Analysis on english compound nouns cách sử dụng và định nghĩa để hiểu rõ về compound In order to learn English well and understand it deeply. It is very difficult. We can not only learn its basic rules of grammar but also study all of its aspects. And vocabulary is also one part we cannot pass over.
Trang 1Part A INTRODUCTION
I Rationale
Nowadays, English plays an important role in international
communication It is widely used in all fields of life such as: economics, politics, tourism and international conferences That’s why teaching and learning English have become a great demand of many people
Realizing the importance of English, Vietnamese learners have been
studying English both young and old To be knowledge about English is significant in the integration process into WTO
In order to learn English well and understand it deeply It is very difficult
We can not only learn its basic rules of grammar but also study all of its aspects And vocabulary is also one part we can not pass over We must study many new words and find the new way to formed new words,
especially when the life becomes more complex, many new things are invented and people need more new words to name these new things This
is not easy But by wise knowledge people found some ways to form new words Among these ways, the commonest way is compounding
By compounding, we can form many compound nouns, compound verbs, compound adverbs, and compound adjectives However, when
communicating or writing, learners may be confused with using compound adjectives Compared with Vietnamese compound adjectives, those who study on it can find similarities and also differences The variety and
usefulness of English also attracts learners’ interest in further studying on compound adjectives
Thus, I decided to choose “A study on compounds adjective in English”
as the topic for my research with the hope that learners could know more about the use of compound adjectives in daily life
II Methods of study:
Trang 2To deal with this topic I carried out my research paper the methods of this study are :
- Data collection and analysis
- Description
- Generalization
+Part A is Introduction, which gives out the reason for choosing the topic of this study, making out the methods and pointing out the scole of study And have some the question of study
+Part B is Content, consisting of three stdudy:
* The first is Definitions of terms: adjective, compound
adjective, characteristic,formation,meaning of compound adjective
*The second is analysis.This gives kind of compound
adjectives
*The three is answer the question
+The part C is Conclusion which gives the summary of all what mentioned
in the study And list of refernces
III Scope of study
This paper focuses on the description and analysing of the formation
of , and characteristic, so on
IV Research questions
1.How are compound adjectives in English formed?
2.How can the meaning of compound adjectives be interpreted?
3.Why do we even bother with a hyphen?
4.How can compound adjectives are stressed and presented in writing?
Trang 3Part B CONTENT
I Definitions of terms
1 Adjective
1.1 Definition
Adjective is a word which denotes a certain characteristic of things such
as quality, colour, age, size, shape .
Some examples of adjs are beautiful, nice, shirt (quality), big, small (size),
old,young (age), round,square (shape),blue,yellow,black (color),
Questions for adjectives can be asked with: “What like?” And,
depending on context, general or precise information can be given:
Ex: What’s Tom like (to look at)? – He’s tall/ short
What’s the car like? – It’s new/ old/ red
What’s the car like to drive? – It’s difficult/ fast
1.2 Characteristics of adjectives
There are some features are generally considered to be characteristic of adjectives:
1.2.1 Most of adjectives can go in attributive or predicative positions In attributive position, they modify the following nouns; in predicative, they follow linking verbs and function as a subject complement
1.2.2They can pre modify noun
Ex: Happy in the happy children
1.2.3They can freely occur in predicative position, it means they can
function as subject complement
Ex: Old in the man seemed old
1.2.4 They can as object complement
Ex: Ugly in he thought the painting ugly
1.2.Adjectives can be premodified by an intersifier such as very,
extremely
Ex: The children are very happy
Trang 41.3 the addition of the pre modifiers “more” and “most”
Ex: These students are more intelligent
They are the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen
2.Compounding:
Compounding is a very common word-formation process in English There are many definitions for compounding:
+Jespersen, (1974) said “Compounds are combinations of two or more words that function as one word and a single”
+ Bauer (1983/2010) said “When two (or more) elements which could potentially be used as stems are combined to form another stem, the form is said to be a compound A compound lexeme (or simply a compound) can thus be defined as a lexeme containing two or more potential stems.Since each potential stem contains at least one root, a compound must contain at least two roots.”
+ Plag (2002) said that “ a compound is a word that consists of two elements, the first of which is either a root, a word, a phrase, the second of which is either a root or a word.”
