Compounding

The formation of compound words in English and Ukrainian is characterized by both isomorphic and allomorphic features. Common are 3 main ways of forming compounds in English and Ukrainian:

1. by the juxtaposition of the determining and the determined parts;

2. with the help of the linking/interfixal o, e, s in English and o, e/є, y in Ukrainian;

3. with the help of functionals ( prepositions, conjunctions).

The largest group of compounds formed through juxtaposition of free root/stem words in English constitute nouns (aircraft, blackboard, note-book); adjectives (sky-blue, snow-white, peace-loving) and verbs (black-wash, ill-treat). Less numerous are adverbs (anywhere, outside); pronouns (everybody, herself) and numerals (twenty-one, two-thirds)

Compounding by juxtaposition of free words is considerably less productive in Ukrainian. Still, there are several nouns, adverbs, pronouns, a few verbs and conjunctions, particles formed in this way. For example: вагон-ресторан, зернотрест, генерал-майор; дехто, хтозна-що.

There are some compound nouns and verbs of co-ordinate nature:

nouns: батько-мати (cf. батько і мати)

хліб-сіль (cf. хліб і сіль)

verbs: думати-гадати

говорити-балакати

conjunctions and particles: ніби-то, немовбито.

Compounding with the help of the linking interfixal elements is far less productive in English than in Ukrainian, generally being restricted to nouns and adjectives.

Anglo-Saxon, electro-therapy, gasometer, tradesfolk, spokesman, Israeli-American.

The principal way of forming composites in Ukrainian, however is by means of linking interfixes which connect abbreviated and full words:

землечерпалка, броненосець, сновидець, нафтоносний, карколомно, передовсім.

Pertaining to English mostly are compounds with prepositions and conjunctions used as connectors of different roots/stems, for example:

commander – in – chief, bread-and-butter, mother – of – pearl

Of common nature are many English and Ukrainian composite words formed from word-combinations or sentences, for example: forget-me-not, merry-go-round, kiss-in-the-ring, kiss-me-quick;

family names and nicknames of people, geographical names:

Mr. Backbite, Youngman, Mr. Know-All, Westbrook, Greenfield etc.

Ukrainian has composite words of this type too, though they are not so numerous and sometimes they are formed with the help of the linking elements (usually -u-), for example: горихвістка, варивода, крутиголовка, перекотиполе.

Several Ukrainian family names and geographical names have been formed from word-groups or sentences as well:

Вернигора, Добривечір, Панібудьласка, Нетудихата.

There is one more way of compounding in English that is alien to Ukrainian (so-called wholophrasing). It represents an occasional incorporation of word-groups or sentences into non-constant compounds, such as:

a to-be-or-not-to-be question

come-what-will-attitude

a never –to-be—forgotten event.

Shortening (Contraction)

This comparatively new way of word-building has achieved a high degree of productivity nowadays, especially in American English.

Shortenings (or contracted/curtailed words) are produced in two different ways. The first is to make a new word from a syllable (rarer, two) of the original word. The latter may lose its beginning (as in phone made from telephone, fence from defence), its ending (as in hols from holidays, vac from vacation, props from properties, ad from advertisement) or both the beginning and ending (as in flu from influenza, fridge from refrigerator). Many English shortenings originate from colloquialisms and jargonisms, as it is the case with such nouns as bike (bicycle), dub (double), bod (body, fellow), demo (demonstration), doc (doctor), fridge (refrigerator), mike (microphone), pop (popular as in pop-music), profie (a professional), prof (professor), telly (TV), trank (tranquili-zer), vac (vacuum cleaner), van (a railway carriage), vet (a veteran), lab, exam, prep (preparation), ec/ecco (economics), math, trig (trigo­nometry).

The number of shortening words of this kind in Ukrainian is restric­ted to such nursery shortenings as ма (мамо), та (тату), ба (бабо) and to colloquialisms like трe (треба), хо (хочу), зав, зам, спец.

