Compounding is joining together 2 or more stems.

 1 Without a connecting element: e.g.: heartbreak, headache.

2 with the vowelconsonant like a linking element: e.g.: craftsman.

 3 with the prepositionconjunction as a linking element: e.g.: down-and-out.

WAYS OF FORMING COMPOUND WORDS.

Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of composition but also by means of :

a) reduplication, e.g. too-too, and also by means of reduplicatin combined with sound interchange , e.g. rope-ripe,

b) conversion from word-groups, e.g. to micky-mouse, can-do, makeup etc,

c) back formation from compound nouns or word-groups, e.g. to bloodtransfuse, to fingerprint etc ,

d) analogy, e.g. lie-in ( on the analogy with sit-in) and also phone-in, brawn-drain (on the analogy with brain-drain) etc.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:

a) nouns, such as : baby-moon, globe-trotter,b) adjectives, such as : free-for-all, power-happy,c) verbs, such as : to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck,d) adverbs, such as: downdeep, headfirst,e) prepositions, such as: into, within,f) numerals, such as : fifty-five.

2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are divided into:

a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morpheme, e.g. ball-point, to windowshop,

b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element : vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s», e.g. «astrospace», «handicraft», «sportsman»),

c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word stems, e.g. here-and-now, free-for-all., do-or-die .

3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-hunt, train-sick, go-go, tip-top ,

b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, e.g. ear-minded, hydro-skimmer,

c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. cornflower-blue, eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,

d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, tourmobile, VJ-day, motocross, intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.

4. According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into :

a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these subordinative relations can be different:

with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, with emphatic relations, e.g. dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause relations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with time relations, e.g. spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc

b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, This group includes also compounds formed by means of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no,

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into

-compounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy,

-compounds with indirect order, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe .