english compound nouns in a contrastive analysis with the vietnamese equivalents and some implications for teaching and learning vocabulary in the textbook english for the hotel and tourist industry

1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
 




DƯƠNG THỊ NGỌC ANH


ENGLISH COMPOUND NOUNS IN A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
WITH THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
AND SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
VOCABULARY IN THE TEXTBOOK “ENGLISH FOR THE HOTEL AND
TOURIST INDUSTRY”
(Danh từ ghép tiếng Anh trong sự so sánh đối chiếu với tiếng Việt và một số gợi ý
trong việc dạy và học từ vựng trong giáo trình “English for the Hotel and Tourist
Industry”)

M.A Minor Thesis


Field:English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15

HANOI – 2009

1

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
 




DƯƠNG THỊ NGỌC ANH


ENGLISH COMPOUND NOUNS IN A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
WITH THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
AND SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
VOCABULARY IN THE TEXTBOOK “ENGLISH FOR THE HOTEL AND
TOURIST INDUSTRY”
(Danh từ ghép tiếng Anh trong sự so sánh đối chiếu với tiếng Việt
và một số gợi ý trong việc dạy và học từ vựng trong giáo trình “English for the
Hotel and Tourist Industry”)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field:English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Trần Hữu Mạnh





HANOI – 2009
[iv]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi
PART 1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Rationale 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study 2
1.3. Scope of the study 2
1.4. Methods of the study 3
1.5. Design of the study 3
PART 2. DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE ON ENGLISH WORDS AND WORD
FORMATION PROCESSES 5
1.1. Notion of words and word structures 5
1.2. Word formation 7
1.2.1. Affixation 8
1.2.2. Conversion 8
1.2.3. Shortening 8

1.3. Compounding 9
1.3.1. Definition 9
1.3.2. Structure of compound words 9
1.3.3. Meaning of compound words 10
CHAPTER 2. AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH COMPOUND NOUNS 11
2.1. An introduction to English compound nouns 11
2.2. Structure of compound nouns 12
2.3. The distinction between a compound noun and a noun phrase 12
2.4. General characteristics of compound nouns 14
2.4.1 Syntactic features 14
2.4.2 Semantic features 15
2.5. Classification of compound nouns 16
2.5.1. According to the meaning 16
2.5.2. According to componential relationship 17
2.5.3. According to the relation of the compound noun as a whole to its constituent. 17
2.6. Compound nouns and their pragmatic properties 18
2.7. Types of English compound nouns 18
2.7.1. Noun-centred compound nouns 19
[v]
2.7.2. Verb-centred compound nouns 21
CHAPTER 3. VIETNAMESE COMPOUND NOUNS IN A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
WITH ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS 23
3.1. An overview of Vietnamese compound nouns 23
3.1.1. General characteristics 23
3.1.2. Classification 24
3.2. Comparison between English and Vietnamese compound nouns 26
3.2.1. Similarities 26
3.2.2. Differences 27
3.2.3. Summaries 29
CHAPTER 4. IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY

IN THE TEXTBOOK “ENGLISH FOR THE HOTEL AND TOURIST INDUSTRY” 30
4.1. Introduction 30
4.2. An analysis on the main types of compound nouns in the textbook: “English for the
hotel and tourist industry” 30
4.2.1. An introduction to the textbook: “English for the hotel and tourist industry” 30
4.2.2. The main types of English compound nouns in the textbook 31
4.3. The research 32
4.3.1. Aims of the research 32
4.3.2. Subjects 32
4.3.3. Data collection instruments 33
4.3.4. Findings and discussion 33
4.4. Implications for teaching and learning vocabulary in the textbook: “English for the
hotel and tourist industry” 36
PART 3. CONCLUSION 39
3.1. Recapitulation 39
3.2. Suggestions for further study 40
REFERENCES 41
APPENDIX I I
APPENDIX II III
[vi]
LIST OF ABBREVIATION


Adj: Adjective
ESP: English for Specific Purpose
-ing: present participle affix
N: Noun
Pre: Preposition
V: Verb

