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