Compounding

Compounding is one of the widespread word‐formation processes across languages, the structural patterns and productivity of which vary, independently of the language family or typology. This entry deals with several aspects of compounding, both synchronically and diachronically, and descriptions and suggestions are illustrated by a considerable number of compounds, drawn from various languages. It starts, first, by delimiting the process, distinguishes between one‐word and phrase‐looking compounds, and brings into query the issue of the locus of compounding, that is, whether it is morphology and/or syntax. The basic constituents of compounds are investigated next, their categories and types, and borderline cases are taken into consideration, such as those of prefixoids and bound stems, displaying properties shared by both lexemes and derivational affixes. The genesis of compounds, a topic of major concern in scholarly works of different diachronic periods, constitutes the subject of the second section. The diversity of views and the questions they prompt lead to the conclusion that the origin of compounds must be left undecided. The major proposals to classify compounds into different categories and subcategories, beginning with the Indian tradition, are reported in the third section. The strong and weak points of these proposals are pointed out and focus is put on the issue of headedness and the distinction between the so‐called ‘endocentric’ and ‘exocentric’ compounds. The last section of the entry is devoted to the description of various compound patterns that are detected cross‐linguistically, on the basis of their constituency and special properties. Information is provided about innovative structures or changes triggered by language‐internal or language‐external factors, while illustrative data are drawn from well‐attested languages on diachronic grounds.