[1]
PART 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
In recent years, teaching English has been paid considerable attention by many linguistic
scholars and teachers. Various communicative approaches have been applied with the hope
to teach learners to use English as the native speakers. However, the process of learning
English involves not only practicing the four skills needed in communication as speaking,
listening, reading and writing but also mastering other aspects such as grammar structures,
sounds and vocabulary. And enriching one’s vocabulary of a language is very important as
Wilkins (1972:111) comments: "Without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without
vocabulary nothing can be conveyed." Besides, possessing a rich source of vocabulary in
English will enable learners to speak and to write concisely. Unfortunately, dealing with
new English words is one of the most difficulties for any language learners as words in
English are numerous and continuously developing together with the changes of the
society.
New English words are formed in various ways such as borrowing, affixation, conversion,
composition, shortening, etc. Among which, compounding or composition is a rich source
of English neologisms. According to an analysis of the Longman Register of new words
Vol. 1, it accounts for 39.8 % of new words (Ayto, in Anderman 1996:65) while a similar
analysis of the Macquarie Dictionary of new words shows that it can account for 54.5%
(Butler, in Ayato in Anderman 1996:66). Given, therefore, that compounding is highly
productive process of word formation. Moreover, compounding is an effective tool to
express ideas concisely. However, compound words have specific and complicated
features that many learners of English find it not easy to use. Furthermore, there is a fact
that nominal compounds appear most in our daily life, especially in professional texts as in
business, medicine, science and technology as well as other areas of English for Specific
Purposes (ESP). Thus, students of ESP have a greater difficulty when coping with them.
Because of its importance and complication, study on compound nouns interests so many
linguists and researchers. There have been a number of studies on compound nouns
conducted by many researchers. In our university some have been carried out at under-

[2]
graduate level but none of the studies have done at post-graduate level. None of them have
given the suggestions for dealing with compound nouns in a professional text, either.
For those reasons, as a learner as well as a teacher of English, I would like to do a research
on this matter with the hope that I would understand properly the features of English
compound nouns and find out an appropriate way to teach them to my students of ESP.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
The major aims of this study are:
- To make a comparison of compound nouns in English and Vietnamese. To achieve this
aim, the study will examine the characteristics of compound nouns in terms of syntactic
and semantic features as well as their classifications and types in English and Vietnamese.
From these characteristics, the author will compare English compound nouns and the
Vietnamese equivalents.
- To give the suggestions for teaching vocabulary in ESP textbooks in general and the
textbook “English for the hotel and tourist industry” in particular. The study will examine
the main types of compound nouns used in the textbook, the descriptions of students in
term of English level, learning conditions and how they understand and use compound
nouns in this textbook as well as some common errors they often make. Then the
suggestions for teaching and learning English compound nouns will be given based on the
findings.
Thus, the following research questions are raised for guided research.
1. What are the characteristics of English and Vietnamese compound nouns?
2. What are the differences and similarities of compound nouns in English and
Vietnamese in term of their syntactic, semantic features and their classifications?
3. What are the suggestions for teaching and learning vocabulary in the textbook
“English for the hotel and tourist industry”?
1.3. Scope of the study
[3]
Compounding is a complicated subject matter that received a lot of linguists’ attentions.
They have proposed a number of researches on various interesting aspects, mostly on

semantic interpretation of nominal compounds. Within a minor thesis, I only focus on the
similarities and differences between compound nouns in English and Vietnamese in terms
of semantic, syntactic features and their classifications which provide teachers of English
an adequate understanding on the issue so that they will have an appropriate teaching
method to compound nouns.
1.4. Methods of the study
This study uses the combination of some different methods:
The strategic method chosen is the descriptive which seeks to describe and explain the
phenomenon. Contrastive Analysis is also used in this research.
Together with these methods, researcher also uses the quantitative procedures that based
on facts and features to examine common compound nouns used in the ESP textbook and
the reality of teaching and learning compound nouns in her university. Data is collected by
conducting a test on students’ using and understanding of compound nouns.
Supporting techniques such as reference to the publication, consultation with the
supervisor, discussion with colleagues, and personal observations are also of significant
contribution to the study.
1.5. Design of the study
The study is divided into three main parts:
Part 1 entitled “Introduction”, in which the rationale, aims, scope of the study, methods
and design of the study are all introduced.
Part 2 is the “Development”. This part is the focus of the study which is divided into 4
chapters as following:
Chapter 1: “Theoretical background” provides some important concepts on
lexicology relevant to the subject matter which set the theoretical background for the study
such as: words and words structures, word formation processes.
[4]
Chapter 2: “The investigation into English compound nouns” focuses on all the
characteristics of English compound nouns.
Chapter 3: “Vietnamese compound nouns in a contrastive analysis with English
equivalents” investigates the Vietnamese compound nouns and points out the similarities

