A Dictionary of Cont..

deciding whether or not two nouns standing together
are actually one word. If the compound
can be qualified by an adverb, most grammarians
would say that the first element is an adjective.
If the compound has one major accent,
they would say that it is being treated as a single
word. If the compound has a meaning different
from the meaning of the two words taken separately,
they would say that it is a single wlord.
Nouns are the principal but not the only parts
of speech that form compounds. Adjectives may
merge with nouns to form nouns. Here, if the
two words actually merge the first element
ceases to be felt as an adjective and cannot be
qualified by an adverb. We may say a perfectly
black bird but not a perfectly blackbird. On this
principle old age is as much a single word as
blackbird. We may say an extremely ol,d man
but we do not say in extremely old age. Similarly,
different parts of speech may be merged to
form adjectives or to form verbs. In each case,
the same tests can be applied: how is the compound
treated grammatically? how is it pronounced?
and what does it mean?
The same principles are considered in deciding
whether a compound should be written as
one word or as two. But here the problem is
additionally complicated by tradition or custom.
Sea horse and old age, for example, should be
written as two words simply because they always
are written in this way. In general, pronunciation,
or the accent that is given to a compound,
is considered the most important factor
in deciding how a word should be printed. How
it is handled grammatically is considered the
least important.
SOLID COMPOUNDS
1. A goldfish is not made of gold. A ladybird
is not a bird. A butterfly is not made of butter
and is not a fly. Words of this kind, that do not
mean what the two parts considered separately
would mean, are usually printed as solid compounds.
2. Words that have such a strong acce:nt on
the first element that the second element tends
to disappear are always written as solid compounds,
regardless of the meaning of the word.
This principle is responsible for considerable
confusion and variation in printing styles. ESverybody
pronounces postman as one word and egg
man as two, and this is reflected in all dimctionaries.
But whether the man who delivers the milk
is a milkman or a milk man depends on who is
speaking. Everybody says bookkeeper and book
review, but bookcase and book end vary. A
writer should not consult a dictionary on questions
of this kind but should listen carefully to
his own speech. When in doubt, he should separate
the words. In this way, at worst he will seem
old-fashioned. But if he joins words that other
people do not join, he may be unintelligible.
Style books sometimes give a great lmany
rules for compounding, such as the number of
syllables in the first word, or the grammatical
relation between the words. It may be pointed
Out that calfskin is one word and alligator skin
109 compound
two, or that brick house is two words and brickwork
one. These rules frequently have as many
exceptions as examples, and it will be found that
in almost every case accent is the determining
factor. Where it is not, there is no agreement
between one style book and another and it would
be better to leave the words separated.
The practice of combining all word pairs that
have a single major accent sometimes makes for
difficult reading. Counterattraction and counterespionage
undoubtedly have a forward accent,
but they are unwieldy words. And the accent in
this case is intended to emphasize counter, not to
submerge it. Both the meaning and the emphasis
would be reflected better in counter attraction.
However, in present practice these and similar
combinations are written as one word.
3. Sometimes words that have neither a
special meaning nor a one-word accent are
joined simply because they are like some other
combination that is joined. For example, cow
hand may be written as one word because cowboy
is. If this occurs often enough in print the
compound will find its way into dictionaries. But
if this practice should become the rule it would
cover almost all the normal combinations in
English, and for this reason particular instances
of it should be considered mistakes, no matter
where they are found. See also prefixes and
suffixes.
HYPHENATED COMPOUNDS
1. The hyphen is used when two normally
distinct functions are united in one person or
thing, as in secretary-treasurer, fighter-bomber,
manic-depressive. Double terms that represent
a single office, such as major general, are not hyphenated.
Compound color terms are sometimes
hyphenated and sometimes not. We may write
blue-black or blue black. When nationality
names are combined the first word is often
modified, as in Anglo-American, Franco-
German. But the simple forms, English-American,
French-German, and so forth, are also used
today.
2. English has a great many verbs that carry
a preposition or adverb with them, such as flare
up, take ofi, set to. (See adverbs.) These are
separate words, but when nouns or adjectives
are made from them they are always hyphenated,
as in a flare-up, a lean-to, a go-between,
broken-down cars, built-up shoes. Similar nouns
and adjectives are sometimes made from a verb
and its object, as in know-all, do-nothing.
Words of this kind have the specialized meaning
that would justify writing them as one word,
but the second element does not lose its individual
accent. They are therefore hyphenated. If
the second element does lose its accent, the word
is written as a solid compound, as in a setup.
Accordingly makeup would be one word, and is
so written by some publishers, but others make
an exception and keep the hyphen after a
silent e.
3. A noun with a qualifying word, such as
kind heart, horn rim, may be made into an adjective
by adding -ed to the noun, as in kind.