Brief Analysis of Compounding Words in English

Robleh Wais 10/2/11

Note: the analysis below is not meant to be a formal paper on the subject. It is my reflection on a topic that, oddly enough, I wondered about after awakening from a dream about compound words in English.

Introduction

English has retained the Germanic linguistic construction of compounding words to create new words, though it has been retarded by the influence of Latin language importations, especially French. Germanic languages like Dutch, German, Frisian, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and others, all share the quality of being able to combine separate nouns into one word and thus create new nouns. English has since its modern period; beginning in the 17^th century, gradually retarded the usage of compounding. However, in recent years, this trend seems to have reversed.

Linguists refer to compound words as agglutinative. I will avoid this technical term. Instead, we will use the terms compound and decompound to mean the ability of this language to combine and uncombine one or more individual words. When referring to a compound word that contains two individual words, I will call them bi-compounded words; if there are three compounded words, I will call them tri-compounded words or tri-compounds. I don't believe that compounding occurs with more than three words in any English morphemic construction; there is no need for any further coinage. An examination of compounded words in English shows that while we don't construct infinite words and can't form meaningful infinite words, we can create a huge finite set of compound words that increase the lexicon of the language with this rule of combination. Some characteristics of our language that compounding augments are variety, descriptive power, and precision of conceptualization. There are several aspects of interest in this subject. Here are a few:

1. Estimate of the total size of words in English. This does vary; I use a narrow scope and restrict it to non-scientific words, like chemical compounds based on Latin, Greek, or imports like coup d'état.

2. How many words are compounded in English?

3. Can we reverse-compound words, decompound them, and will they still make sense in sentential usage?

4. What are the percentages, averages, and other statistical quantities of questions 2 and 3?

5. Is it possible to compound any given English word such that it will create a meaningful word when it is compounded with any other English word?

Question 5 is particularly intriguing. It seems we can take almost any noun at random and combine it with another and still achieve a meaningful compound word. An example will give you a taste of what this means. Let's take a color: blue. Now we can add another noun to it to create a new word that some meaning can be attributed to. It might be coined meaning, but still, it is easy to see that each of the words below can have some meaning assigned to them. It could be idiomatic or literal, but all have semantic content.

Bluewall, bluefloor, bluenight, blueday, bluearm, blueeye, bluehead, bluemind, bluesight, bluesun,blueboard, blueseat, blueback, bluetime, blueglass, blueworld, blueland, bluedoor, bluetalk. All of these words could be seen to have meaning. The only exclusion to compounding blue with others words would seem to be the other must be a noun. Though even this isn't entirely true. I can imagine bluethinking as having some subjective meaning.

English and Compounding

I have found a total of 2276 compounded words in English via a Net search. They all are bi-compounded words. Of these, I have selected 190 to analyze. Interesting results were achieved for the idea of creating new words by using compounding. If we reverse these bi-compounds and use them in sentences a great many will be semantically meaningful. In some cases, the reversals can be compounded themselves and yield meaningful statements in our language. Here are some stats I've developed based on a survey of 190 compounded words out of the total 2276 compounded English words.

13% of the time, bi-compounded words can be reversed and compounded again to yield meaningful words.

40% of the tim,e bi-compounded words cannot be reversed and yield any meaningful construction.

42% of the time, bi-compounded words can be reversed and do yield meaningful constructions if not compounded again.

4% of the time, bi-compounded words, when reversed, yield indeterminate constructions.

The number of compounded words is very small compared to the total number of English words (taking 500,000 to be this number. They are .004% of the lexicon.

It should be noted that a very strict regime was used when bi-compounded words were reversed. No insertions of characters or other words between the reversed de-compounded words were allowed. For instance, greenhouse, when reversed, is house green. A sentence could be formed as such: The greenhouse was a house of green. But this would have required of to be inserted.

Source Data

Below is a table of all 190 compounds reversed, and examples of reverse usage where this can be done.

