Compound Words’ Classification - A Cognitive Linguistic Based Study

Padmaja Kilambi

doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20200805.14

Abstract

This study attempts to classify compound words on the basis of Cognitive Linguistics and compares their usage trends using Computational Linguistics. In order to study compound words, it is very important to study the structure of a sentence because compound word in essence, is a condensed form of a sentence. After the Chomskyan Revolution, the concept of Cognitive linguistics in the structure of a sentence came into limelight. He explains about d-structure (deep structure), which determines the logic or meaning and s-structure (surface structure) that is the phonetic part. Lees, working with Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG), treated compound words, not as separate units but as a kind of embedded sentences and hinted for possible presence of d-structure and s-structure in compound words, which this study tries to investigate. Then on the basis of the Idealized Cognitive Model proposed by Lakoff and Fauconnier, compound words have been classified into transparent, opaque and counterintuitive compound words. Using Google Books Corpus, this study also compares their usage trends. This is done using usage frequency, defined in this work, which is analogous to productivity for affixed words calculated by G. E. Booij. Each class of compound word formed on the basis of ICM is found to have different usage frequency and the possible reasons for this are discussed.

Highlights

Interest in word formation has started from the time of Panini, who provided a detailed description of Sanskrit word formations
Observation: As seen in figure 7, the usage frequency of Transparent Compound Words (TCW) is found out to be more than the usage of Opaque Compound Words (OCW), which in turn is found to be more than that of Counterintuitive Compound Words (CICW)
The study of language pattern under the light of Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG) paved a new way in understanding compound words

Summary

Introduction

Interest in word formation has started from the time of Panini, who provided a detailed description of Sanskrit word formations. Many questions on this subject were asked by scholars from 18th and 19th century [6]. Word formation was not paid much attention. American structuralists like Leonard Bloomfield [8] did not give importance to it because they were interested in units smaller than words - the morphemes. Word formation was not given importance in structuralism theory [1]. Transformational grammar on the other hand dealt with units larger than the words like phrases and sentences. The subject of word formation is considered a sub ordinate topic as there is no single theory on it and there is no agreement or relevant data to construct such a theory [6]

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion