Compound words

The words have all consisted of a stem plus an affix. We now pass on to another type of word. This is called compound, and its main characteristic is that it can be analyzed into two words, both of which can exist independently as English words. Some compounds are made of more than two words, but we will not consider these. As with many of the distinctions being made in connection with stress, there are areas of uncertainty. For example, it could be argued that 'photograph' may be divided into two independent words, 'photo' and 'graph'; yet we usually do not regard it as a compound, but as a simple word. If, however, someone drew a graph displaying numerical information about photos, this would perhaps be called a 'photo-graph' and the word would then be regarded as a compound. Compounds are written in different ways: sometimes they are written as one word (e.g. 'armchair', 'sunflower'); sometimes with the words separated by a hyphen (e.g. 'open minded', 'cost-effective'); and sometimes with two words separated by a space (e.g. 'desk lamp', 'battery charger'). In this last case there would be no indication to the foreign learner that the pair of words was to be treated as a compound. There is no clear dividing line between two-word compounds and pairs of words that simply happen to occur together quite frequently.

As far as stress is concerned, the question is quite simple. When is primary stress placed on the first constituent word of the compound and when on the second? Both patterns are found. A few rules can be given, although these are not completely reliable. Perhaps the most familiar type of compound is the one which combines two nouns and which normally has the stress on the first element, as in:

'typewriter' 'taɪpraɪtə

'car ferry' 'ka:feri  

'sunrise' 'sɑnraɪz

'suitcase' 'su:tkeɪs  

'teacup' 'ti:kɑp

It is probably safest to assume that stress will normally fall in this way on other compounds; however, a number of compounds receive stress instead on the second element. The first words in such compounds often have secondary stress. For example, compounds with an adjectival first element and the -ed morpheme at the end have this pattern (given in spelling only):

.bad-'tempered

,half-'timbered

,heavy-'handed

Compounds in which the first element is a number in some form also tend to have final stress:

,three-'wheeler

,second-'class

,five-'finger

Compounds functioning as adverbs are usually final-stressed:

,head'first

,North-'East

,down'stream

Finally, compounds which function as verbs and have an adverbial first element take final stress:

,down'grade

.back-'pedal

.ill-¹'treat