Noun compound
A Substantivkompositum (plural Substantivkomposita ) or nominal composition (plural nominal compounds ) is a compound noun, such as the German words sausage or St. Nicholas .
Nominal compounds in various Indo-European languages
Nominal compounds in German
There are several types of composition in German, of which the determinative compound is the most important. Its two members are a defining word or determinant ("defining"), followed by a basic word or determinatum ("defining"). These terms refer to the semantic relationship between the components: A determinative compound of the structure AB can be explained as “a B defined in more detail by A”. Accordingly, z. B. a meat sausage a sausage determined by meat. In addition to a noun, the first term of a noun compound can also be a verb, as in Schlagbohrer , or an adjective, as in Feingold .
The specific semantic relation between the components varies greatly in the compound and is not determined by the grammar. One of the most striking examples of this are the schnitzel subcategories: a pork schnitzel is a schnitzel made from pork. A Kinderschnitzel is a schnitzel for children, so simply a smaller portion, and a Jägerschnitzel is a Schnitzel “hunter-style” (that is, served with a mushroom sauce).
The gender of a compound is determined by the determinatum. For example, closet is masculine because closet is masculine. Exceptions are the answer (the word), the disgust (the shyness) and in older language the lamprey (the eye).
Like all compounds, the nominal ones are basically two-part. This also applies to those that contain more than two strains; these are also composed of two - possibly already complex - strains. This is addressed in the following poem:
There are animals, circles and doctors.
There are veterinarians, district doctors and senior physicians.
There is a zodiac and a medical circle.
There is also an upper district veterinarian.
But there is no such thing as an upper circle animal.
Roda Roda
Both the determinant and the determinatum of a compound can already be complex. A complex has Determinans [ deer ] hunting = deer hunting; Landes [ music director] = music director of the country (and not director of regional music) has a complex determinatum . This can also lead to ambiguity with words like girls' trading school .
This means that compounds can be as complex as you want, such as in the Danube steamship company captain's hats , Fichtelbergseilschwebebahnbergstation toilet supervisory staff or the Wikipedia entry for beef labeling monitoring tasks transfer law . Such compound words, which often come from the official language, are often abbreviated (example: Federal Training Assistance Act, BAföG for short).
orthography
According to the current spelling of a noun compound in German, the individual word components are either written together (e.g. Hochseefischerei ) or connected with one another by means of a hyphen (e.g. Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz ), so that in each case the compound in the typeface is considered to be connected Unity can be seen. The hyphenated spelling can be used to clarify the structure, for example in Landes-Musikdirektor . The unconnected juxtaposition of the individual parts of the word, as in English, is wrong .
Nominal compounds in Spanish
Like the Romance languages in general, Spanish has extremely few noun compounds. The relationships between two nouns are usually expressed here with the help of a preposition ( e.g. ministro de defensa , 'defense minister') or a noun- adjective construction (e.g. novela policíaca , 'crime novel').
The few exceptions mostly come from Latin American Spanish. In some areas, for example, divers don't say buceador , but hombre rana ( hombre = 'man', rana = 'frog'). Occasionally there are also noun compounds that orthographically form a single word, such as coliflor (cauliflower). The word limpiaparabrisas (windshield wiper), which is a double-composed noun, should be mentioned in particular : in the first case the composition from parar (stop, end) and brisa (breeze, wind) to parabrisas (windshield) and in the second case the composition from limpia (cleansing) and parabrisas (windshield) to limpiaparabrisas .
Nominal compounds in Russian
The morphology of Russian is very similar to that of Spanish on this point. Very common are adjective constructions such футбольная команда ( futbolnaja komanda , football team '), Советский Союз ( Sovetsky Soyuz , Soviet Union , literally, Soviet Union.'), But less so constructions by means of a preposition: объяснение в любви ( objasnenije v ljubwi , declaration of love ' ); Usually the basic noun is then a derivative of a verb, the inflection of which is also adopted (as in the example here from объясниться в любви, objasnitsja w ljubwi , 'to make a declaration of love').
In addition, due to the pronounced case system, there is the possibility of connecting two nouns using the genitive (without a preposition ), which is very often used: Союз писателей ( Sojus pisatelei , 'Writers' Association').
There are a little more nominal compounds there (as we know them from German), but these are almost all artificial word formations from the Soviet era, such as город-герой ( gorod-geroi , 'hero city'). In tsarist Russia, this type of word formation was completely uncommon.
However, there is also vocabulary in post-socialist Russia that is formed according to this pattern. One of the variants for the feminine form of the word бизнесмен ( bisnesmen , 'businessman'), which is discussed again and again, is женщина-бизнесмен ( shenschtschina-bisnesmen , literally: 'woman-businessman').
Nominal compounds in English
English also has a considerable number of noun compounds, such as moonlight ('moonlight'), which, however, does not come close to their quantity in German. Also, the two components of a noun compound - unlike in German - are written separately for some words. The grammatical handling of the term in question reveals its status as a single word. The connection of two nouns with a preposition is also common here. Similar to the composition in Spanish it is called Ministry of Defense .
Nominal compounds in Dutch
In Dutch, any combination of nouns is possible, as in German, if hyphens are intentionally not used, in the extreme this leads to hardly legible structures. This fact is illustrated with joke compounds such as Hottentottentententoonstelling (Hottentott-tenten-tentoonstelling = Hottentott tents tent exhibition).
See also
literature
- Stanko Zepic: Morphology and semantics of the German nominal compounds . Zagreb 1970.
- Franz Simmler: Morphology of German . Berlin 1998.
- Werner Welte : English morphology and word formation. A workbook with a comprehensive bibliography . Frankfurt am Main 1996.
- Mervyn F. Lang: Spanish word formation . Routledge 1990.
Web links
Stefan Langer: On the morphology and semantics of nominal compounds ( Memento from June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
swell
- ↑ Jo Schulz: laugh and let laugh . Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin 1961.
- ↑ German spelling. Rules and dictionary. Revised version of the official regulations 2004, Part I, Chapter B: Separate and combined, Paragraph 3 (Section 37). Rules as PDF