The second way of shortening is to make a new word from the initial letters of a word group: U.N.O. ['ju:neu] from the United Nations Organisation, B.B.C. from the British Broadcasting Corporation, M.P. from Member of Parliament. This type is called initial shortenings, or abbreviations. They are found not only among formal words, such as the ones above, but also among colloquialisms and slang. So, g. f. is a shortened word made from the compound girl-friend. The word, though, seems to be somewhat ambiguous as the following conversation between two undergraduates clearly shows:

• Who's the letter from?

• My g. f.

• Didn't know you had girl-friends. A nice girl?

• Idiot! It's from my grandfather!

Abbreviation represents a generally common type of word-formation in the contrasted languages, though it is not devoid of divergences either. Common and equally productive in both languages are:

1. The initial abbreviation such as USA, UNO, TGWU, AFL-CIO, CNN, TV, SOS, UNESCO, OPEC (oil producing and exporting countries), MP (member of parliament or military police), AIDS, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ) and other acronyms. Similarly in Ukrainian we see вуз, США, OOН, ЮНЕСКО, АФП-КПП, СOI, СНІД.

Specifically English is the combined abbreviation of acronyms and complete words as A-bomb, H-bag, N-bomb, U-language, (upper class English), etc. Rather productive in English and in Ukrainian is also such shortening as a. for acre, cmd. for commander, govt. for government, dz. for dozen, ft. for foot, in. for inch, gal. for gallon, m. for mile, t. for ton, oz. for ounce, lb. for pound, a.m. for ante meridian, and i.e. ( Lat.) for id est(that is). In Ukrainian: гa, с/г, км, м., кв.м, см, c., t (тонна).

2. Partial abbreviation of words is rare in English, for example, INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organi­zation), Colo (Colorado), Indi (Indiana), Okla (Oklahoma), Canwood (Cana­dian Woods), Irricanal (Irrigation Canal), and other geographical names. Partial abbreviation in Ukrainian, however, is rather produc­tive, being used to designate a variety of notions like держстрах, Донбас, Кривбас, райком, завгосп, колгосп, кербуд, сільбуд, комун­госп, начмед, начпостач.

3. Combined abbreviation is also less productive in English than in Ukrainian. Cf. CONUS (Continental US), COSPAR (Committee on Space Research), COMECON (Council of Mutual Economic Assitance/Aid). This way of abbreviation is very productive in Ukrainian, for example, міськвно, облвно, райвно, облсу (обласне статистичне управління).

It is commonly believed that the preference for shortenings can be explained by their brevity and is due to the ever-increasing tempo of modern life. Yet, in the conversation given above the use of an ambiguous contraction does not in the least contribute to the brevity of the communication: on the contrary, it takes the speakers some time to clarify the misunderstanding. Confusion and ambiguousness are quite natural consequences of the modern overabundance of shortened words, and initial shortenings are often especially enigmatic and misleading.

Both types of shortenings are characteristic of informal speech in general and of uncultivated speech particularly. The history of the American okay seems to be rather typical. Originally this initial shortening was spelt O.K. and was supposed to stand for all correct. The purely oral manner in which sounds were recorded for letters resulted in O.K. whereas it should have been AC. or aysee. Indeed, the ways of words are full of surprises.

Here are some more examples of informal shortenings. Movie (from moving-picture), gent (from gentleman), specs (from spectacles), circs (from circumstances, e. g. under the circs), I. O. Y. (a written acknowledgement of debt, made from I owe you), lib (from liberty, as in May I take the lib of saying something to you?), cert (from certainty, as in This enterprise is a cert if you have a bit of capital), metrop (from metropoly, e. g. Paris is a gay metrop), exhibish (from exhibition), posish (from position).

Undergraduates' informal speech abounds in words of the type: exam, lab, prof, vac, hol, co-ed (a girl student at a coeducational school or college).

