7.2. Classification of Word-combinations

General Classification. All word-combinations (WC) can be divided into two general groups on the ground of:

4. Principle of Form (inner structure, grammatical morphological relations and sequence of elements inside of WC);

5. Principle of Syntactic Function (behaviour of WC and its elements inside of Sentence).

In accordance to these two principles there are two general types of WC:

1. Endocentric: combination of words where one or any component can substitute the whole combination in a bigger, extended structure which is Sentence;

2. Exocentric: combination of words where any component can not substitute the whole WC.

For example:

1. Endocentric WC:

1. Poor John; in a sentence it can be replaced by one component: John has already recovered.

2. John and Marry. It is possible to separate the components: John and Marry ran. = John ran. Marry ran.

2. Exocentric WC:

   1. John ran. It can not be replaced by one component.

   2. In front of John. The same.

Another classification grounded on the Principle of the Inner Structure of WC is presented in the tab. 7.1.

Table 7.1

Classification of Word-combinations grounded on the Principle of its Inner Structure

Word-combinations
I Nuclear		II Nuclear-free
1.1. Regressive	1.2. Progressive	2.1. Independent		2.2. Dependent
		of one class	of different classes	of one class	of different classes
with the following nuclei:		with the following coordination:
1) adverbial	4) substantive	8) conjunctive	10) mutually dependent with primary predicativity	11) accumulative	12) accumulative
2) adjectival	5) adjectival	9) non-conjunctive			13) mutually dependent with secondary predicativity
3) substantive	6) verbal
	7) prepositional

Meanings of the presented types of WC (tab. 7.1):

I. Nuclear WC is a group of words where one element takes the superior position (becomes the main word). The element is not subordinate to any other element of the WC. Relations in this type of WC are based on the syntactic connection of subordination.

As for the type of subordination there are Regressive or Progressive WC.

1.1. Regressive WC: subordinate element is put on the left from the nucleus (e.g., new books; very young);

1.2. Progressive WC: subordinate element is put on the right from the nucleus (e.g., a book of poems; to see a man, to laugh heartily).

II. Nuclear-free WC is characterized by the absence of a nucleus (main, superior word in a group of words).

As for the need in the context (Sentence) there are two types of WC: Dependent and Independent:

2.1. Independent WC can be identified without additional context (e.g., red and green, ladies and gentlemen).

2.2. Dependent WC demands additional context to be identified as a syntactically organized combination (e.g., wise old (man); (to find) the car gone).

As for the morphological choice of words in WC there can be WC with the words belonging to on morphological class and the words belonging to different classes:

1. WC of one class: include the words of the same morphological part of speech (e.g., men, women, children; wise, old (man));

2. WC of different classes (e.g., his old (friend), (to see) him go).

As for the type of syntactic coordination of elements in WC there can be the following relations of the elements:

1. Relations of mutual dependency (e.g., he laughed);

2. Coordinative relations (e.g., red and green);

3. Accumulative relations (e.g., wise old (man)).

Examples of word-combinations (WC) are given in the tab. 7.2.

Table 7.2