NOMINAL COMPOUNDS

NOMINAL COMPOUND

Definition of Nominal Compounds
Nominal compound is a combination of two or more words performing the function of a Noun as
one unit.

Forms of Nominal Compound:

Noun + Noun:
- Tea table ( tea+ table)= a table for serving tea
- News bulletin (News+ bulletin) = a bulletin containing news
- Bus fare ( bus + fare) = fare for travelling by bus
-

Noun+ Verb:
- Bus stop ( bus+ stop) = a spot where buses stop
- Loudspeaker ( loud + speaker) = an instrument which one can speak loudly
- Rainfall( rain + fall ) = the fall of the rain

Gerund + Noun:
- Breakfast ( break + fast) = a tiffin that breaks fasting overnight at daybreak
- Frying pan ( frying+ pan)= a pan for frying
- Dining table ( dining+ table) = a table for dining

Noun + Adjective:
- Homesick ( home +sick) = one who feels sick ( sickness) at home
- Snow- white ( snow + white) = that which is white like snow
- Sun- burnt ( sun + burnt) = that which burnt by the sun

Adjective + Noun:
- Darkroom ( dark + room)= a room for processing photos in darkness
- Solar energy ( solar + energy)= the energy emitting from the sun

Pronoun+ Noun:
- he-goat,
- he- man,
- she- goat

Adjective+ Verb:
- short cut = that which is cut short,
- white wash = a wash with white

Adjective + noun :
- easy- chair = a chair on which one can sit ease
- best-seller = that which sells best

Adjective+ Adjective= blue-black = that which is a blue and black tool

Adjective+ Preposition:
- left-over = that which is left over a time

Verb+ Noun: wash-basin = a basin for washing
Verb + Pronoun: hold-all = that can hold all the required things
Verb+ Verb = hearsay = that which generally said and heard
Verb + Adverb = know-how= the technique of knowing how it is done
Adverb+ Adverb

- wherever

- whenever

Verb+ Preposition:
- blow-up
- lay-off
- fall-out
- make-up
- walk-out
- lay-out
- turn-over

Preposition + Verb:
- upstart
- outlet
- out-cry
- over-flow
- uplift
- uproar
- outlook

Preposition + Noun:
- off-print
- over-coat
- over-time
- out-growth
- over-sight
- over-work
- over-production

Noun+ Preposition: lock-up

Features of Nominal Compounds :

1. The nominal compounds can often be changed into structures where the second noun
becomes a subject and the first an object.
Ex: steam engine: an engine run by steam

2. Articles that belong to the second noun are dropped in nominal compounds.
Ex: officers in the army: army officers

3. Nominal compounds may be written in three different ways.
- As single word: bathroom headmaster
- With a hypens : tea-party, girl-friend
- Two words with a gap : garden chair, history book

4. Some of the nominal compounds can be classified into different theme- groups
- Some are used to mean particular kinds of container
Ex: matchbox: box containing match, coffee cup: a cup to serve coffee.
- Some are used to say what things are made of
Ex: gold ring: a ring made of gold, silk dress: dress which is made from silk
- Some are used to mean time
Ex: evening news: news broadcast in the evening, Friday paper: a paper which ones
out every Friday.

- There are nominal compounds to mean class. They tell about things which belong to a
particular class.
Ex: Mathematic Teacher: a teacher who teaches mathematic

Type of Nominal Compounds:

 Nominal compounds may be countable or uncountable
Countable:
 Bank account
 Blood donor
 Bus stop
 Car park
 Dining room
 Driving license
 Health center
 Heart attack
 High school
Uncountable:
o Blood pressure
o Capital punishment
o Cotton wool
o Food poisoning
o Income tax
o Pocket money
o Washing powder

Endocentric Compounds

A number of nominal compounds are considered to be endocentric compounds, or headed
compounds, because they have got both syntactic and semantic heads. With syntactic head, we
mean that the noun which is a head, takes the inflectional morphemes, and the inflectional
morphemes are:
1. Noun plural → s
2. Noun possessive → 's
3. Verb present third-person singular → s
4. Verb present participle → ing
5. Verb past tense → ed
6. Verb past participle→ ed
7. Comparative → er
8. Superlative → est
Among these inflectional morphemes, only the first and the second one are for the nominal
compounds, for example:

 School boy→ School boys
School boy is an endocentric compound, because it has got a syntactic head, which is a 'boy', and
it takes the inflectional suffixes.