and differences between English and Vietnamese compound nouns.
Chapter 4 entitled “Implications for teaching and learning vocabulary in the
textbook “English for the hotel and tourist industry” consists of following sections:
- An analysis on the common types of compound nouns in the textbook.
- The research
- Pedagogical implications for teaching vocabulary in the textbook: “English for the
hotel and tourist industry”.
Part 3 is the conclusion. This part briefly presents review of the major findings,
conclusions remarked and suggestions for further study.
[5]
PART 2. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE ON ENGLISH
WORDS AND WORD FORMATION PROCESSES
1.1. Notion of words and word structures
Word is a fundamental unit of language. The term “word” seems to be a simple concept
but in fact it is very difficult to define. For decades, many linguists have attempted to
propose different definitions of word in different approaches. Some considered it on the
semantic point of view; others looked at it from the morphology or phonology sides.
However, none of the definitions appear to be totally satisfied in all aspects. Famous
scholars as Palmer (1976), Arnold (1986), Bauer (1983), Plag (2003) etc. have discussed
thoroughly about this issue. In this section, I would like to mention some of them.
When talking about the notion of word, most of us may think of the word as a unit in the
writing system, namely, orthographic word, then we may say that a word is an
uninterrupted string of letters which is marked by blank spaces or punctuation. Hence, it is
clear that the sentence “English is an interesting language” consists of five words.
However, in some cases, it is impossible to apply this rule to count the number of words in
a sentence. For example, it is not easy to decide how many words there are in the sentence
“Benjamin’s girlfriend lives in a high-rise apartment building” (Plag, 2003). ‘Benjamin’s
may be one or two words. It depends on our consideration for apostrophes to be a
punctuation mark or not. Besides, girlfriend can be attested with spellings as <girlfriend>

or <girl friend>. Then it can be one word or two depending on the writer. The same cases
are happened in ‘high-rise’ and ‘apartment building’. Thus, such cases are quite annoying
and this definition is not entirely reliable.
Equally, in terms of sound structure (i.e. phonologically), a word is said to be a unit of
speech surrounded by pause. However, in natural speech, people sometimes do not make
pause before or after each word. Let’s think about assimilation and linking rules in
English, for example. And speakers can make pauses not only between words but also
[6]
between syllables for emphasis. Besides, many functional words such as the, a, to, of might
not be sometimes spoken in natural speech.
Referring to semantic point of view, a word is one that expresses a unified semantic
concept. Although it may be true for most of words, in some cases it is violated. Not every
unified concept is denoted by one word and vice versa. For instance, the phrase ‘the
woman who lives next door’ refers to a person and therefore is a unified concept and it is
expressed by more than one word.
Thus, however the term ‘word’ is defined there are some items in the language which are
called words but they are not covered by the definition. And despite the difficulties in
defining what ‘a word’ is most of us still have a feeling of what is or is not a word.
Perhaps, the definition given by Antrushina may consider to be entirely reliable as it
combines all the features of a word.
“The word is a speech unit used for the purposes of human communication, materially
representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible to grammatical
employment and characterised by formal and semantic unity”. (Antrushina et al 1985:10)
According to him, a word possesses three structural aspects: external structures i.e. its
morphological structure, internal structure or its meaning, and unity. The word contains
both external (or formal) unity and semantic unity. By formal unity he means the word is
an indivisible unit and no intervening material can be inserted into it. By semantic unity he
means the word conveys only one concept no matter how many component morphemes it
may have. Take the word ‘blackbird’ as an example, it is characterised by formal unity. It
possesses a single grammatical framing: blackbird/s. We can only put affixes before or

after it but cannot insert anything inside. It is different from the word-group consists of
identical constituents ‘black bird’ in which each constituent black and bird can acquire
grammatical forms of its own: The blackest birds. And other words can be inserted in
between the constituents as in ‘a black night bird’. Besides, the word ‘blackbird’ has only
one meaning or one concept: a type of bird. Thus, it possesses a semantic unity whereas in
the word-group ‘black bird’, each component conveys a separate concept: bird – a kind of
living creature; black-a colour. Thus, the definition from him seems to be reliable in all
aspects.
[7]
Regarding the structure of a word, grammarians divide it into smaller units called
‘morphemes’. They are considered as smallest meaningful constituents of word.
Morphemes are subdivided into roots and affixes. While a root morpheme is the basic
form, and it is often called a free morpheme, an affix or a bound morpheme is the one that
attached to the root. There are two kinds of affixes; prefixes are the ones that attached
before the root (as re-do, un-happy); suffixes are morphemes that are put after the root as –
er and -dom in teach-er and free-dom.
Besides, grammarians also try to classify words into subclasses. According to Quirk et. al.
(1972), there are two groups of words: ‘open-class items’ consisting of nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs and ‘close-system items’ with pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions, articles, demonstratives, and interjections. These word classes are also
named ‘parts of speech’.
1.2. Word formation
As word is a speech unit used for the purpose of communication, it is a social
phenomenon. And lexicon is one of the most dynamic components of the language system.
It reflects the changes in the social conditions of a society. It develops along with changes
and development of the society. Everyday new words are created to express new ideas,
new concepts, and new desires. New words or new meanings of old words appear while
others are not used any more. New words may be made by borrowing from another
language and assimilating to that language. Another way to make a new word is from the
resource of the language and we often call this word-formation. Together with borrowing,

