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Estetisk-filosofiska fakulteten Hina Kashif Compounding in domestic news articles in Pakistani and U.S. English: A comparative study Engelska C-uppsats Termin: Vårterminen 2011 Handledare: Solveig Granath Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60 [email protected] www.kau.se Abstract Titel: Compounding in domestic news articles in Pakistani and U.S. English: A comparative study. Författare: Hina Kashif Engelska C, 2011 Antal sidor : 25 Abstract: The aim of this essay was to compare the frequency and different types of compounding used in domestic news articles from Pakistani and American English newspapers. The material used in the investigation is a random selection of ten articles each from The New York Times and The News , which is a Pakistani newspaper. Pakistani English is one of the ‘new Englishes’, and the question is whether there is any difference in the way compounds are formed in one of the native varieties of English as compared to a new variety. The investigation was done manually by identifying different types of compounding and their frequencies in the articles. The results show that although compounds consisting of two parts are the most common, in both varieties there are also compounds consisting of three, four or even more parts. Noun compounds are the most common type of compounds in the two varieties. Adjective compounding was also found in a good number. But Adverb and Verb compounding were comparatively rare in both varieties. Overall, the results showed that there was not so much difference in the type of compounds used in the articles investigated. One conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that more research is needed in the area of compounding comprised of three and more parts. Compounds consisting of more than two parts are only rarely dealt with in the secondary sources used for this paper. Nyckelord: Compounding, American English, Pakistani English. i Table of contents 1. Introduction and aims............................................................................................................. 1 2. Background ............................................................................................................................ 2 2.1 Mode and genre................................................................................................................ 2 2.2 What is a word?................................................................................................................ 2 2.3 Difference between compound words and phrases .......................................................... 6 2.4 Distinction between compound nouns and derivations.................................................... 6 3. Methods and material ............................................................................................................. 7 3.1 Material ............................................................................................................................ 7 3.2 Criteria for identifying compounds ................................................................................ 10 3.2.1 Orthographic criteria, compounds and derivations ................................................. 10 3.2.2 Stress ....................................................................................................................... 10 3.3 Compound words which occur more than once ............................................................. 11 3.4 Constituent parts of compounds..................................................................................... 11 3.4.1 Compounding and conversion................................................................................. 11 3.4.2 Compounds where one part is a numeral ................................................................ 11 3.5 Delimitation.................................................................................................................... 12 4. Analysis and results.............................................................................................................. 12 4.1 Survey of results............................................................................................................. 12 4.2 Compound words comprised of two parts...................................................................... 13 4.2.1 Noun compounds..................................................................................................... 13 4.2.3 Adjective compounds.............................................................................................. 17 4.2.4 Adverb compounds ................................................................................................. 19 4.2.5 Special noun compounds......................................................................................... 19 4.3 Compound words consisting of three parts .................................................................... 20 4.4 Compound words comprised of four parts..................................................................... 21 4.5 Compound words comprised of five and six parts......................................................... 23 5. Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 23 References ................................................................................................................................ 25 ii 1. Introduction and aims Most of the words in the English language can be used either on their own or in combination with each other. Often if words are joined together they will give rise to a different word with a different meaning. This is the case with compound words, which is a special form of word formation in which two or more words are put together to make a new lexical unit. According to Ljung (2003:121), “compounding is a source of making new words in English”. It is useful to know about compounds in order to understand English written texts. Compound words are combinations of two or more words. However, such combinations can also be phrases, consisting for instance of a modifier and a head. Therefore it is hard to assess at first sight whether the words form a compound or not. One issue is how one can determine whether two words make up a compound word or not. What are the criteria that can be used to identify whether the particular words used are compound words? The majority of compounds are made up of words that belong to open word classes. The most common category, according to Ljung (2003:121), is noun + noun compounds, like, for example, textbook and blackboard . The second most common type contains noun + adjective compounds, like childproof, accident-prone and breath-taking . There are also some other types, for instance, verb and adverb + adjective compounds. Compounds are usually classified according to the word class of one of the component parts. For students of linguistics it is important and also interesting to know about the formation and meaning of compound words. An interesting question is whether compounding is basically the same in all varieties of English today, or whether there are differences. The aim of this paper is to compare the frequency and type of compounding used in an American newspaper and in a Pakistani news-paper; as English is not a native language of Pakistan, it will be interesting to find out whether the compounds used in the Pakistani newspaper differ in any respect from the compounds used in the American newspaper. What types of compound words are used in the newspapers? Are compounds more frequent in one variety than another? Is there a difference in the meaning and use of compounds? Looking at what types of compounds there are, how they are used and what is the frequency of their appearance is one way of finding out more about vocabulary differences in different genres and different varieties. The genre selected for this study is domestic news. 1 2. Background 2.1 Mode and genre We use different modes of language to communicate with each other. By mode is meant the medium of communication, namely speech, writing and signing. These are in fact different communication systems which are used to convey different forms of a single language. The spoken mode is transmitted with the coded system of sounds and the written mode is coded in visual symbols. Gestures are used in sign language. There are also different genres. Novelists do not write in the same way as news reporters, for instance. Swales (1990:115) defines genre as “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes”. According to him the texts of the same genre have the same qualities of structure, style and content and these types of text will be viewed as prototypical. While studying written texts, it is therefore important to take genre into account, especially if texts from different varieties are to be compared. 2.2 What is a word? Before talking about word formation it is important to discuss the concept of word. Ljung (2003:19) says that the term is often used as if it were “a well defined entity with a single meaning”. Marchand (1961:1) defines word as “the smallest independent, indivisible, and meaningful unit of speech, susceptible of transposition in sentences”. Later he adds that the infinitive to can be separated from the stem of the verb by adding an adverb as in to always go. A word is in fact a term that can be defined in several different ways. The question that arises here