4.2 Compounding
Compounding (or composition) is the formation of new words by joining two or more bases. Words formed in this way are called compounds(合成词). So a compound is a 'lexical unit consisting of more than one base and functioning both grammatically and semantically as a single word'. (Quirk et al 1985) Silk-worm and honey-bee are compounds; so are tear gas and easy chair. These examples show that compounds can be written solid(连写形式) (silk-worm), hyphenated (连字符连接形式) (honey-bee) and open (分写形式) (tear gas and easy chair). The separation or lack of it in writing is a fair indication of how deeply the heat of fusion has penetrated(插入，深入), and of how much the individual component has kept of its own identity. Such being the case, what is the dividing line between compounds and free phrases?
1. Characteristics of Compounds
Compounds have noticeable characteristics which may in most cases differentiate themselves from noun phrases in the following four aspects.
1) Phonological Features
In compounds the word stress usually occurs on the first constituent whereas in noun phrases the second element is generally accented (重读) if there is only one stress. In cases where there are two stresses, the compound has the primary stress on the first element and the secondary stress, if any, on the second, whereas the opposite is true of free phrases, e.g.
Compound Free phrase
a 'fat head (傻瓜) a fat 'head(胖脑袋)
a 'hot house (温室) a hot 'house(热房子)
a 'dark horse (黑马) a dark 'horse(黑色马)
a 'green room (演员休息室) a green 'room(绿色的房间)
But these accentual pattern of compounds is not absolute. Sometimes, the primary stress may also fall on the second constituent as in 'ash-'blonde (灰金色) and 'bottle-'green 深绿色as well as in combining- form4 compounds, socio-lin'guistic, psycho-a'nalysis. Therefore, this is not always reliable.
2) Semantic Features
Compounds differ from free phrases in their semantic 'one-wordness', i. e. a single semantic unit even though they may be written open. Every compound should express a single idea just as one word. For instance, a green hand is an 'inexperienced person', not a hand that is green in color; red meat refers to beef or mutton rather than any meat that is red in color like lean pork(瘦猪肉); hot dog is by no means a dog that is hot, but a typical American sausage in between two pieces of bread. The meanings of such examples cannot be easily inferred from the two components of the compounds.
Nevertheless, a lot of compounds are transparent(容易理解的，有理据的), that is, the meaning can be obtained from the separate elements of compounds. Consider the following random examples: disaster-related (与灾祸相关的), flower pot, tax cut, washing machine, dumb show(哑剧), scarlet fever(猩红热) and many others. But the two elements are inseparable and the change of the element would result in the loss of the original identity.
3) Grammatical Features
The one-wordness of compounds can be seen in the way the expressions are handled morphologically. They tend to fill a single grammatical slot(语法空位) in a sentence, for example, that of a verb, a noun, or an adjective. Bad-mouth(说某人的坏话) used as a verb can take the third person singular -s and the past tense marker -ed, e. g. 'He bad-mouthed me. ' (Bolinger and Sears 1981) Compound nouns show their plural forms by taking inflectional -s at the end, e.g. new-borns,three-year-olds, will-o'-the-wisps(鬼火), major generals(少将). But there are also exceptions as in brothers-in-law, lookers-on, consuls general(总领事), yet their one-wordness identity is apparent.
In adjective-plus-noun compounds, the adjective element cannot take inflectional suffixes, for example:
Compound Free phrase
fine art (美术) finer art(更好的艺术)
red tape (繁文缛节) reddest tape(最红的磁带)
hot line (热线) hotter line(更热的线)
4) Orthographical Features
In most cases, compounds are written either 'solid' or 'hyphenated' as mentioned earlier, thus easy to recognize. But spelling conventions are not often dependable because as illustrated above some compounds can be written in all the three forms, e. g. flowerpot, flower-pot, flower pot. As a matter of fact, the different orthographical forms are largely a personal preference. Comparatively, British speakers tend to hyphenate compounds while Americans like to write compounds like free phrases.
2. Formation of Compounds
Compounding can take place within any of the word classes, e.g. prepositions as without, throughout; conjunctions as however, moreover; pronouns as oneself, somebody, but the productive ones are nouns and adjectives followed by verbs to a much lesser extent. Most compounds consist of only two bases but are formed on a rich variety of patterns and the internal grammatical relationships within the words are considerably complex. This section will focus on the three major classes of compounds, laying emphasis on the two aspects as stated above. 1) Noun Compounds
n + n : moon walk（月球行走）, end product（成品）
n + v : toothache , frostbite（冻疮）
v + n: crybaby（爱哭的人）, tell-tale（告密者；告发者）
a + n: deadline, blueprint（蓝图）
n + v-ing: brainwashing（洗脑）, air-conditioning
v-ing + n : cleaning Lady（清洁女工）, wading bird（涉水鸟）
n + v-er: stockholder（股东）, crime reporter（罪案报道人）
adv + v: outbreak（爆发） , downfall（垮台，衰落）
v + adv: sit-in（静坐示威） , have-not（穷人）
v-ing + adv: going-over（彻底检查；痛打；斥责）, carryings-on（轻率的行为）
adv + v-ing: up-bringing（养育）
All of these patterns are more or less productive except the last two. Simple as the patterns are, the internal semantic and grammatical relationships between the constituents are very complicated. An outline description is offered on the basis of a grammatical analysis of the elements.
subject + verb
daybreak The day breaks. （拂晓）
glowworm The worm glows.（萤火虫）
dancing girl The girl dances.（舞女）
verb + object
handshake Shake hands.
meat delivery Deliver meat.
housekeeping Keep house.
computer-designer Design computers.
drawbridge Draw the bridge.
braising steak Braise the steak.
verb + adverbial Under this category, the adverbial can be subclassified as that of place, time, instrument and others.