processes of word formation help to enlarge and enrich the vocabulary of the particular
language. However, the field of word-formation is considered to be one of the most
controversial linguistic areas.
Each formation process produces a specific type of words. Modern English has many types
of words which are resulted from word formation processes such as affixation, conversion,
compounding, shortening, sound-imitation, reduplication, and back-formation. Among
which affixation, conversion and compounding represent the most productive ways of
modern English word-building which are introduced briefly in the following subsections.
[8]
1.2.1. Affixation
A very common way to form words is affixation. Affixation means that a bound morpheme
is attached to a free morpheme, or stem to create a new word. There are three places where
the bound morpheme can go: before, after, or in the middle of the stem. The affixes that go
before the root are called prefixes. The ones that go after the root are referred to as
suffixes. And the affixes that go in the middle are labeled infixes. Examples for pre- and
suffixes are plentiful in English as in unhappy, unlock, and doubtful, lockable, or lovely
for pre- and suffixes respectively, whereas, infixes appear rarely in English.
1.2.2. Conversion
Conversion, according to (Quirk et. al 1995:1520) is the process of assigning the base to a
different word class with no change of form to make a new word. For example, the noun
hand in ‘She has small beautiful hands’ is also a verb as in ‘Hand me your paper on time’.
Conversion is a very particular process of making new words in English. Moreover, it is a
highly productive and convenient way. Most cases of conversion involve three major word
classes: nouns, verbs and adjectives. And the two categories of words affected most by
conversion are nouns and verbs. Verbs made from nouns are plentiful (e.g. to hand, to
back, to eye, to face etc.). Nouns are also frequently derived from verbs as in do, make,
find, catch etc.
1.2.3. Shortening
Shortening is a comparatively new way of word building and it is now becoming popular
with a high degree of productivity, especially in American English. One way of shortening

is to make a new word from a syllable of the original word in which a part of the stem is
retained. It is called clipping. New word may retain the beginning stem (ad from
advertisement), the end as in phone (from telephone), or the middle (flu from influenza).
Another way is coining a new word from the initial letters of a word group (e.g. GMT is
stand for Greenwich Mean Time). This process is often called initial shortenings or
initialism. There are two man types, abbreviations and acronyms. Abbreviations are
pronounced as sequence of letters as in TV, CIA, GPRS, SMS. Meanwhile, acronyms are
[9]
pronounced like ordinary words, with the letters having their characteristic phonological
value (e.g. NATO, AID, UNESCO).
Apart form three major processes of word formation above, there are some other minors
processes which help to make English vocabulary abundant such as back formation,
blending, sound imitation, reduplication which are not discussed in this minor thesis.
1.3. Compounding
1.3.1. Definition
Together with affixation and conversion, compounding is one of the three most productive
types of modern English word building. Compounding is considered to be universal as it
occurs in many other languages such as Thai, German and Vietnamese as well. It possesses
the most typical and specific characteristics of word structures. Therefore, it has been
received a lot of concern from linguistic scholars such as Arnold (1986), Bloomfield
(1933), Bauer (1998) etc. They have proposed a number of different definitions on
compounding. In this study the definition of Quirk et al. (1985) is considered to be of
appropriate, sufficient and easy one to understand: “Compound is a lexical unit consisting
of more than one base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single
word” (1985:1567).
1.3.2. Structure of compound words
The structure of compound words is characterized by the so-called ‘modifier-head’
structure. Heads of compounds are typically the rightmost constituents and are modified by
the other members of compound. A compound, as a whole, usually possesses most of
semantic and syntactic features of their head. In blackbird, for example, the head is bird

