Volume 24, Issue 1 - On Romance Compounds

In this paper, we will present an overview of compounding in Catalan, covering the founding theoretical-descriptive studies of the 20th century to the most recent scholarship. Specifically, it analyses the boundaries of compounding, considering the limits which make it possible to distinguish compounding from derivation and free syntagmas. We will also consider the various types of compounding documented in Catalan, as well as the syntactic and semantic relationships between the elements that make up a compound. Finally, we will analyse newly-created compounds that shed light on the productivity of this process of word formation.

This article focuses on compounding as a process of word formation within the theoretical framework of lexeme-based morphology. It provides a systematic analysis of the two types of compounding in French: native compounding, the main type, and neoclassical compounding, which is quite marginal. It presents the various rules: native compounds are prototypically constructed of two lexemes and form a third one; they are predominantly endocentric; the governing constituent and the compound head, if any, is on the left and controls the semantic relations between the two constituents, whether coordinated, attributive or subordinating. Neoclassical compounds are prototypically constructed of bound neoclassical elements and form adjectives; they are often exocentric; the governing constituent is on the right. Inflection in native compounds is complex. Several areas of the analysis remain unresolved, particularly regarding the boundaries between morphological/syntactic compounds.

This paper aims at giving an up-to-date picture of compounding in Italian on the basis of most recent literature. First and foremost, we illustrate the basic units of Italian compounds, including semiwords, and we offer an operational definition of compounding that will be adopted throughout the paper. Secondly, we focus on the crucial issue of the demarcation of compounds: several criteria are given to distinguish compounds from derived words, phrases and also phrasal lexemes. Third, we offer a classification of Italian compounds according to two hierarchically ordered criteria – the grammatical relation between the constituents and the presence/absence of the head – and then we illustrate the main formation patterns that give rise to such compounds. Finally, we discuss crucial theoretical issues such as headedness and the relationship between compounding and inflection.

This paper intends to offer a descriptive survey of compounding in Latin, updated with the findings of the most recent literature. In the first part it focuses on the nature of basic constituents of Latin compounds and on the differentiation between compounds and other kinds of constructions involving two or more constituents, such as (parasynthetic) derivatives and free phrases. In the second part the core patterns of Latin compounds are exemplified, focusing on Nominal and Verbal Compounding, and a classification according to formal and semantic characteristics is proposed. Finally conclusions are drawn, the results of the investigation summarized, and some useful questions for future research are highlighted.

This article presents an overview of compounding in contemporary Portuguese. Conceived as a plurilexematic unit used as a holistic denomination, a compound is characterized by lexical atomicity. The continuum of compound classes that we propose is based on the morpho-lexical nature of the internal units (root, word) and on the (non)conformity of compound constructions with Portuguese syntactic templates. Since Portuguese compounds constitute a heterogeneous and borderline class, this analysis also focuses on the boundaries of compoundhood, namely those existing between compounds and noun phrases. This article also concentrates on the internal grammatical (coordinative, subordinative, attributive) and thematic relations and analyses Portuguese compounds with respect to headedness in its morphological, semantic and categorial dimensions. Finally, we stress the existence of a narrow relationship between internal constituency, headedness and inflectional patterns of Portuguese compounds.

This paper is a brief survey of compounding patterns in present-day Romanian. Special attention will be paid to more productive processes, though less productive patterns and those that are no longer productive will not be neglected. Section 1 consists of general remarks and presents an inventory of productive patterns. The central sections will deal with the individual compounding patterns involving words (Sections 2–5) and combining forms (Section 6). Each pattern will be analyzed for productivity, headedness, ordering preferences, linking elements and inflectional markers. Section 7 contains some concluding remarks.

This paper provides with a descriptive overview of the main productive patterns in present-day Spanish compounding, their structural and semantic characteristics. In this paper we try to maintain a theory-neutral point of view, although some theoretical stances are mandatory in order to accomplish the descriptive aims. Following previous work (for example Rainer and Varela 1992), a great number of minor processes and the so-called “syntagmatic compounds” are excluded from the discussion. The plan is to show that Spanish compounds form a relatively simple and harmonic scheme: it is a predominantly endocentric system that produces new Nouns and Adjectives, which can be left- or right-headed.