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LEXICAL FEATURES OF COMPOUND WORDS IN KARAKALPAK, ENGLISH
AND GERMAN
Aytmuratova Tumaris Zakariyayevna
Uzbek State World Languages University
graduate student.
https://doi.org/
10.5281/zenodo.17087734
Annotation.
This article deals with the following issues: the lexical features of compound
words in three languages: Karakalpak, English and German, their typological analysis and
comparison. In the article similarities and differences of the compounds in Karakalpak, English
and German are identified from lexical point of view.
Keywords:
Compound words (CW), word formation, lexical features, lexical point of
view, lexicon, correlation, semantic connection, Komposition.
Composition is one of most productive ways of word formation in Turkic as well
as in Germanic languages. The compound words in Karakalpak, English and German
languages have some common features. However, there exist differences between them
as well, as they are from grammatical point of view, differently structured.
In modern linguistic literature, there is mainly use d the term “word formation” in
the questions related to word building. By the term of word formation linguists
understand formation of new words by means of various word building models in a
particular language in a particular period of time. The basic typ es of word formation are
derivation and compounding. Word formation is, on the one hand, closely related to
lexicon and, on the other hand, to grammar. The relation between word formation and
lexicon is that every new word in the language becomes a unit of the vocabulary of the
language. And the relation between word formation and grammar is that every new
word in the language is included to the lexical and grammatical category called a part
of speech.
Word composition is a common type of word formation, t hat is made by
connecting two or more elements into one unit. The way of word building is counted to
be one of the most ancient in Karakalpak, English and German languages. The basic
way of joining components of the compounds into one whole is to connect s tems of
different parts of speech without any changes or with some modifications. And this
means of composition is widespread in the languages investigated.
As it was mentioned above, according to A. Bekbergenov in Karakalpak
language compound words are classified into: a) composite words; b) paired words; c)
paired-repeated words; d) fused words; e) abbreviated words/shortenings.
Consequently, compound words make more than half of the whole lexicon of
Karakalpak language. Furthermore, compounds can belong to any part of speech from
morphological point of view.
If to compare compound words in Karakalpak with the ones in English and in
German, it is worthwhile to note that Karakalpak language is richer than English and
German languages. Now that Karaka lpak compounds are divided into 5 subclasses, they
make more than half of the vocabulary of the language, whereas in English they are
subdivided into 3 types (Arnold,1986,123), and in German – into 4 subtypes.
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In English and German there don’t exist paired and paired-repeated compounds,
while they make a huge part of the spoken and written language in Karakalpak. As for
the abbreviated compound words in Karakalpak, the group of words is considered to be
a separate type of word formation in English and German languages. I.V. Arnold states
that “…Shortening, on the other hand, may be represented as significant subtraction, in
which part of the original word or word group is taken away. Moreover, every kind of
shortening differs from derivation, composition and conversion in being not a new
arrangement of existing morphemes, but often a source of new ones. As a type of word -
building shortening of spoken words, also called clipping or curtailment is recorded in
the English language as far back as the 15th centur y.” Thus, Arnold refers
shortenings/abbreviated words to a separate type of word formation. Apart from that
German linguists also find the word formation means relatively new and exceptional.
I.G. Olshanskiy and A.E.Guseva admit that “Kurzwortbildung ist eine relativ
neue und außerordentlich produktive Wortbildungsart. Diese Art der Wortbildung
entsteht durch die Verkürzung eines längeren Wortes oder mehrerer Ausgangwörter
(eines Kompositums:
Lastkraftwagen – LKW, einer Wortverbindung: elektronische
Datenverarbeitung – EDV
).“
However, there is also another point in the classification of the compound words
of the three languages. Namely there exist a group of compounds in English and
German formed in the result of two linguistic phenomena: derivation and co mpounding.
Such compounds are called “derivational compounds”
(‘Zusammenbildungen’
in
German). Derivational compounds or compound-derivatives are the words in which the
structural integrity of two free stems is ensured by a suffix referring to the combina tion
as a whole, not to one of its elements:
kind-hearted, old-timer, schoolboyishness,
teenager.
In the coining of the derivational compounds two types of word formation are
at work
1
. Accordingly, Arnold refers the group of words to compounds by emphasizi ng
their structural features identical with compound words.