which is a noun modified by black. So it is a compound noun and functions as a single
noun in grammatical structure.
As most compound words are made up of two stems, the modifier and the head,
compounds are said to be of binary structure. However, there are some cases where the
compound comprises of more than two elements as in mother-of- pearl, salt-and- pepper.
Orthographically, compounds can be written in three different ways: the ‘solid’ or ‘closed’
form such as firefly, secondhand, redhead, keyboard, makeup; the hyphenated form such
[10]
as daughter-in-law, master-at-arms, over-the-counter; and the ‘open’ or spaced form
consisting of newer combinations of usually longer words as distance learning, player
piano, etc. The use of compounding is an evolving process. When expressions become
more popular or adopt special meanings, they will change from two or more separate or
hyphenated words to single words. e.g. audio visual – audio-visual – audiovisual, wild life
- wild-life – wildlife.
1.3.3. Meaning of compound words
The meaning of compounds is one of the central focuses of linguists’ interest. That is the
concern about correlation of the separate meanings of the constituents and the actual
meaning of the whole compound. Clearly, there exist two types of meanings: idiomatic and
non-idiomatic.
In some compound words, the meaning can be understood as the sum of their constituent
meanings, e.g. classroom (a room for learning), working- man (a man who is working).
This kind of compounds is known as non-idiomatic compounds.
In some other cases, the meaning of the word cannot be deduced from the sum of its
components as they may sometimes change their meaning. For instance, football is not a
ball but a game; white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing. Lady-killer kills
no one but is merely a man who fascinates women. However, the meanings of their
constituents are still considered to be transparent; i.e. the meaning of the whole can still be
seen through its members. Then once knowing the meaning of the constituents we can
guess the meaning of the whole.
However, for such compounds as: ladybird, tallboy, bluebottle, etc. the key to meaning

seems to have been irretrievably lost. Ladybird is not a bird but an insect; tallboy is a piece
of furniture not a person. So it’s impossible to define the meaning of the whole from its
constituents. Such compounds as football, lady-killer, or ladybird, tallboy are said to have
idiomatic meanings.
There are different ways of classifying compounds basing on different criteria. And most
of us are familiar with the classification based on the parts of speech categories of the
head. Thus, we have compound nouns, compound adjectives, compound verbs if the head
is a noun, an adjective, a verb respectively.
[11]
CHAPTER 2. AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH
COMPOUND NOUNS
2.1. An introduction to English compound nouns
Compound constructions are widely used and common in everyday speech in many
languages. In addition to this, they are widespread in written texts, especially professional
texts. And compound nouns, which are also known as nominal compounds, are considered
to be the largest in number and variety among others such as compound adjectives and
compound verbs.
Compound nouns are usually compounds which have nouns as heads and involve nouns,
verbs or adjectives, prepositions as modifiers. However, there are some rare cases where
the noun head does not exist. The table below will illustrate how other word classes
combine to make a compound noun:
Noun + Noun toothpaste
Adjective + Noun monthly ticket
Verb + Noun swimming pool
Preposition + Noun underground
Noun + Verb haircut
Noun + Preposition hanger on
Adjective + Verb dry- cleaning
Preposition + Verb output
A compound noun usually consists of two components and most of them include a noun

modified by adjectives or attributive nouns. However, there exist some noun compounds
with more than two bases which can be constructed recursively by combining two bases at
a time. In this case, a compound noun is itself a noun and can be subject to another
compound. For instance, we have finance committee, finance committee secretary, finance
committee secretary election and so on.
[12]
2.2. Structure of compound nouns
Compounds are not homogeneous in structure. In fact, its structure varies greatly. It is very
common that two single stems can invent a compound noun: blackbird, shop-window,
sunflower.
Besides, derived or derivational compounds are also creative as in absent-mindedness,
honeymooner, teenager, etc.
Compound nouns can have shortened stem in structure called ‘contracted compound’. For
instance: TV-set, Xmas (Christmas), V-day (Victory day), T-shirt, etc.
Sometimes, linking vowels or consonants can form a compound noun. This type is called
morphological compounds. For example, Craftsmanship, Sino-Vietnamese, handiwork,
Anglo-Saxon, spokesman, etc.
Segments of speech created by writers on their own combination also become compound
nouns as they are frequently used. E.g. Jack-of-all-trade, mother-in-law.
2.3. The distinction between a compound noun and a noun phrase
One of the most problems to deal with compounding is the criteria for distinguishing
between a compound and a phrase. The problem arises most when it is a compound noun
rather than a compound verb or a compound adjective. With adjective, for example, tax-
exempt is clearly a compound, there is no contrasting syntactic construction where an
adjective has a noun (tax) as modifier. Similarly, it is unproblematic to distinct between the
compound verb ‘baby-sit’ and a construction ‘baby sit’. In general, there are three criteria
that we can base on to distinguish a compound noun with a noun phrase: phonological,
syntactic, and semantic. These criteria are also used to distinguish the other types of
compounds and a phrase in general.
Phonologically, most (not all) compound nouns can be identified as having a main stress

