The nature of compounding
This paper addresses the question of the definition of compounding from a terminological perspective. In terminology, concepts are defined by a selection of properties shared by prototypical cases. For scientific terminology, the selection is validated by the strength of the theories that can use t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Associação Brasileira de Linguística
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Cadernos de Linguística |
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| Online Access: | https://cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/cadernos/article/view/302 |
| _version_ | 1811267627837816832 |
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| author | Pius ten Hacken |
| author_facet | Pius ten Hacken |
| author_sort | Pius ten Hacken |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This paper addresses the question of the definition of compounding from a terminological perspective. In terminology, concepts are defined by a selection of properties shared by prototypical cases. For scientific terminology, the selection is validated by the strength of the theories that can use the definition. It is shown that morphophonological criteria often adduced in the delimitation of compounding are not adequate in a universal definition. In order to come up with a better definition, a two-step procedure is proposed. In the first step, a universal definition is used to determine for constructions in a particular language whether they belong to compounding. In the second step, language-specific properties are used to identify instances of these constructions. A definition is proposed that takes a compound as a word with a binary, headed structure, a relation between the elements that is not determined by compounding and a non-head that is not introduced as an entity in the discourse. The use of this definition is illustrated with a number of constructions in different languages. It is shown that expressions commonly called exocentric and copulative compounds are generally not compounds in this definition, but that some expressions that have been labelled as such are in fact compounds. The two-step procedure demonstrated here for compounding can also be used for other linguistic terms.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:07:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ba51e8c880e409682e712e6706bea73 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2675-4916 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:07:24Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | Associação Brasileira de Linguística |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cadernos de Linguística |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ba51e8c880e409682e712e6706bea732022-12-22T03:16:41ZengAssociação Brasileira de LinguísticaCadernos de Linguística2675-49162021-02-012110.25189/2675-4916.2021.v2.n1.id302The nature of compoundingPius ten Hacken0Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck This paper addresses the question of the definition of compounding from a terminological perspective. In terminology, concepts are defined by a selection of properties shared by prototypical cases. For scientific terminology, the selection is validated by the strength of the theories that can use the definition. It is shown that morphophonological criteria often adduced in the delimitation of compounding are not adequate in a universal definition. In order to come up with a better definition, a two-step procedure is proposed. In the first step, a universal definition is used to determine for constructions in a particular language whether they belong to compounding. In the second step, language-specific properties are used to identify instances of these constructions. A definition is proposed that takes a compound as a word with a binary, headed structure, a relation between the elements that is not determined by compounding and a non-head that is not introduced as an entity in the discourse. The use of this definition is illustrated with a number of constructions in different languages. It is shown that expressions commonly called exocentric and copulative compounds are generally not compounds in this definition, but that some expressions that have been labelled as such are in fact compounds. The two-step procedure demonstrated here for compounding can also be used for other linguistic terms. https://cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/cadernos/article/view/302CompoundingTerminologyDefinitionConstruction |
| spellingShingle | Pius ten Hacken The nature of compounding Cadernos de Linguística Compounding Terminology Definition Construction |
| title | The nature of compounding |
| title_full | The nature of compounding |
| title_fullStr | The nature of compounding |
| title_full_unstemmed | The nature of compounding |
| title_short | The nature of compounding |
| title_sort | nature of compounding |
| topic | Compounding Terminology Definition Construction |
| url | https://cadernos.abralin.org/index.php/cadernos/article/view/302 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT piustenhacken thenatureofcompounding AT piustenhacken natureofcompounding |