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The reason the English language's rules for constructing compound words don't seem to make sense to speakers of more reasonable languages is because, in this respect, English obeys Roger Rabbit logic: in, for example, German, you can construct extemporaneous compound words whenever you like, but in English, you can only do so when it's funny.
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ELA, grade 2-3, language skills
Do Now:
In your opinion, which of these compound words has the least to do with animals?
ponytail
scarecrow
nightmare
bullseye
horsepower
cowboy
cocksure
beeline
Activity:
With a partner, use a dictionary to look up the definitions of every one of these compound words. If the dictionary does not explain how each word is related to the animal that is named within the word, then you and your partner will need to figure it out for yourselves. Come up with a story for how the word was invented. Be creative!
English is so weird sometimes. For example: compound words.
Make up is an open compound with at least two meanings (to make up your mind (decide) or to make up a story (create/lie)), make-up is a hyphenated compound (as in make-up test or make-up class (repeated or replacement), and makeup is a closed compound (to put on makeup (beauty products, essentially)). Make means to create, pretty much, which is understandable for all of the examples I think, but I’m not sure where up, the direction, plays into it… and this is just one example. Even as a native speaker and avid reader, I struggle with this at times and have to rely on instinct because these rules don’t make sense lol.
Hi,
How do you decline compound nouns?
Well met! That depends a bit on what you mean by decline, because that word can mean different things in different grammatical traditions.
Compound nouns in Neo-Khuzdul
In Neo-Khuzdul, compound nouns are structurally fixed, and all grammatical behaviour is determined by the final element of the compound, which functions as the grammatical head.
Earlier elements are descriptive and do not inflect.
Example:
zars-hamd mushroom (lit. tree + bread)
Pluralisation applies only to the final element:
zars-hamd – mushroom
zars-hamâd – mushrooms
The first element (zars - tree) remains unchanged. The same principle applies to derived forms such as adjectives:
zars-hamdul – mushroom-y / fungal
Again, the derivation is based on hamd (bread), not on the compound as a whole.
"bear bread" (possible the origin of this compound?) Verbs formed from compound nouns
Neo-Khuzdul also allows verbs to be formed from compound nouns. When this happens, the verb is always derived from the final noun in the compound, not from the compound as a whole.
Example:
sigin-zadkh-lefam harp (lit. long + string/line + musical instrument)
Tuor strikes a note on his harp by Alan Lee The verb “to play a harp” uses the verb of lefama (“to play a musical instrument”).
PERFECT: He played a harp siginzadkhlefema
IMPERFECT: He plays a harp siginzadkhtalfimi
The compound remains intact. Only the verbal morphology comes from the final element. One further point worth noting is that gerunds can also be formed from compound nouns, following the same head-based principle. The derivation is always based on the final element of the compound, not on the compound as a whole. For example, bund-ajat (“noise of stone breaking overhead”, from bund “head” and ajat “chitter”) can form a gerund by using the gerund of the final noun (ajat → ijt), resulting in bund-ijt, meaning “the act of the breaking overhead of stone”. As with plurals, adjectives, and verbs, the compound remains structurally intact while the grammatical behaviour is determined by the final element. Ever at your service, The Dwarrow Scholar
the more gen z lingo evolves the more i’m like, this is just 1984
seriously, guess which words are gen z vernacular and which words were created by the authoritarian government in orwell’s dystopia:
gaslight
duckspeak
chud
bellyfeel
glowup
artsem
peakslop
speakwrite
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What can Reddit comment data tell us about the rules governing the formation of insulting compound words like 'fartface', 'scumwad', or 'ass
Wonderful study from 2022 on the use of compound pejoratives on Reddit as well as some discussion of the grammar rules, politics and usage of these flexible little insults. Comes with a great 20x20 matrix of some of the prefixes and suffixes and how common the results are used on Reddit.
specific linguistics pet peeve but. i hate it when ppl post online about "[insert language but usually German/Japanese/North Germanic languages] has such a SPECIAL WAY with UNTRANSLATABLE words describing UNIQUE EMOTIONS that ENGLISH has NO CONCEPT OF" and the word is like. a fucking compound like schadenfreude. which English very much has. i have very exciting news for you about the word bittersweet