on the first element meanwhile a phrase often has stress on the last. Consider the following
examples:
Compound nouns Noun phrases
`blackboard a black `board
[13]
`green house a green `house
Syntactically, Jackson (2000) considers the specific syntactic features to make a compound
noun different from a noun phrase, namely, word order, interruptibility, modification and
inflectibility. By word order, he refers to the position of the different elements of a
compound in relation to one another. Some compounds have ungrammatical or unusual
word order in English. For example, dry-cleaning, output, haircut etc.
Compound nouns have non-interruptible characteristic, i.e. their constituents are not
interrupted by extraneous elements. This again confirms the assumption that a compound
is indeed a single lexical unit. For example, the compound blackbird cannot be inserted
extra elements as in the black night bird which is a noun phrase.
By modifications he means the use of other words to modify the meaning of a compound.
As a compound is a single unit, it can only be modified by other words as a whole but
cannot be modified independently each of its constituents.
Inflectibility is the use of inflections to present the grammatical function of compound. To
make the compound noun bottle-neck plural, for example, its constituents cannot be
inflected as bottles-necks. Instead, bottle-necks must be used. Similarly, we have the other
compound nouns in plural as ash-trays, dishwashers, water paper baskets.
Semantically, most compounds tend to acquire special meanings like idiom. And some
authors take this special characteristic as their defining feature: “If the meaning of the
whole cannot be deduced from the meaning of the element separately, then we have a
compound” (Jesperson 1942:137). Each compound conveys only one concept even though
it may consist of more than two stems. Take the word tallboy as an example; it does not
denote a person, but a piece of furniture, a chest of drawers supported by a low stand.
Tallboy expresses only one concept whereas a tall boy, a noun phrase, conveys two
concepts: a young male person and big in size.

Although all the criteria above seem to be convincing, it is insufficient to base on a
criterion alone, it is advisable to combine all three criteria to distinguish a compound noun
from a noun phrase.
[14]
2.4. General characteristics of compound nouns
2.4.1 Syntactic features
In general, like the simple nouns, compound nouns have two main syntactic properties,
namely functional potential, inflection.
Functional potential: a noun compound can function as head in the structures of noun
phrases, notably subject, object or predicative complement in clause structure. As head of
noun phrase, it may take a different range of dependents from other parts of speech. Most
distinctively, they take determiners like the, which, every, etc. and adjectives as pre-head
modifiers. For example, the new tallboy which is put in the bedroom, every woman doctor,
her poor father-in-law.
Noun compounds also enter into inflectional contrasts of number (singular vs. plural) and
case (plain vs. genitive). Compound nouns form the plural in different ways. In fact, they
vary greatly in their forms. The inflection for plural may be put in the first, the last
element, or both elements. Most dictionaries will give variant spellings of compound
plurals and they will help us to discover which spelling is acceptable for some compounds.
However, there are also some rules for the regular as the followings.
Nowadays, it is considered that hyphenated and open compounds are regularly made plural
by the addition of the plural inflection to the element that is subject to the change in
number. In other words, the most significant word will take the plural form. The significant
word may be at the beginning, middle, or end of the term. Consider the followings for
example, fathers-in-law, sergeants-in-arms, doctors of philosophy, coats – of – mail,
attorneys at law, bills of fare, chiefs of staff, notaries public, higher-ups, also-rans, go-
betweens.
Some compounds, however, can occur with the plural either in the first or the last element.
E.g. attorney generals or attorneys general, courts-martial or court-martials, mothers-in-
law or mother-in-laws.

Appositional compound nouns, whose first constituent includes man or woman, will
pluralize both the first and the last element as in the following compounds, for instance,
gentlemen farmers, menservants, women doctors.
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The possessive of a hyphenated compound is created by attaching an apostrophe -s to the
end of the compound itself: my daughter-in-law's car, a friend of mine's car.
To create the possessive of pluralized of compounded forms, most writers avoid the
apostrophe -s form and use an "of" phrase (the "post genitive") instead: the meeting of the
daughters-in-law, the schedule of half-moons. Otherwise, the possessive form becomes
downright weird: the daughters-in-law's meeting, friends of mine's cars.
In addition to the functional potential and inflection characteristics, compound nouns share
syntactic structure relation with sentences in using the same lexical categories of nouns,
verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The head and modifier of compounds are involved in
complex grammatical function of subject, verb, object, complement, and adverbial like in
clauses and sentences. Quirk et al. (1972, 1985) points out five types of the relationship
between their constituents which bear to each other when the meaning of the compound is
expressed as a sentence:
(1) subject and verb: sunrise (the sun rises)
(2) verb and object: blood test (X tests blood)
(3) verb and adverbial: swimming pool (X swim in the pool)
(4) subject and object: motorcycle
(5) subject and complement: girlfriend (the friend is a girl)
2.4.2 Semantic features
Semantically, constituents of a compound noun are often meaningful and independent.
And the meaning of a compound noun as a whole can be either the sum of its constituents
or not.
In many cases, the meaning compound noun is a specialization of the meaning of its head.
The modifier limits the head. It is used in an attributive or appositional manner. And the
compound noun as a whole denotes person, thing or some kinds of action characterized by
the modifier. For example, blackboard is a kind of board; office manager is the manager of