Place
hiding-place Hide in a place. （藏匿处）
drinking cup Drink out of a cup.（饮水杯）
sun-bathing Bathe in the sun.（日光浴）
filmgoer Go to the film.（影迷，常看电影的人）
city-dweller Dwell in the city. （城市居民）
table-talk Talk at the table.（席间闲谈）
springboard Spring from a board. （跳板，踏板）
Time
sleep-walking Walk in one's sleep. （梦游）
day-dreamer Dream during the day. （空想家）
night flight Fly during the night. （夜间飞行）
Instrument （工具）
sewing machine Sew with a machine. （缝纫机）
handwriting Write by hand. （字迹；笔迹）
gun fight Fight with a gun. （枪战）
grindstone Grind with a stone. （磨石）
Others
shadow-boxing Box against a shadow. （太极拳）
telephone call Call by the telephone. （电话）
subject + object
air rifle Air [operates] the rifle. （气枪）
power plant The plant [produces] power. （发电厂）
bloodstain Blood [leaves] the stain. （血迹）
television screen The television [has] the screen. （电视屏幕）
subject + complement
girlfriend The friend is a girl. （）
longboat The boat is long. （大艇）
dragonfly The fly is like a dragon. （蜻蜓）
chocolate bar A bar is of chocolate. （巧克力块）
safety-belt The belt is for safety. （安全带）
There are many so-called bahuvrihi compounds（性状复合词）, whose meanings have nothing to do with the referents of the constituents. For example, heartthrob refers to a 'sexually attractive person' said of one of the opposite sex. Birdbrain （愚蠢、轻佻的人）, paleface（白种人）, butterfingers（拿不稳东西的人）, heavyweight（重量级拳击手） are just a few more of this category.
2) Adjective Compounds
n + v-ing: law-abiding（守法的）, record-breaking （破纪录的）
a +v-ing: easy-going（随和的）, high-sounding（高调的）
n +a : warweary（厌战的）, thread-bare（穿旧的）
a + ai deaf-mute（聋哑的）, bitter-sweet（苦乐参半的）
n + v-ed: custom-built（定制的）, town-bred（城镇出身的）
a (adv) + v-ed: far-fetched（牵强的）, hard-won（来之不易的）
n(a) + n-ed: short-sighted（近视的；目光短浅的）, lion-hearted（非常勇猛的）
num + n : ten-storey（十层的）, four-leg（四条腿的）
num + n-ed: one-eyed（独眼的）, two-legged（两条腿的）
adv + v-ing: forth-coming（即将到来的）, out-going（开朗的；外向的）
v-ed + adv: worn-out（穿旧的）, washed-up（疲倦的）
Of these patterns, n + v-ing, n + a and n + v-ed are very productive. Just like noun compounds, adjective compounds can be paraphrased with reference to their internal grammatical relationship. Accordingly, they fall into the following subclasses.
verb + object
breath-taking Take breath. （惊人的）
life-giving Give one's life.（献身的）
finger-licking Lick fingers.（吮手指）
In mouth-watering, there is a causative relation between the two elements, i. e. something makes the mouth water.
verb + adverbial
fist-fighting Fight with fists. （拳击）
home-made Made at home.（自制的，家里做的）
Language retarded Retarded in language.（语言障碍的）
everlasting Last for ever.（永久的）
well-meant Mean well.（出自善意的）
long-awaited Await for long.（被期待已久的）
verb + predicative
sweet-smelling Smell sweet. （香甜的）
good-looking Look good.（好看的）
noun-adverbial + adjective
homesick Sick because of missing home.（思乡的）
tax-free Free of tax.（免税的）
war-weary Weary of war.（厌战的）
ash-blonde Blonde as ash.（灰金色的）
snow-white As white as snow.（雪白的）
coordinating relation
Sino -American （中美的）
Franco-German（法德的）
phonetic-syntactic （语音句法的）
3) Verb Compounds
Verb compounds are not as common as the other two classes. The limited number of verbs are created either through conversion (See Conversion for details) or through back formation.
Through Conversion
nickname (n) to nickname（给人起绰号）
honeymoon (n) to honeymoon（度蜜月）
moonlight (ft) to moonlight（赚外快）
first-name (n ) to first-name（直呼其名）
Through Backformation
lip-reading to lip-read （唇读）
bottle-feeding to bottle-feed（人工喂养）
chain-smoker to chain-smoke（连续不断地抽烟）
mass production to mass-produce（批量生产）
As shown by the examples, back-formed verb compounds come into being chiefly by dropping the suffixes: -er, -ing, -ion , etc. .
The discussion so far is restricted to two -base compounds. As stated earlier, compounds are largely the results of lexicalization of phrases, for example, 'He offered her a cup of coffee. ' Hence coffee cup. 'Tom is a boy who behaves well in his class. ' Hence well-behaved. This process of compounding yields a large number of compounds, which grow out of phrases just by hyphenating the words, e.g. stay-at-home, forget-me-not , dog-in-the-manger（狗占马厩；不让别人享用对自己无用的东西）. This probably accounts for the high productivity of compounding. When a word unavailable is needed, all one has to do is to choose an expression or even a sentence and hyphenate the words. This is the common practice of journalists and popular writers. More examples: a pain-in-stomach gesture（胃疼般的姿势）, ahead-of-schedule general election, too -eager-not-to -lose （求胜心切）champion, a middle-of-the-road （持中间态度的）politician, round-the-clock （昼夜不停的）discussion.
Bauer cites a few examples of extremity in his English Word Formation. One of them is 'an oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-something-to-make-it-better-and-nobler expression'. Is this a word? Most people would doubt. But it makes the point that compounding is productive and it would not take much risk to create new compounds when needed.
