Comparative study of compound words in English and Indonesian Fransiska Napitupulu

Description of Compound Words in English

Based on the general meaning of linguistics by Falk (1978: 43), “compounding is one of the word formation process in English”. And observes it from the view point of the word class of two roots which combine to form a compound word. In other words, it can be made up an adjective and a noun such as English-man but not German man , a verb and a preposition such as in put on and takeover but not jump into, and a noun and a verb such as in sunbathe and earthquake but not rain stand. In morphology a root is ussually a simple word which does not undergo affixation.

According to O’grady and Dobrovolsky (1996:127) “compounding differs from language to language, while the practice in English deals with the combination of some lexical categories, such as noun, adjectives, verbs, or prepositionin which the right most morpheme is called as the head that determines the category of a compounding”. Four types of compound words into which all lexical categories can combine are noun and noun such as in (street light, camp side, and bookcase), adjective and noun such as in (bluebird, happy hour, and high chair), verb and noun such as in (swearword, washcloth, and scrub lady), and preposition and noun such as in (overlord, outhouse).
The lexical categories between both Falk (1978:43) and O’grady and Dobrovolsky (1996:127) are different in their combinations. Falk mentions no combination of verb and noun, and preposition and noun, while O’grady Dobrovolsky mention no combination of preposition and preposition, verb and preposition, and noun and preposition.
Edward Arnold (1990:90) has the definition about the compound words, that is: “a compound words is a word which is formed from two (or more) other words and there are no clear rules for writing compounds”.
Wren and Martin (1990:346) also gave their meaning in the compound words, that is : “compound words are formed that joining two or more simple words”.
Compounds can be form by combining two or more words (as in double-check, cost-effective, farmhouse, graphic equalizer, park brench, around-the-clock, or son of gun)by combining prefixes or suffixeswith words (as in ex-president, shoeless, presorted, or uninterrupted), or by combining two or more word elements.
Jackson (2002:80) gave a good explanation, “compounds may be distinguished from phrase on phonology, syntactic, and semantic grounds”. In English, words are characterized by a single primary stress, so that compounds are often recognized by stress pattern and lack of juncture (juncture refers to the transition which characterizes adjacent syllables belonging to contiguous words). For example: ‘black-board’ potentially has primary stress on each word and a juncture between the two words. On the other hand, ‘black-board, the compound, has one primary stress and no juncture. The same observation applies to constracts such as ‘black ‘bird versus ‘blackbird; ‘hard ‘cover versus ‘hardcover’.
Compounds may also be distinguished from phrases in that they have specific syntactic features. But it must be added that the grammatical relations between constituens of the compound are sometimes obscure. The writer shall consider in turn ‘word order’ interruptibility’, ‘modification’, and inflectibility’ of compounds.
Kam Chuan Aik (1992:75) also gave a good sample, such as goldfish which is made up of gold and fish, flyover which is made up of fly and over, and father-in-law which is made up of father, in and law. In other ways, such as: lily of the valley (a flower), birds of prey(a category of birds) and personal computer (a type of computer). It is important to distinguish between a compound word and words that are placed placed one after another but are used to refer to different things. The characteristic meaning, come-as-you-are is; is a compound word that function as an adjective modyfying party: this is a come as you are