Hyphenated Compound Nouns in English and Albanian

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze compounds in both English and Albanian. It should be pointed out that the spelling of English compounds often exposes English students, including native speakers of the language, to difficulties as to their correct usage, since it is just as normal for them to consult a dictionary when faced with ambiguities concerning their form. Dictionaries, however, often provide different forms, where the same word might be written differently across different dictionaries. The spelling of compounds falls under three basic categories: open, solid (closed) and hyphenated compounds. On the other hand, in Albanian most of the compounds are written as just one word. Only a few of them are hyphenated and yet there is a third category of nouns which are written as two separate words. Most of the latter ones include nouns related to zoology or botany. The paper will present statistical data on hyphenated compound nouns in both languages. It will also provide examples of compound nouns collected from dictionaries of both languages. Keywords: Compounding, spelling, hyphenation, English, Albanian, dictionaries.