First	Second	Example
port	air	the port air at the airport smelled of salt
more	any
place	any	place any of them anyplace you want
thing	any
where	any	where any of you go beware of me anywhere
chair	arm	he leaned on the chair arm of the armchair
ache	back
ground	back	in the background of his thought he wondered how could he win ground back from the enemy
pack	back	in his backpack he had a plan to get his loyal pack back
ball	basket	the basketball player drug along a large ball basket
robe	bath
tub	bath
ship	battle	the battleship was soon engaged in a deadly ship battle
room	bed	the bedroom had only one room bed and two chairs
line	bee
day	birth	she remembered on her birthday that the doctors said day birth was more difficult than night birth
board	black	the painters applied a paste to make the blackboard, board black
case	book	the lawyer walked up to the bookcase and took down the casebook
let	book
shelf	book	a shelfbook is what a bookshelf contains
worm	book	like shelfbook below
case	brief	the military officer held in his briefcase, the entire case brief
cup	butter	like shelfbook below
fly	butter	we fly butter in planes like a butterfly
fire	camp	they lit campfires throughout the training fire camp
ground	camp
stick	candle	A candlestick is not the same as stick candle, which is a stick made into a candle
board	card	his cardboard board card allowed him unimpeded access to all areas of the train
pet	car	Proudly the motorist drove his pet car onto the winning carpet
stick	chop
mate	class	Even though the 10-year-old boy was her classmate, she felt at 25 years old, he was not in her mate class
wise	clock
yard	court	From the courtyard, he convened a strange yard court to assemble
boy	cow	the cowboy struggled to rope a boy cow
board	cup
let	cut
devil	dare
devils	dare	the daredevils reminded me, that devils dare
dream	day	it was mesmering, this dreamday to come true in her daydream
washer	dish
water	dish	dishwater is not the same as a waterdish, which a dish containing water
bell	door	a doorbell is a ringing device, while a bell door is a door of bells
mat	door	same as above
step	door	same as above
stop	door	same as above
way	door	same as above
fly	dragon	the scientist said to the dragonfly, fly dragon!
let	drop	she felt a wet droplet in her eye, which soon she let drop
ache	ear
ring	ear
green	ever
body	every
day	every
ball	eye
print	finger	his printfinger was a measurement quantity not his fingerprint
arm	fire
fighter	fire	the firefighter jumped in the conflagration with fighter fire in his heart
place	fire	place fire in the fireplace
proof	fire
works	fire
tail	fish	look at the fishtail of the tailfish
ball	foot	the kicker knew after his first attempt the footbal had injured his ball foot
print	foot
cast	fore
see	fore
get	for	don't forget to get for me a pack of cigarettes
give	for	the compassionate believers give for all, and forgive all
fold	four	fold four linens and their power will be increased fourfold
ship	friend	She was my ship friend at sea, and it soon became true friendship on land
man	gentle
fish	gold	fish gold from the bottom of the goldfish tank
father	grand	father grand descendants grandfather
mother	grand
stand	grand
hopper	grass
yard	grave
house	green
nut	ground
storm	hail	A hailstorm will storm hail from the heavens
way	hall
cuff	hand	he had the handcuff in his cuff hand
ache	head	He coined the term achehead to describe any one that consistently gave him a headache
light	head	like above
master	head	like above
mistress	head	like above
beat	heart
broken	heart	he took his heartbroken face away from her, but she was also a broken heart, and this he did not know
way	high
work	home	The parent tried to work home the idea that homework was important to her son
comb	honey	to comb honey in a honeycomb is impossible
worm	hook
fly	horse
boat	house	houseboat is the same as a boathouse
side	in	inside means to be within a structure, while side in means to keep the sides of a structure shut
bone	jaw
bug	lady	Since you loved the ladybug in her greenhouse, she was called the buglady
lady	land
lord	land
ship	leader	the ship leader must show leadership
let	leaf
wise	length
house	light	the lighthouse had one one houselight in the observation area
speaker	loud
piece	master
stick	match
ball	meat	A meatball is made when you ball meat into a circular shape
light	moon	Is a light moon the source of this moonlight?
self	my
tie	neck
paper	news
body	no
hand	off	Don't hand off this to me in an offhand way
line	on	I don't mean online, I mean is the line on
wise	other
door	out
field	out
fit	out
grow	out	some plants in there outgrowth have a directional process in which they grow out and then down back into the soil
law	out
let	out	I need an outlet to let out my feelings
number	out
patient	out
side	out	Outside does not refer to sideout, which is a technical term
board	over
dose	over
due	over
cake	pan	A pancake can be made in a cakepan
ship	partner	My partnership began while on a boat, he was my ship partner
knife	pen
copy	photo	A photocopy is not a photo copy
ground	play
room	play
corn	pop
man	post	A postman delivers mail, while a manpost is where a man is standing at his assumed position
way	rail
bow	rain
drops	rain	So many raindrops, but do the drops rain upon us all?
snake	rattle	the rattlesnake was startled by snakerattle a few feet from it
worm	ring	ringworm is a disease, while a wormring is a collection of worms in a ring
bags	sand	sandbags, so many of them, and he bags sand all day
castle	sand	the sandcastle was supported by castle sand, which surrounded the structure
paper	sand	Sandpaper is not paper sand
food	sea
shore	sea
weed	sea
wreck	ship	shipwreck is what the wreckship does find
string	shoe	a shoestring was what the stringshoe was entirely made of
bread	short
board	skate	a skateboard is not board skate, that is a skate on top of a board
scraper	sky
board	snow	same as below
storm	snow	the snowstorm dumped a huge amount of storm snow on the hillside
thing	some
proof	sound
ship	space	Please don't get in the ship space of the spaceship
case	stair
light	star	like moonlight above
ache	stomach
berry	straw
light	sun	like moonlight above
shine	sun	I say shine sun gives us your sunshine
human	super
impose	super	to impose super human qualities is not to superimpose
natural	super	same as above
board	surf
gate	tail	a tailgate is not a gatetail, that is the end of any gate's structure
cup	tea
pot	tea
storm	thunder	she was afraid during a thunderstorm of the storm thunder that roared around her home
rope	tight	this tightrope is a rope tight for sure
table	time	to table time is impossible while a timetable is a chart
stone	tomb	the tombstone was affixed above the stone tomb
box	tool	a box tool was retrieved from the toolbox
brush	tooth
stand	under	you understand to stand under a 50 ton object is to risk your life
paper	wall	the wallpaper on the paperwall was cracked
robe	ward
ship	war	the warship in engaged in a deadly ship war
melon	water	I say melonwater is that which flows from a watermelon
proof	water
end	week	this weekend will be the end week as last weekend was the begin week of the program
barrow	wheel	the worker gripped the barrow wheel of the wheelbarrow
chair	wheel	the wheelchair patient revovled wildly spinning the chair wheel on the ice with his hand
cutter	wood
land	wood
pile	wood	the gang of prisoners were told to pile wood on the woodpile
shed	wood	he felt as if he had shed wood from his beard in the woodshed
work	wood	he wanted to work wood, to show off his woodwork
worm	wood
self	your

Below the same data without examples and a tabulation of counts of word quantities

Compound Word	First	Second	Reversible	CountFirst	CountSecond	CountNo	CountYes	CountReversible	CountEnglishTotal
airport	port	air	yes
anymore	more	any	no
anyplace	place	any	yes
anything	thing	any	no
anywhere	where	any	yes
armchair	chair	arm	yes
backache	ache	back	no
background	ground	back	yes
backpack	pack	back	yes
basketball	ball	basket	yes
bathrobe	robe	bath	no
bathtub	tub	bath	no
battleship	ship	battle	yes
bedroom	room	bed	yes
beeline	line	bee	no
birthday	day	birth	yes
blackboard	board	black	yes
bookcase	case	book	yes1
booklet	let	book	no
bookshelf	shelf	book	yes1
bookworm	worm	book	yes1
briefcase	case	brief	yes
buttercup	cup	butter	yes1
butterfly	fly	butter	yes
campfire	fire	camp	yes
campground	ground	camp	no
candlestick	stick	candle	yes
cardboard	board	card	yes
carpet	pet	car	yes
chopstick	stick	chop	no
classmate	mate	class	yes
clockwise	wise	clock	no
courtyard	yard	court	yes
cowboy	boy	cow	yes
cupboard	board	cup	no
cutlet	let	cut	no
daredevil	devil	dare	no
daredevils	devils	dare	yes
daydream	dream	day	yes1
dishwasher	washer	dish	no
dishwater	water	dish	yes1
doorbell	bell	door	yes
doormat	mat	door	yes
doorstep	step	door	yes
doorstop	stop	door	yes
doorway	way	door	yes
dragonfly	fly	dragon	yes
droplet	let	drop	yes
earache	ache	ear	no
earring	ring	ear	no
evergreen	green	ever	no
everybody	body	every	no
everyday	day	every	no
eyeball	ball	eye	no
fingerprint	print	finger	yes1
firearm	arm	fire	no
firefighter	fighter	fire	yes
fireplace	place	fire	yes
fireproof	proof	fire	no
fireworks	works	fire	no
fishtail	tail	fish	yes1
football	ball	foot	yes
footprint	print	foot	yes
forecast	cast	fore	no
foresee	see	fore	no
forget	get	for	yes
forgive	give	for	yes
fourfold	fold	four	yes
friendship	ship	friend	yes
gentleman	man	gentle	no
goldfish	fish	gold	yes
grandfather	father	grand	yes
grandmother	mother	grand	no
grandstand	stand	grand	no
grasshopper	hopper	grass	no
graveyard	yard	grave	no
greenhouse	house	green	no
groundnut	nut	ground	no
hailstorm	storm	hail	yes
hallway	way	hall	indeterminate
handcuff	cuff	hand	yes
headache	ache	head	yes1
headlight	light	head	yes1
headmaster	master	head	yes1
headmistress	mistress	head	yes1
heartbeat	beat	heart	indeterminate
heartbroken	broken	heart	yes
highway	way	high	indeterminate
homework	work	home	yes
honeycomb	comb	honey	yes
hookworm	worm	hook	indeterminate
horsefly	fly	horse	no
houseboat	boat	house	yes1
inside	side	in	yes
jawbone	bone	jaw	no
ladybug	bug	lady	yes
landlady	lady	land	no
landlord	lord	land	no
leadership	ship	leader	yes
leaflet	let	leaf	no
lengthwise	wise	length	no
lighthouse	house	light	yes1
loudspeaker	speaker	loud	no
masterpiece	piece	master	no
matchstick	stick	match	no
meatball	ball	meat	yes
moonlight	light	moon	yes
myself	self	my	no
necktie	tie	neck	no
newspaper	paper	news	no
nobody	body	no	no
offhand	hand	off	yes
online	line	on	yes
otherwise	wise	otherwise	no
outdoor	door	out	no
outfield	field	out	no
outfit	fit	out	no
outgrow	grow	out	yes
outlaw	law	out	no
outlet	let	out	yes
outnumber	number	out	no
outpatient	patient	out	no
outside	side	out	yes1
overboard	board	over	no
overdose	dose	over	no
overdue	due	over	no
pancake	cake	pan	yes1
partnership	ship	partner	yes
penknife	knife	pen	no
photocopy	copy	photo	yes
playground	ground	play	no
playroom	room	play	no
popcorn	corn	pop	no
postman	man	post	yes1
railway	way	rail	no
rainbow	bow	rain	no
raindrops	drops	rain	yes
rattlesnake	snake	rattle	yes1
ringworm	worm	ring	yes1
sandbags	bags	sand	yes
sandcastle	castle	sand	yes
sandpaper	paper	sand	yes
seafood	food	sea	no
seashore	shore	sea	no
seaweed	weed	sea	no
shipwreck	wreck	ship	yes1
shoestring	string	shoe	yes1
shortbread	bread	short	no
skateboard	board	skate	yes
skyscraper	scraper	sky	no
snowboard	board	snow	yes
snowstorm	storm	snow	yes
something	thing	some	no
soundproof	proof	sound	no
spaceship	ship	space	yes
staircase	case	stair	no
starlight	light	star	yes
stomachache	ache	stomach	no
strawberry	berry	straw	no
sunlight	light	sun	yes
sunshine	shine	sun	yes
superhuman	human	super	no
superimpose	impose	super	yes
supernatural	natural	super	yes
surfboard	board	surf	no
tailgate	gate	tail	yes1
teacup	cup	tea	no
teapot	pot	tea	no
thunderstorm	storm	thunder	yes
tightrope	rope	tight	yes
timetable	table	time	yes
tombstone	stone	tomb	yes
toolbox	box	tool	yes
toothbrush	brush	tooth	indeterminate
understand	stand	under	yes
wallpaper	paper	wall	yes1
wardrobe	robe	ward	no
warship	ship	war	yes
watermelon	melon	water	yes1
waterproof	proof	water	indeterminate
weekend	end	week	yes
wheelbarrow	barrow	wheel	yes
wheelchair	chair	wheel	yes
woodcutter	cutter	wood	indeterminate
woodland	land	wood	indeterminate
woodpile	pile	wood	yes
woodshed	shed	wood	yes
woodwork	work	wood	yes
woodworm	worm	wood	yes
yourself	self	your	no
TOTALS				190	190	76	80	24	500,000 (estimated)