain. There are componds the meaning of which is deduced from the meaning of the components: to blood-transfuse, airbus, astrodynamics.

English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical functioning. They are used in a a sentence as one part of it and only one component changes grammatically: These girls are chatter-boxes. The compound chatter-boxes is a predicative here and only the second component changes grammatically.

There are two characteristic features of English compounds:

- both components in an English compound are free stems. They can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of theit own. The sound pattern will be the same except for the stresses: green-house – теплица and green house – дом, выкрашенный в зеленый цвет;

- English compouns have mostly a two-stem pattern: railroad, homework.

Compounds in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by means of:

-reduplication: too-too – sentimental, toy-boy – gigolo, shock-frock – bare-bosomed cocktail dress;

-conversion from word-groups: to micky-mouse, can-do, make-up;

-back formation from compound nouns or word-groups: to baby-sit from baby-sitter, to fingerprint from finger-printing;

-analogy: lie-in on the analogy with sit-in, brawn-drain on the analogy with brain-drain;

contrast: brain-gain in contrast to brain-drain.

There are different classifications of English compounds:

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:

- nouns: baby-moon, globe-trotter;

- adjectives: free-for-all, power-happy;

- verbs: to henpeck, to honeymoon;

- adverbs: downdeep, headfirst;

- prepositions: into, within;

- numerals: fifty-five.

2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are subdivided into:

- neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morphemes: ball-point, to window-shop;

- morphological where components are joined by a linking element: astrospace, handicraft, sportsman;

- syntactical where the components are joined by means of stems: here-and-now, free-for-all, do-or-die.

3.According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

-compound words which consist of two stems: job-hunt, train-sick, tip-top;

- compound-affixed words, where besides the stems we have affixes: ear-minded, autotimer;

-compound words consisting of three or more stems: singer-songwriter, eggshell-thin;

-compound-shortened words: V-day, intervision.

4.According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into:

- subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic centre and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate. These subordinative relations can be different. For example, they can be comparative: honey-sweet, goldfish; time relations: summer-house, spring-fresh; sex-relations: she-dog, he-goat, Tom-cat etc.

-coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent: no-no, Anglo-Saxon, secretary-stenographer etc.

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into compounds with direct order: killjoy and compounds with indirect order: nuclear-free, rope-ripe etc.

6. According to the meaning of the whole compound we can point out idiomatic and non-idiomatic compounds. Compounds may be very different in meaning from the corresponding free phrase. Such compounds are calles idiomatic: a blackboard – a black board, a tall boy – a tallboy, a blue bell – a bluebell. Compounds which are not different in their meaning from corresponding free phrases are called non-idiomatic: swimming-pool, speedometer, airmail etc.

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