Apart from the afore-mentioned, there exist some other ways (pro­ductive and non-productive) of word-formation in English and Ukrai­nian. They are:

1. Blending, which is a rather productive type of compounding in English. It has in recent decades become familiar in Ukrainian, too. Blends or "telescoped" words are formed by confrontation (поєднання) of two (in Ukrainian) or even more truncated (усічених) words or roots of words, for example, avia(tion) + (electr)onics-avianics, fan(tasy) + (maga)zine-fanzine, mo(torist) + (ho) tel- motel, sm(ock) + (f)og-smog, meri(t) + (aris)tocracy-meritocracy, fl(y) + (h)urry- flurry, etc.

Blends are made up from the initial part of the first word or word-group and the complete second word consisting of a root morpheme or stem only: cinem(a) + actress-cinemactress, para(litic gas) + bomb-parabomb, super(sonic) + jet-superjet, para(chute) + glider-paraglider, bas(ket) + cart-bascart.

The root morpheme/stem of the first word and the stem of the truncated initial part of the second word: hay + (si) lag-hay lag (си­лосна яма), pay-{-(pa)triotism-paytriotism, sea + (heli)copter-seacopter, motor + (caval) cade-motorcade.

Blends of the initial stem + the final part of the second word:

man + (En)glish-Manglish, radio + (elec)trician-rediotrician, cine­ma + (m)agnate-cinemagnate, book + (ad) vertizing-bookvertizing, etc.

All Ukrainian or Russian blends are restricted to similar contamina­tions in which truncated are final elements of the initial words/word-groups and the initial/final elements of the succeding words as in пірам(ідон) + (кофе)їн—пірамеїн, ас(пірін) + кофе(ї)н—аскофен, etc.

2. Back-formation (reversion) is rather productive in English, where many short words are inferred from longer words. Thus, verbs are derived from nouns: awn < awning, beg < beggar, brag < bragg­ing, broke < broker, edit < editor, hawk < hawker, kittle < kittling, infract < infraction, catalise < catalysis, emplace < emplacement, reminisce < reminiscence.

Compound verbs are often formed by back-formation from com­pound nouns: to aircondition < airconditioning, to baby-sit < baby sitter, to house-clean < house-cleaner, to house-keep < house-keeping, etc.

Verbs are formed from adjectives: luminisce < luminiscent, remi­nisce < reminiscent, frivol < frivolous, etc.

Nouns are formed from adjectives: greed < greedy, nast < nasty. cantankar < cantankerous (уїдливий, сварливий).

Back-formation in Ukrainian is restricted to nouns only which are formed from the infinitive, for example: біг < бігати, брід < бродити, піт < пітніти, крик < кричати, галас < галасувати, шамкіт < шам­котіти, говір <: говорити, etc.

3. Reduplication is a common means of compounding, but it is more productive in English than in Ukrainian. Cf. fifty-fifty, goody-goody, hush-hush (secret), pooh-pooh, so-so. Similarly in Ukrainian: де-де, ні-ні, ледве-ледве, так-так, ось-ось, тільки-тільки, тихо-тихо.

English reduplications are often different ablaut combinations:

bibble-babble, chit-chat, Сhitter-chatter (all denoting idle talk), dilly­-dally (loiter), knick-knacks (small article of ornament), riff-raff (the mob), shilly-shally (hesitate), ding-dong (equivalent to the Ukrainian дзінь- дзелень), tip-top (first-rate), zigzag (зиґзаґ).

The English language is very rich in rhymed reduplications. Cf. boogy-woogie, fliggerty-glibberty (frivolous), helter-skelter (in disor­dered haste), higgledy-piggledy (disorder), hurry-scurry (great hur­ry), lovey-dovey (darling), willy-nilly (compulsory), pow-wow (a noise assembly), Humpty-Dumpty, and others. Note. Pertaining to English only are also compounds with post-positives like camp-in, love-ins, teach-in, sit-in, and others.