Among
the
German
compounds
a
special
role
plays
so
called
‘Zusammenbildungen’, equivalent to derivational compounds in English. In the
formation of Zusammenbildungen two processes take place: der ivation (Derivation) and
composition
(Komposition).
For
instance,
Schuh/mach/er,
Früh/aufsteh/er,
Wichtig/tu/er, zwei/stuf/ig.
Here the ‘Frühaufsteher’ is made up of ‘früh’, ‘aufstehen’
and the suffix ‘er’. The suffix helps to combine the words and to have the single lexical
meaning. However, such type of compounds do not exist in Karakalpak language. Even
though there are compound words, especially compound adjectives in Karakalpak that
have similar structural features as the derivational compounds in Engl ish and German,
such compounds are referred to composite words. In other words, compound words
formed in result of derivation and compounding as the followings
uzin boy/li (tall), ko’k
ko’z/li (blue-eyed), qara qas/li (with black eyebrows), sari shash/li (fair haired), aq
saqal/li (with a white beard)
can be categorized as composite adjectives. In the above
given word ‘qara qas/li’ is made up of ‘qara’ (black), ‘qas’ (eyebrow) and the suffix ‘ -
li’. The suffix serves as a morphological unit which helps to co nnect words as
grammatically and lexically. According to Bekbergenov, such composite adjectives are
productive in modern Karakalpak.
1
I.V. Arnold „The English Word”, M: Высшая школа, 1986, p 128
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The first component of compound adjectives of this type can be any part of
speech including noun, adjective, pronoun and a numeral, the second component is
always an adjective with the suffixes
-li/li, -siz/-siz, -liq/-lik
. For ex:
qoy ko’z/li, iyt
minez/li, adam ta’riz/li, eki ju’z/li, on etaj/li, pu’tkil soyuz/liq, aq shash/li
and so on.
Besides in Karakalpak there are co mpound adjectives in which the first
component is usually a noun (sometimes an adjective or adverb), the second constituent
is a verbal adjective with the suffix
-ar/-er/-r
(and their negative forms):
toy tarqat/ar,
qan ish/er, is jaq/pas, qos jaq/pas, jan ku’y/er, aq pis/er, kesh pis/er
. The compound
‘toy tarqatar’
here is made up of
‘toy’
(noun stem, the first component),
‘tarqat’
(verbal stem, the second component),
‘-ar’
(the suffix). The morphological structure of
compound adjective is the following: noun + verbal adjective + (-er). A. Bekbergenov
admits that they belong to composite compounds. The compound ‘kesh piser’ is also
made up of ‘kesh’ which is an adverb, the verbal stem ‘pisiw’ together with the suffix -
er forms the verbal adjective ‘piser’.
If to compare the same word building model with the ones in English, it turns out
that such compounds are categorized as compound -derivatives in English, as it has been
mentioned above, while they are referred to composite compounds in Karakalpak.
The most widespread of the morphological structures that often can be found in
all three languages is noun + noun structure. This type is considered to be numerous
and unlimited in number, as well as the oldest word building model especially in
English and German languages.
Apart from that Ginzburg also states that correlation is a regular interaction and
interdependence of compounds and certain types of free phrases which conditions both
the potential possibility of appearance of compound words and their struc ture and
semantic type. Thus, the fact that there is a potential possibility of individual phrases
with the underlying pattern, for ex, as A + as N in as white as snow, as white as blood
presupposes a potential possibility of compound words of the n+a type like
snow-white,
blood-red
etc, with their structure and meaning relation of the components
preconditioned. It happens that in this particular case compound adjectives are more
typical and preferred as a language means of conveying the quality based on
comparison.
Structural and semantic correlation by no means implies identity or a one -to-one
correspondence of each individual pattern of compound “words to one phrase pattern.
For example, the n + n
v
type of compound nouns comprises different patterns,
such as [n + (v + -er)] –
rocket-flyer, shoe-maker, bottle-opener;
[n + (v + -ing)] –
rocket-flying, football-playing;
[n + (v + -ion)] –
price-education.