an office.
However, there are many cases where the meaning of the compound noun is a
generalization instead of specialization. It is in the case of coordinative and copulative
compound nouns which will be discussed later.
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Referring to the meanings of compounds, many linguistic scholars pay attention to the
meaning relations between the compound and its head. There are two kinds of meaning
relations existed in compound nouns, namely hyponymy and non-hyponymy. A high
proportion of English compound nouns are hyponymic; i.e. the compound noun as a whole
is a hyponym of the grammatical head (Huddleson et al: 2002). In compound noun the
relation of hyponym is reflected in the morphologically structure. The meaning of the head
noun is fully contained in the meaning of the compound. In wall-flower, for example, the
head flower denotes a particular kind of flower. Bulldog, consists of bull as modifier and
dog as head and denotes a particular kind of dog.
When the meaning is not the hyponym of the head, we call this compound ‘exocentric
compound’. The semantic head, in this case, is not explicitly express within the compound.
And the compound is the hyponym of unexpressed semantic head. E.g. redhead is not a
kind of head, but it is a person with red hair. A lion heart is not a kind of heart but it is a
person with a heart like a lion (brave, courage). This type of compound nouns is said to be
metaphorical or synecdoche (Bauer: 1983).
There is also a case when compound noun is a hyponym of both elements. That is the case
of appositional compound (also known as dvandva). Maidservant, for example, is a
hyponym of both maid and servant. A poet-translator is both a poet and a translator.
By contrast, in copulative compound, it is not easy to decide which element is the head and
the compound is hyponym of neither elements. The elements name separate entities which
combine to form the entity denoted by the compound. In this case the compound noun
meaning is a generalization, not a specialization as the above.
2.5. Classification of compound nouns
Linguists working in the field are interested first and foremost in how compounding being
classified, however, classification of English compounding in general and compound

nouns in particular is in the state of flux. They base on different criteria to classify
compounds. This study introduces three common ways of classify compound nouns as
below.
2.5.1. According to the meaning
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A compound noun can be idiomatic or non-idiomatic according to its meaning. Meaning of
idiomatic compound is hardly deduced from the constituents’ meaning. For example,
blackbird, minute steak, butter-finger, etc.
Meanwhile, non-idiomatic compound nouns are compound nouns of which meaning can
be deduced from the constituents, i.e. the meaning is the sum of its part and it can be
guessed even they are out of context. E.g. doorkeeper, working man, dining table.
2.5.2. According to componential relationship.
In terms of componential relationship, compound nouns can be coordinative or
subordinative. Coordinative compound nouns are compounds whose constituents are both
semantically and structurally independent. The constituents are often of the same part of
speech or of the same semantic group.
There are three subtypes of coordinative: additive which denotes a person or an object as
two things at the same time such as actor-manager, secretary-typist. Reduplicative
compounds created by repetition of the same stem: bye bye, hush-hush. Ablaut and rhythm
compound are the third subtypes. E.g. zigzag, chitchat, walkie-talkie.
On the other hand, subordinative compounds are those that characterized by the
domination of one component over the other semantically or structurally. The second
component, which is also called the determenatum, is the structural center and the
dominant part of the word. The first component is called the determinant which modifies
the second. Subordinative compound nouns account for a great part of compounds in
modern English. In subordinative compound nouns, the semantic relations between the
components can be interpreted differently. E.g:
- honey-bee, oil well (2 produces/yields 1)
- air-brake, hydrogen bomb (1 powers/operates 2)
- doorknob, table leg, piano keys (has 2)