With semantic head, we mean that the meaning of the compound is clear, and it can be
understood easily, and the noun which is a head, determines the meaning of the compound, as:

 Girl friend→ Girl friends→ Friend is a head.
 Mother-in-law→ Mothers-in-law→ Mother is a head.
Endocentric compounds are either right- headed or left- headed compounds.
Girl friend is a right- headed compound, while mother- in- law is a left- headed compound.

Exocentric Compounds

A number of nominal compounds are considered to be exocentric compounds or headless
compounds, because they have syntactic heads, but not semantic heads. This means that the
meaning is not clear, and we cannot understand the meaning of the compound from the parts of
the compounds.There is no element that functions as a semantic head of the compound, which is
modified by the non- head element. Obviously, the meaning of an exocentric compound is
opaque. It is impossible to work out what an exocentric compound means from the sum of the

meanings of its constituents. For this reason, exocentric Compounding tends to be used much
less frequently than endocentric compounding in the creation of new words.

 Block head→ Block heads
Head is the syntactic head; it takes the inflectional morphemes, but it does not have a semantic
head, because the meaning is not clear, it means an idiot person.

 Spoil-sport→ Spoil-sports
Sport is a syntactic head, but it does not have a semantic head. So, the meaning is not clear, and
it means the person who disturbs the others.

 Loud mouth→ Loud mouths
Mouth is a syntactic head, but this kind of nominal compound does not have a semantic head. It
means a person who speaks too aloud, and this disturbs the others.

 Dim-wit→ Dim-wits
Wit is a syntactic head. The meaning is not clear, and it means an idiot or a stupid person.

 Butter-finger→ Butter fingers
Finger is a head syntactically. It means a person who can not hold things.

 Turn-coat→ Turn- coats
Coat is a syntactic head, the meaning is not clear, and it means renegade.

Plurals of Nominal Compounds :

1. Plural in the last element:
With most of the compound nouns, we pluralize the last element, as:

 Assistant director→ Assistant directors
 Baby sitter→ Baby sitters
 Girl friend→ Girl friends
This kind of pluralizing is always for those kinds of compound nouns, which are right headed
compounds.

2. Plural in the first element occurs especially when the compound noun includes a post
modifier or final particle, for example:

 Notary-public→ Notaries-public
 Man-of-war→ Men-of-war
 Coat-of-mail→ Coats-of-mail
 Grant-in-aid→ Grants-in-aid
This kind of pluralizing is always for those kinds of compound nouns, which are left-headed
compounds.

3. The following kinds of nominal compounds occur with plural, either in the first or last
element:

 Attorney general→ Attorney generals
Attorneys general

 Court material→ Court materials
Courts material

4. With appositional compounds, we pluralize the first and the last element, for example:
 Man servant→ Men servants
 Woman doctor→ Women doctors
 Gentleman farmer→ Gentlemen farmers
But there are some exceptions:
 Woman-hater→ Woman-haters

 Man-eater→ Man-eaters

5. With the exocentric compounds, we pluralize the last element, for example:
 Block head→ Block heads
 Spoil-sport→ Spoil-sports

Ways for Writing Nominal Compounds:
Compound words in general and nominal compounds in particular, can be written in many ways,
and the ways are:
1 .Sometimes, they can be written as one single word, for example:

 Girlfriend
 Football

2 .Most of nominal compounds can be written as two separate words, having a space between the
two parts, as:

 Sleep walker
 Chain smoker

3. Most of compound nouns can be written with a hyphen, as:
 Gate-crasher
 Near-sighted

There is no rule of hyphens in compounds. We often use hyphens with noun+ gerund
combinations,
as:

 Bird-watching
 Ice-skating

And sometimes with gerund+ noun combinations, for example:
 Swimming-bath
 Diving-board

Some noun+ noun combinations can also be written with a hyphen, as:
 Space-suit
 Hand-luggage

Hyphens are used in some compounds showing family relationships, for example:
 Son-in-law
 Brother-in-law

When noun compounds are used as adjectives, they are usually written with a hyphen, as it can
be seen in these examples:

 A bird-watching expedition
 A dining-room table

4. Some common nominal compounds can be written either with a hyphen or as on word, or a
space between them, for example

 Ice-cream- Ice cream- Ice-cream
 Airbus- Air bus- Air-bus