Compounding is a process of word formation in which two (usually free) stems are combined into a new lexical item with its own meaning. There are several types of compounds, which will all be addressed in separated sections. Interestingly, some types, such as simultaneous compounds, are specific to sign languages only and therefore modality-dependent. In addition, I take small detours and provide (brief) descriptions of syntactic structure and phonological processes that are related to compounding.
Because of the variety of subtypes, which are furthermore of different levels, e.g. syntactic and semantic, a table with an example of each subtype might be convenient for the reader for further reference. Table 1 presents the different subtypes that are described below (following the SignGram Blueprint (Quer et al. 2017)), provides examples for each category, and shows the corresponding figure number of the examples:
|
Type of compound |
Glossed example |
Example figure |
|
Native |
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|
|
Sequential subordinate endocentric |
money^building ‘bank’ |
|
|
Sequential subordinate exocentric |
book^stamp ‘passport’ |
|
|
Sequential coordinate endocentric |
father^mother ‘parents’ |
|
|
Sequential coordinate exocentric |
beard^staff ‘sinterklaas’ |
|
|
Sequential involving a SASS |
swim^sass ‘swimming pool’ |
|
|
Simultaneous |
weekend |
|
|
Semi-simultaneous |
old_year’s_eve |
|
|
Loan |
|
|
|
Faithful endocentric |
bath^room ‘bathroom’ |
|
|
Faithful exocentric |
after^year ‘autumn’ |
|
|
Modified |
phone^image ‘videophone’ |
|
|
Fingerspelled |
|
|
|
Sequential native-like |
c^sass ‘centimeter’ |
|
|
Sequential loan-like |
s^market ‘supermarket’ |
|
|
Simultaneous |
dvd |
|
Table 1. An overview of the described compound subtypes, with glossed examples and corresponding figure numbers.