Derivational bases in compounds may have different degrees of complexity: one or each of them may be simple as in snow+man, derived as inshoe+(make+er) or even compound as inwater+(boat+man) 'a pond-bug'. But most English compounds have two simple bases, or, from the point of view of morphological analysis, two roots as inwater-gun orsnow-man..Usually the second derivational base is more important and determines lexical, grammatical and part-of-speech meanings of the whole compound:hall-mark is a noun meaning 'an officialmark stamped on gold and silver articles in England',half-baked is an adjective meaning 'imperfectlybaked, underdone'.

Compounds that have the same elements but differ in their distribution are different in lexical meaning, too (cf.: ring finger 'the thirdfinger on the left hand (or in some parts of the world, the right hand)and finger-ring 'aring to wear on a finger';piano-player 'aperson who plays the piano' andplayer piano 'apiano containing a mechanical instrument', see alsoarmchair andchair-arm).

Classification of compounds

- from the derivational point of view

- according to the part of speech

- Semantically

- according to the means of composition 

Many new words are created when elements that started out as segments in blends become combining forms making the new words look like compounds or at least a suffixal derivative: rice-a-rony, sport-a-rama, plant-o-rama, work-o-holic. This is especially common in advertising and commerce.