The Branches of Morphology "Compounding and Clipping"

A. COMPOUNDING

Compounding is a linguistic phenomenon that might at first glance seem straightforward. Bauer (2003: 40) defines a compound as “the formation of a new lexeme by adjoining two or more lexemes”. The combination of lexical categories called compounding. It consists of nouns, adjectives, verbs, or prepositions.

Examples :

1. Noun compounds

a)    greenhouse

b)   bluebird

c)    fire engine

d)   oil well

2. Verb compounds

a)    overlook

b)   underestimate

c)    dropkick

d)   breakdance

3. Adjective compounds

a)    red hot

b)   deep blue

c)    sky blue

d)   nation wide

Compound can be combined with other lexical categories to create larger compounds. The word formation processes responsible for derivation and compounding can interact with each other.

a)    dog food box

b)   baseball bat rack

Types of compounds

Compounds are used to express a wide range of semantic relationships in English.Some Noun+Noun compounds called endocentric :

EXAMPLE	MEANING
Steamboat	‘a boat powered by steam’
Air hose	‘a hose that carries air’
Fire truck	‘a vehicle used to put out fires’
Fire drill	‘a practice in the event of a fire’
Bath towel	‘a towel used after bathing’

In most cases, component of compound identifies the general class to which the meaning of the entire word belongs. In a smaller number of cases, the meaning of the compound does not follow from the meanings of its parts in this way. Thus, examples below called exocentric,

a) Greenbottle = a fly of the genus lucilia (not a type of bottle)

b) Redneck = an ultra-conservative; white working-class person (not a type of neck)

c) Sugar-daddy = a woman’s lover who is deemed to be both overgenerous and much too

     old for her (not a type of sugar-coated father)

Examples below are very striking differences between endocentric and exocentric compounds where the head of the compound has an irregular plural.

IN ENDOCENTRIC COMPOUNDS	IN EXOCENTRIC COMPOUNDS
Oak leaves	Maple leafs (Toronto’s NHL hockey team)
Wisdom teeth	Sabre tooths (extinct species of tiger)
Club feet	Bigfoots (members of an extinct tiger species)
policemen	Walkmans (a type of portable audio cassette player)

The exocentric compounds permit the plural suffix –s for words such as leaf, tooth, foot, and man, though these forms require an irregular plural when used elsewhere in the language.

B. CLIPPING

Clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the word. Clipping differs from back-formation in that the new word retains the meaning of the original word. 

Types of Clipping

There are four main types of clipping. These include back clipping, fore-clipping, middle clipping and complex clipping. Below, please find definitions and examples of each.

1.    Back clipping : In back clipping, the first part of the word is kept. 

Examples :

a)    fax  (facsimile)

b)    gym  (gymnasium)

c)     memo (memorandum)

d)    ad (advertisement)

     e)    demo (demonstration)  

2.    Fore-clipping : In fore-clipping, the last part of the word is kept.

Examples :

a)   chute (parachute)

b)   phone (telephone)

c)    site (website)

d)   plane (airplane)

e)   burger (hamburger)

3.    Middle clipping :  In middle clipping, the middle of the word is kept.

Examples :

a)    flu (influenza) 

b)   fridge (refrigerator)

4.    Complex clipping : In complex clipping, part of the original compound is kept.

Examples :

a)    photo-op (photo opportunity)

b)   sci-fi (science fiction)

Other Example :

1. alligator – gator
2. examination – exam
3. gasoline – gas
4. influenza – flu
5. laboratory – lab
6. mathematics – math
7. photograph – photo
8. public house – pub
9. raccoon – coon
10. reputation – rep

References :

http://cowgill.ling.yale.edu/sra/morphology_ecs.htm

http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199695720.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199695720-e-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_(linguistics)

http://www.stgiles-international.com/student-services/english-language-tips/clippings-definitions-and-examples/
http://www.brighthubeducation.com/esl-lesson-plans/59679-forming-new-words-compounds-clipping-and-blends/