- pine tree (2 is 1)
- sandwich-man (is like one)
2.5.3. According to the relation of the compound noun as a whole to its constituent
Based on the relations of compound as a whole to its member, there are two kinds of
compound nouns: endocentric and exocentric.
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In endocentric compounds, the semantic head is contained within the compound itself; a
blackboard is a type of board, for example, and a footstool is a type of stool.
Exocentric compounds (also called a bahuvrihi compound in the Sanskrit tradition) do not
have a head inside and their meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its
constituent parts. E.g. the English compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a
white thing. In these compounds, the word-class is determined lexically, disregarding the
class of the constituents.
2.6. Compound nouns and their pragmatic properties
Compound nouns have an important role in the language lexicon because of their ability
for creating new a class of nouns intended for naming entities with no pre-existing names.
Compounds are characterized by ‘packing a maximum amount of information into a
minimal amount of linguistic structure’. In everyday English especially in technology and
in other fields of science, compound nouns are used to designate new concepts, new
desires. In general, endocentric compound denote kinds of people and jobs (girlfriend),
things (writing paper) and actions (handshake) in which the referent is named by a head
noun and characterized by the modifier.
Besides, compound nouns, especially bahuvrihi compounds, are also used to express
speaker’s emotional tones or attitudes. Bahuvrihi designate possessive exocentric
formation in which a person, an animal or a thing is metonymically named after some
striking feature they possess, chiefly in their appearance. In this case, the bahuvrihi
compound nouns are almost invariable characterized by an ironically emotional tone. E.g
blockhead (a very stupid person), loudmouth (a person who talks too much and says
offensive or stupid thing), lazy bone (a lazy person).
When they denote kinds of people, they are generally derogatory. Sometimes they are used

as vocative; e.g. Hey, birdbrain!
2.7. Types of English compound nouns
Considering the types of English compound nouns, many linguistic scholars give different
types based on different criteria. Bauer (1983) pays attention to the part of speech of the
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constituents’ combination, meanwhile Quirk et. al (1972, 1985) classifies compound nouns
based on the underlying structure. In the latest publication, Huddleston et. al (2002) divide
compound nouns into two distinguish groups, namely noun-centred compound nouns and
verb-centred compound nouns in which he describes both the elements’ combination and
the semantic relation analyzing underlying structure. In each group of compounds, he
divides them into subtypes. In this study the author gives the priority to Huddleston’s view.
According to Huddleston et al (2002), a noun-centred compound noun (or verbless
compound noun as called by other linguists) is a compound in which the head is purely or
at least primarily a noun. For example, in girlfriend the head friend can only be a noun.
A compound, by contrast, is a verb-centred compound noun in that the head is the lexical
base of a verb or else formed from one by suffixation or conversion. For example, in bus-
driver, life-guard, take-away, driver are formed by suffixation, guard is form by
conversion and take is, of course, a verb. We will look at these types in turn in the
following sections.
2.7.1. Noun-centred compound nouns
These compounds have a noun as the final base. Usually, the first constituent is the
modifier and the second one is the head. However, there are some cases as in coordinative,
dvandva the two elements are equal. In noun-centred compound nouns, the first element
(the dependent) may be a noun, adjective, verb or some other categories. We will look at it
in turn in the following parts.
2.7.1.1. Noun + noun compound nouns
Examples of this type are: ashtray, bedtime, beehive, birdcage, life raft, motorcycle,
steamboat, bulldog, goldfish, handbag etc. Clearly, this type is not only the most
productive kind of compounding but also the most productive kind of word-formation.
This type is often used to denote a new concept. Their semantic relationships compound

nouns can vary greatly.
The vast majority of compound nouns in this class are endocentric. They have the meaning
which is systematically predictable from the meaning of the component bases. For
example, handbag is a kind of bag; goldfish is a kind of fish.
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However, there are also many compound nouns in this class which are exocentric such as:
ladybird, shoes-tree, network etc. We will leave them till the end of this section.
In addition, some noun-noun compounds make up coordinative and dvandva. For example,
secretary-treasurer, singer-songwriter, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The relations between two components of this type are subject and complement (as in
girlfriend) or subject and object (as in power plant).
2.7.1.2. Adjective + noun compounds
This type often causes ambiguous for the learners as it is similar to a noun phrase in its
form. However, this type possesses a quite high degree of semantic specialization and
lexicalization. The compound, therefore, differs significantly from a syntactic construction
consisting of an attributive adjective +head noun. As we have already seen blackbird is
different in meaning from black bird. Many other examples of this class are: blueprint,
madman, smalltalk, busybody,etc.
2.7.1.3. Verb + noun compounds
These compounds have the noun as head and the verbal element in dependent position. The
semantic relation between the two constituents is similar to clausal construction.
The head noun may stand in a subject relation to verb:
E.g. crybaby ~ the baby cries
hangman ~ the man hangs (people sentenced to death)
The head noun may match up with a clausal object
E.g. punch bag ~ X punches the bag
call girl ~ X calls the girl
The noun may also stand in an adverbial relation to verb. The relations involved instrument
(e.g. swearword, grindstone), location (e.g. bake house, dance hall) or time (e.g. payday)
With the compounds having the verbal element in –ing suffix (i.e. V-ing + Noun), they

denote a purposive meaning.
E.g. chewing gum ~ gum for chewing
frying pan ~ pan for frying