Compounding and Clipping

1. COMPOUNDING

Compounding is the word formation process in which two or more lexemes combine into a single new word. Compound words may be written as one word or as two words joined with a hyphen.

For example compounding:

noun - noun compound                        : note        + book       → notebook

adjective - noun compound                 : blue        + berry       → blueberry

verb - noun compound                         : work      + room       → workroom

noun - verb compound                         : breast     + feed        → breastfeed

verb - verb compound                          : stir          + fry           → stir-fry

adjective - verb compound                  : high        + light        → highlight

verb - preposition compound               : break      + up           → breakup

preposition - verb compound               : out         + run          → outrun

adjective - adjective compound           : bitter      + sweet      → bittersweet

preposition - preposition compound    : in            + to            → into

Compounds may be compositional, meaning that the meaning of the new word is determined by combining the meanings of the parts, or noncompositional, meaning that the meaning of the new word cannot be determined by combining the meanings of the parts. For example, a blueberry is a berry that is blue. However, a breakup is not a relationship that was severed into pieces in an upward direction.

Compound nouns should not be confused with nouns modified by adjectives, verbs, and other nouns. For example, the adjective black of the noun phrase black bird is different from the adjective black of the compound noun blackbird in that black of black bird functions as a noun phrase modifier while the black of blackbird is an inseparable part of the noun: a black bird also refers to any bird that is black in color while a blackbird is a specific type of bird.

2. CLIPPING

Clipping is the word formation process in which a word is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the word. Clipping differs from back-formation in that the new word retains the meaning of the original word.

For example clipping:

advertisement           → ad

alligator                    → gator

examination              → exam

gasoline                    → gas

gymnasium               → gym

influenza                  → flu

laboratory                 → lab

mathematics             → math

memorandum           → memo

photograph               → photo

public house             → pub

raccoon                     → coon

reputation                 → rep

situation comedy      → sitcom

telephone                  → phone

The four types of clipping are back clipping, fore-clipping, middle clipping, and complex clipping. Back clipping is removing the end of a word as in gas from gasoline. Fore-clipping is removing the beginning of a word as in gator from alligator. Middle clipping is retaining only the middle of a word as in flu from influenza. Complex clipping is removing multiple parts from multiple words as in sitcom from situation comedy.