Compounds - Main Properties and Problems

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Englisch - Pädagogik, Didaktik, Sprachwissenschaft, einseitig bedruckt, Note: 2,7, Philipps-Universität Marburg (Anglistik), Veranstaltung: Morphology and Syntax, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: 1. IntroductionThis termpaper deals with compounding, an important process of word formation.Ingo Plag wrote that compounding was the most productive type of word formation butalso the most controversial one, he forewarns his readers because compounding is a fieldof study where intricate problems abound, numerous issues remain unsolved andconvincing solutions are generally not so easy to find (Plag 2006, 132).Due to this high productivity, compounding can be regarded as the most fundamentalcomplex cognitive representations of the mental lexicon (Libben 2006, vi).Compounds are extremely widespread among the world s languages and representperhaps the easiest way to form a new cognitive representation from two or more existingones (Libben 2006, vi). Laurie Bauer claims that no known language is withoutcompounds, and in many languages compounds are the main type of a new lexeme (Bauer 1988, 33/34).This termpaper focuses on compounds and their properties including subcategories,productivity and the problems that can occur among compounds like questions of stressand categorization difficulties.The first part will deal with the definition of compounds, all the compound subcategoriesand also with productivity of compounds.In the second part, questions of stress and difficulties of categorization will be examined.