9 Co-compounds
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Bernhard Wälchli
Abstract
Co-compounds are word-like tight units mostly consisting of two parts which express natural coordination and superordinate-level concepts in contrast to sub-compounds which mostly express subordinate-level concepts. In this article it is argued that co-compounds should be considered in their natural environment in texts, since they do not only have characteristic formal and semantic properties, but most importantly characteristic patterns of use. In Europe co-compounds occur particularly in Eastern languages, but also in Basque. However, cross-linguistically co-compounding forms a discrete cline rather than a parametric feature that languages have or lack.
Abstract
Co-compounds are word-like tight units mostly consisting of two parts which express natural coordination and superordinate-level concepts in contrast to sub-compounds which mostly express subordinate-level concepts. In this article it is argued that co-compounds should be considered in their natural environment in texts, since they do not only have characteristic formal and semantic properties, but most importantly characteristic patterns of use. In Europe co-compounds occur particularly in Eastern languages, but also in Basque. However, cross-linguistically co-compounding forms a discrete cline rather than a parametric feature that languages have or lack.
Chapters in this book
- 1 Parasynthesis in Romance 1
- 2 Affix pleonasm 17
- 3 Interfixes in Romance 33
- 4 Linking elements in Germanic 55
- 5 Synthetic compounds in German 71
- 6 Particle verbs in Germanic 85
- 7 Noun-noun compounds in French 103
- 8 Verb-noun compounds in Romance 121
- 9 Co-compounds 145
- 10 Compounds and multi-word expressions in Slavic 171
- 11 Rules, patterns and schemata in word-formation 199
- 12 Word-formation and analogy 223
- 13 Productivity 247
- 14 Restrictions in word-formation 267
- 15 Argument-structural restrictions on word-formation patterns 287
- 16 Phonological restrictions on English word-formation 307
- 17 Morphological restrictions on English word-formation 337
- 18 Semantic restrictions on word-formation: the English suffix -ee 353
- 19 Dissimilatory phenomena in French word-formation 369
- 20 Closing suffixes 385
Chapters in this book
- 1 Parasynthesis in Romance 1
- 2 Affix pleonasm 17
- 3 Interfixes in Romance 33
- 4 Linking elements in Germanic 55
- 5 Synthetic compounds in German 71
- 6 Particle verbs in Germanic 85
- 7 Noun-noun compounds in French 103
- 8 Verb-noun compounds in Romance 121
- 9 Co-compounds 145
- 10 Compounds and multi-word expressions in Slavic 171
- 11 Rules, patterns and schemata in word-formation 199
- 12 Word-formation and analogy 223
- 13 Productivity 247
- 14 Restrictions in word-formation 267
- 15 Argument-structural restrictions on word-formation patterns 287
- 16 Phonological restrictions on English word-formation 307
- 17 Morphological restrictions on English word-formation 337
- 18 Semantic restrictions on word-formation: the English suffix -ee 353
- 19 Dissimilatory phenomena in French word-formation 369
- 20 Closing suffixes 385