All these patterns
differing in the individual suffix used in the final analysis correlate with verbal -nominal
word-groups of the V+N type (e.g. to fly rockets), the meaning of the active doer
(
rocket-flyer
) or the action (
rocket-flying
) is conveyed by the suffixes. However, the
reverse relationship is not uncommon, e.g. one derivational pattern of compound
adjectives (n + a) in words like
oil-rich
,
sky-high
,
grass-green
corresponds to a variety
of word-group patterns which differ in the grammatical and semantic relationship
between member-words expressed in phrases by different prepositions. Thus, compound
adjectives of this type may correspond to phrase patterns A + of + N, e.g.
pleasure-
tired;
A+in +N, e.g.
oil-rich;
as A as N, e.g.
grass-green
.
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Another example of the same type of correlation of the semantic relations
underlying word-groups of the N + prp + N type, such as relations of resemblance (e.g.
needle-fish), local and temporal relations (e.g.
country-house, night-flight
), relations
purpose (e.g.
search-warrant
), etc. which in word-groups are conveyed by prepositions
or other functions words.
Compound words, due to the fact they do not require any explicit way to convey
the semantic relationship between their components except their order, are of much
wider range, leave more freedom for semantic interpretation and convey meaning in a
more compressed and concise way. This makes the meaning of compounds more
flexible and situationally derived. It follows that motivation and regularity of semantic
and structural correlation with free word-groups are the basic factors favouring a high
degree of productivity of composition and may be used to set rules guiding
spontaneous, analogic formation of new compound words. It is natural that those types
of compound words which do not establish such regular correlations and that are
marked by a lack or very low degree of motivation must be regarded as unproductive as,
for example, compound nouns of the a+n type, e.g.
bluebell, blackbird, mad-doctor.
Another lexical feature of compounds (fused words) in Karakalpak is that the
components of the words can be delexicalized, namely lose their primary meaning and
only in combination they give another new meaning. The components of such
compounds have been used together and become inseparable. The connection of the two
elements gives new lexical meaning and consequently for ms new compound word. For
ex
: atqulaq, buzawbas, tasbaqa, Qon’irat, Qizketken, Xojeli, ku’nko’ris, besbarmaq,
segizko’z, aqsaqal, aqsu’yek, aqbilek, ko’zashiq
and so on
.
The compound word atqulaq
consists of two components
“at”
(horse),
qulaq
“ear”, together translated as
“horse
ear”
. However, this is the name of the plant that is like the horse’s ear on its shape. The
next word
Qon’irat
is also made up of two elements:
“qon’ir”
(brown) and
“at”
(horse). But their combination gives the name of the city. The other example
aqsaqal
is
formed from the components
“aq”
(white) and
“saqal”
(beard), together translated as
white beard. However, in Karakalpak language the compound is used while addressing
to a man who is much older or if we mean a male person who is h igh level official.
Such type of words can also be found among composite words:
ko’k bet, ayaq
kiyim, tas bawir, iyt ayaq, suw jilan, tu’ye taban
etc.
If to compare above stated Karakalpak compounds with the English compounds,
it is worthwhile to note that in English there are also compound words whose
components have lost their literal meaning and in connection with the second word
forms a new meaning. For instance,
blackboard, blacklist, bluebottle, blackbird
etc. In
these example ‘blackboard’ does not denote the board that is of black colour, but the
teaching aid used in the classroom. The word ‘blacklist’ means lexically not the list that
is black, but the list of the names of people, companies, products or countries that an
organization or a government considers unacceptable and that must be avoided. Such
phenomena can also be observed in German compounds:
Weisswein, Mutterliebe
. Here
the compound
‘Weisswein’
is translated as
‘white wine’
, however it is not white and just
a sort of wine, that is almost colourless. The word ‘Mutterliebe’ is made up of words
‘Mutter’(mother) and ‘Liebe’ (love). But the word lexically means not the love of a
particular mother, it denotes the feeling of motherhood in general.
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Conclusion
From the comparison of the abo ve made, it can be concluded that compound
words in each language investigated, have both similarities and differences. English and
German compounds contain a subgroup of words ‘bahuvrihi’, compounds
metonymically and metaphorically denote a person or thin g. While such words are
referred to phraseological units in Karakalpak language. The similarity between the
compounds of the languages explored is the delexicalization of the components of
compounds in each language. From the typological analysis of the co mpounds in
Karakalpak, English and German languages and the examples given above we can infer
that they represent similar lexical features.
Moreover, compound words in German contain so called ‘Zusammenrückungen’,
a separate group of words ‘imperative nouns’, that exist in English in limited number as
well. However, imperative nouns do not exist in the Karakalpak language.
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