3 Adjective compounds
A compound adjective is a single adjective comprising more than one word The words in a compound adjective are usually grouped together using hyphens For example: man made, good – looking, habit - forming, happy – go – lucky, deaf – mute, blame worthy, record – breaking, a
never-ending story,
4.Formation of compound adjectives:
There are many ways in which words can be combined to form
compound adjectives In this study, formation of adjectives is presented in the order of the central element: Adjective-centred, Noun-centred., Verb-centred, Adverb-Verb-centred, Phrasal
• Compound nouns in attributive position
These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily:
Trang 5This is the summary table:
a) Compound Adjective whose right-hand constituent is present
participle( CA+ing participle)
Left-hand constituent Right-hand
constituent
Examples
Noun
present participle
sun bathing Mouth - watering
Cold - blooded
Hard - boiled
b) Compound Adjectives whose right-hand constituent is past participle:
(CA+ed-participle)
Left-hand constituent Right-hand
constituent
Examples
Noun
Past participle
moss-covered,
c) Compound Adjectives whose right-hand constituent is an
adjective(CA+adj)
Left-hand constituent Right-hand
constituent
Examples
Noun
Adjective
snow-white, Safety - conscious
mute
*Notes: Don’t use -s at the end of compound adjectives with numbers:
Ex : Let’s take a ten-minutes break
Let’s take a ten-minute break
Trang 6d) Compound Adjectives whose right-hand constituent is an adjective
derived from a noun(CA+N+ed)
Left-hand constituent Right-hand
constituent
Example
Noun
adjective derived from
a noun( adj+N+ed)
goat-headed
Kind - hearted
e) Compound adjectives whose right-hand constituent is a noun(CA+N)
Left-hand constituent Right-hand
constituent
Example
Noun
noun
love-hate
f) Compound Adjectives containg particles(CA+particle)
Left-hand constituent Right-hand
constituent
Example
5.Meaning of compound adjectives:
In contrast to the meanings of those individual words, the words will
convey different meanings Use a dictionary to learn the meaning of these words These words may convey more than one meaning., adjectives
change the meaning of a noun or pronoun by giving more information about it compounds can be written as one word, two separate words or they can be hyphenated The compounds that are used more often tend to appear in one word Those that combine occasionally but keep their
individual meaning tend to use a hyphen And those that come in two words keep their independent identity
But British and American English don't always use the hyphens in the same word combinations, so, when in doubt, check a good dictionary!
6.Hyphens
Trang 7A hyphen (-) is a punctuation mark used to join the separate parts of a compound word
Ex :well-oiled ,6-foot ,cooking-oil,ex-President,
II: Analysis
1 Compound Adjective whose right-hand constituent is
present participle:
It is put together between noun or adjective or adverb (left hand
constituent) and present participle ( right hand constituent)
1.1 Noun + present participle
Ex: Habit – forming = causing addiction.
Earsplitting = intolerably loud or shrill
Bloodcurldling = arousing fright.Sun bathing,time consuming
news,grass-eating, mouth – watering,record – breaking ,labour – saving , The nouns: “sun,time, blood,labour,habit,record” Like a modifier of
“present participle”
1.2 Adjective + present participle
Ex: Good – looking = handsome, of a pleasing or attractive appearance Far – seeing = seeing distant things best
Far – reaching = having wide application or influence
Free - standing = standing or operating independently of anything
else
The adjective: “good.easy,a free,,far.” Like a modifier of “present
participle”
1.3 Adverb + present participle
Ex: Hard - wearing = hard to beat
Ever – lasting = enduring forever
Ever – increasing = continuing to increase
Long – lasting = lasting in a long time
Never – ending = not being stopped
Trang 8The adverb: “hard,‚ever,quickly,never,long”like a modifier of “present
participle”
2 Compound Adjectives whose right-hand constituent is past participle:
It is put together between noun or adjective or adverb (left hand
constituent) and past participle ( right hand constituent)
2.1 Noun + past participle:
Ex :handmade, moss-covered, lion-hearted, heartbroken, homegrown , heart-warming
The noun: “hand,moss lion,heart,home” ” Like a modifier of “past
participle”
2.2 Adjective + past participle
Ex: well-known,well behave,well meant,out spoken,new-laid, serious – minded,new – made,low – keyed,ready – made,cold – blooded,high -
flown
The adjective ‚serious”, “new”, “low”, “ready”, “cold‛ ” Like a modifier
of “past participle”
2.3 Adverb + past participle
Ex: well done,well-know,well-lit, deeply – rooted,well – behaved, brightly – lit, well – educated,densely – populated,hard - boiled
