Compounding and Phrases Theoretical Review

18 the entire word. Copulative compounds are not semantically opa que” Katamba, 1993, p.321.

2.1.3 Compounding and Phrases

To differentiate compounds and phrases, there are at least four aspects to consider. The first aspect is in term of morphology. The elements of compounds are uninterruptable. “One property of words which distinguishes them from phrases is morphological integrity: their elements can’t be split up by other words or phrases, for example, by parentheticals” Spencer, 1991, p.313. In other words, it is not possible to insert a word within constructions of compounds. Szymanek 1989 suppo rts this idea by stating that “a criterion which may appear more promising in bringing out the word-like nature of compounds, as opposed to phrases, is the property of ‘uninterruptability’” p.42. However, there are some exceptions regarding this notion. The compounds spoonful and bagful, as examples, can be interrupted by the plural marker –s Szymanek, 1989. Furthermore, compounds are not completely productive. As examples, “BLACKBIRD and BLUEBIRD, BLACKTHORN and WHITETHORN are lexemes, but ‘whitebird’ and ‘redbird’, ‘greenthorn’ and ‘pinkthorn’ are not. In this case it is obvious which forms a dictionary has to list. ” Matthews, 1991, p.83. Secondly, in phonological perspective, compounds and phrases are different in their stress patterns. It is mentioned earlier that the primary stress of compounds occurs on the first element whereas in phrases, the primary stress is on the last element Bybee, 1985; Plag, 2003; Szymanek, 1989; Spencer 1991. In addition, if seen from the perspective of semantics, this stress pattern determines PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 19 the meaning of the compound itself like what Carstairs McCarthy 2002 says that “the distinction between compounds and phrases is valid. There is a difference in sound corresponding to the difference in meaning: in a green house, with its literal meaning, the main stress in on house, while in a greenhouse, meaning a glass structure where delicate plants are reared, the main stress is on green ” p.59. Furthermore, “Apart from stress, a second criterion traditionally used for distinguishing compounds from phrases is semantic: a compound tends to have a meaning that is more or less idiosyncratic or unpredictable” Carstairs McCarthy, 2002, p.60. The meaning is said to be unpredictable because it cannot be revealed from the meanings of the elements forming the compound. Here are some more examples of semantic contrast between expressions stressed in different places, taken from Carstairs McCarthy 2002, p.59. 1 black bóard bláckboard ‘board that is black’ ‘board for writing on’ 2 silk wórm sílkworm ‘worm made of silk e.g. a soft toy’ ‘caterpillar that spins silk’ 3 hair nét háirnet ‘net made of hair’ ‘net for covering hair’ 4 white hóuse the Whíte House ‘house that is white’ ‘residence of the US President’ 5 toy fáctory tóy factory ‘factory that is a toy e.g. in a model city’ ‘factory where toys are made’ It is obviously seen that the left items are phrases since they are stressed on the last word whereas the right items are compounds as they are stressed on the first element. Fourthly, the last point determining compounds and phrases is orthography which is “spelling convention for compounds. Some compounds are written as 20 single words postcard, football, in others the constituents are hyphenated sound-wave, tennis-ball, and in still others the constituent elements are spaced off blood bank, game ball ” Szymanek, 1989, p.41. Orthography is deemed helpless in determining whether or not a construction is a compound Katamba, 1993.

2.1.4 Related Studies