Morfosintassi 25 02 2022 COMPOUNDS A compound is the combination of 2 or more free roots plus associated affixes It can be difficult sometimes to distinguish a compound which is considered a single word from a syntatic phrase consisting of a number of distinct words Compounds may be written as a single word or as 2 words hyphenated or not icecream ice cream ice cream Both compounds and phrases may express semantically cohesive notions the meanings of the compound and the phrase might be considered equalli unfied A better means of differentiation is internal coherence since compounds are externally modified at single word boundary whereas phrases may be internally modified at any of the word boundaries Manhol manholes menhole a compound Man of war men of war man of wars not a compound Another means of distinguishing compounds is their external mobility They move in a sentence as a whole not in pairs The lawyer conducted the cross examination the cross examination was conducted by the lawyer a compound He cheked out the witness he checked the witness oout not a compound STRESS The most reliable means of distinguishing a compound from a phrase As a single word a compound will carry only one primary stress whereas a phrase as a group of words will carry more than one primary stress Compound phrase Stonewall stone wall Safeguard safe guard Breakdown break down SYNTAX AND SEMNATICS OF COMPOUNDS Consider these home compounds Homeland land which is one s home Often the semantics of compounds are not simply a sum of the meaning of the parts as in firearm highball makeup handout The syntax of compounds is even more complex any cmbination of parts of speech seems possibile with almost any part of speech resulting One principle that holds is that the word class of the compound is determined by the head