Muhammad Ali Shohibul Hikam

TBI e/18

Exercises
Chapter 6: Compound words, blends and phrasal words

1. Which of the following are compound words, which are phrases, and which are phrasal
words?

(a) moonlight, moonscape, harvest moon, blue moon (as in once in a blue moon)
 Moonlight and Moonscape are compound word (Noun). The type is Noun-Noun
(NN)
 Harvest moon and Blue Moon are Phrase

(b) blueberry, bluebottle, greybeard, sky-blue, blue-pencil (as in they blue- pencilled the
script heavily)
 Blueberry, Bluebottle, and Greybeard are compound word (Noun). The type is
Adjective-Noun (AN)
 Sky-Blue is compound word (Adjective). The type is Noun-Adjective (NA)
 Blue-pencil is Phrase

(c) pencil case, eyebrow pencil, pencil sharpener, pencil-thin, thin air (as in they vanished
into thin air)
 Pencil case, Eyebrow pencil, and Pencil sharpener are compound word (Noun).
The type is Noun-Noun (NN)
 Pencil-thin is compound word (Adjective). The type is Noun-Adjective (NA)
 Thin air is Phrase

(d) airport, Royal Air Force, air conditioning, Air France

 Air Conditioning (AC) and Airport are compound word (Noun). The type is Noun-
Noun (NN)
 Royal Air Force is Phrase (Noun Phrase)
 Air France is Phrasal word

(e) silkworm, silk shirt, T-shirt

 Silkworm and T-Shirt are compound word (Noun). The type is Noun-Noun (NN)
 Silk shirt is Phrase (Noun Phrase)

(f) stick-in-the-mud,lady-in-waiting,forget-me-not,has-been,wannabe
 Stick-in-the-mud, forget-me-not, has-been, and wannabe are Phrasal word
 Lady-in-waiting is Phrase (Noun Phrase)

(g) overrún (verb), óverrun (noun, as in a big cost overrun), undercoat (noun), undercoat
(verb, as in We undercoated the walls in white), under- hand, handover
  overrún (verb) and óverrun (noun, as in a big cost overrun) are compound word
(Verb). The type is Preposition-Verb (PV)
 undercoat (noun) and undercoat (verb, as in We undercoated the walls in white)
are compound word (Noun). The type is Preposition-Noun (PN)
 under- hand is Phrase
 handover is Phrase

2. Of the compounds (not the phrases or phrasal words) in Exercise 1, which are endocentric
and which are exocentric?

Answer:

 Moonlight and moonscape are both endocentric.

 Blueberry and sky-blue are endocentric. Bluebottle is also endocentric,
because, although a bluebottle (whether a kind of fly, a kind of plant or a kind
of jelly-fish) is not a bottle, its name likens it metaphorically to one. On the
other hand, greybeard is exocentric because it denotes not a kind of beard
nor something that resembles a beard, but rather someone who typically has
a grey beard (an old man). Blue-pencil is also exocentric because, though a
verb, it has no verbal head.
 (c), (d), (e) All are endocentric.
 (f ) None of these is a compound, so the question does not apply

(g) Overrún (verb) and undercoat (noun) are endocentric. Their derivatives by conversion,
óverrun and undercoat (verb), are exocentric, as are underhand (an adjective with no
adjectival head) and handover (a noun with no nominal head).

3. Of the compound nouns in Exercise 1, which are primary (or root) compounds and which
are secondary (or verbal) compounds?

Answer:

Primary Compound Secondary Compound

moonlight, moonscape Pencil sharpener
Blueberry, Bluebottle, and Greybeard Air Conditioning
Pencil case and Eyebrow pencil
Airport
Silkworm and T-Shirt
undercoat (noun) and undercoat (verb, as
in We undercoated the walls in white)

4. Identify (with the help of a dictionary, if necessary) the sources of the following blends or
acronyms: brunch, motel, radar, modem, laser.
Answer:

Words Acronyms
Brunch Breakfast + Lunch
Motel Motor + Hotel
Radar Radio Detection and Ranging
Modem Modulator + Demodulator
Laser Light amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation

5. Each of these words is a compound containing at least one bound Graeco-Latin combining
form. With the help of a dictionary if necess- ary, identify a meaning for each such
combining form, and find another word that contains it:

nanosecond, protoplasm, endocentric, polyphony, leucocyte, omnivorous, octahedron

Answer:

Bound Graeco-Latin combining form Meaning

words
Nano- “One Billionth”, ex: Nanometer
Proto- “First”, ex: Protolithic
Endo- “Inner”, ex: Endoscope
Poly- “Many”, ex: Polymory
Leuco- “White”, ex: Leucoindigo
Omni- “All”, ex: Omnisport
Octa- “Eight”, ex: Octagon
-plasm “Predominant substance in living cells”,
ex: Neoplasm
-cyte “Cell”, ex: Hepatocyte
-vorous “Feeding on”, ex: Herbivorous
-hedron “Face of a geometrical solid”, ex:
Polyhedron
-phony “Sound”, ex: Telephony
-centric “Central”, ex: Egocentric