The adverb: “well, deeply,bright,densely,hard” Like a modifier of “past
participle”
3 Compound Adjectives whose right-hand constituent is an adjective:
It is put together between noun or adjective or adverb or numberal+ noun (left hand constituent) and adjective ( right hand constituent)
3.1 Noun + adjective
Ex :snow-white,knee-deep ,pitch-dark world-wide,noteworthy ,diet
conscious ,machine – readable,pollution - free,ice – free,blame worthy, safety - conscious
Trang 93.2 Adjective + adjective
Adjective+ adjective is common
Ex : blue-black , white-hot ,red-hot ,dark-brown , worldly-wise,
3.3 Adverb + adjective
Ex :never-defeated ,outspoken,well-built , everlasting , well-educated, ill-bred = ill-educated, newly-lit = newly-born,
3.4 Numeral + noun + adjective
Numbers combine with nouns (usually singular) to form compound
adjectives relating to time, measurement,
Ex:
-Age: a three – year – old building ,a twenty – year – old men ,
- Area / home: a three – acre plot, a two – litre car,
- Length / depth: a twelve – inch ruler, a six – foot hole,
- Price: a $50 dress, a $ 90000 house ,
- Time / distance: a ten – minute walk, a three – hour journey,
- Weight: a ten – stone man, a give – kilo bag of flour,
However, compound adjective also is formed : A + numberal + noun -ed
Ex: A one – layered disk ,A three – headed monster, A three – legged stool ,A three – legged stool
→When we use a part of a body as part of an adjective, we add –ed after noun
4.Compound Adjectives whose right-hand constituent is an adjective derived from a noun:
It is put together between noun or adjective or adverb (left hand
constituent) and an adjective derived from a noun ( right hand constituent)
4.1 Noun + adjective derived from a noun
This group consists of compounds in which the adjective is derived from noun stem by the means of adding the adjective suffix –ed
These include compounds whose right-hand element is -based, -headed, -laced, -shaped, -themed, -sized, -cobbled and -fashioned
Trang 10Ex: goat-headed,
4.2 Adjective + adjective derived from a noun
In the adjective + adjective dervived from a noun ( adjective + noun –
ed) structures, the adjective behaves similarly to a modifier of the Noun
Ex: dead-eyed ,empty-handed, goat-headed, long-haired, open-ended
,open-minded…
4.3 Adverb + adjective derived from a noun
Ex: well-heeled,
5 Compound adjectives whose right-hand constituent is a noun
It is put together between noun or adjective or adverb (left hand
constituent) and noun ( right hand constituent)
5.1 Noun + noun
There are two types of noun + noun compound adjectives In the first type, the modifierhead distinction is possible, such as space-age, world-class, lifestyle, lifestyle ,resort-style,U.S.-Mexico
The second type consists of compounds such as Asia-Pacific, love-hate,self-service ,space-age,
5.2 Adjective + noun.
Ex fast-track,high-end, high profile,high-tech,large-scale,low-fat ,long-term
,military-style,modern-day ,top-tier
5.3 Numeral + noun
Ex: 400,000-brick, 11-day, 22-member,
6 Compound Adjectives containg particles
It is containing particles.Particles can left hand constituent or right hand consituent
6.1 Particle + present participle
Ex: on going, over whelming, out standing,
6.2 Particle + past participle
Ex : outstanding,
Trang 116.3 Verb + particle
Ex : add-on, pop-up, trade-in,
6.4 Particle + noun :
Ex: at-risk, underwater,
III: Answers the question
1 How to discriminate between free word groups and
compound adjectives?
English compound adjectives are generally composed of free word
group It may be sometimes difficult to decide whether a particular
structure should be We can recognize some criteria for the identification : + Spelling: we can rely on the spelling of a word group to discriminate between free word groups and compounds If two words are written with
no space between them, or possibly with an intervening hyphen, they form
a compound
For example: Round about, water logged, clear headed, happy-go-lucky, blow-by-blow, wall-to-wall,
In contrast, if it has no hyphen or with separation, it is phrase
+ Semantic : Generally, compounds are believed to be more specialised in meaning than free word group (phrase).Jespersen (1974) said that "we have
a compound if the meaning of the whole cannot be logically deduced from the meaning of the elements separately"
+ Syntactic :There are several syntactic criteria that are used by scholars for delimitating compounds from free word group
-First, it is the uninterruptability of a compound The uninterruptability criterion means that it is impossible to divide a compound by minserting other elements between its constituents
-Secondly, compounds should be inflected as a whole, The
inflectional
morphemes should be attached to the right-hand constituent