Compound words: hyphenated and unscripted

The creation of new words In our language it can happen in different ways; one of them is composition, that is, the union of two or more simple words to form a new word with its own meaning. In this article by a PROFESSOR we will define the concept of compound words and we will explain the different forms they can take.

Words, according to their constituent elements, can be divided into the following categories:

• Simple words: Simple words have a single lexeme and one or more inflectional morphemes (ex. Water, to be, sang, flowers).
• Derivatives: Derived words are made up of a single lexeme and one or more derivative morphemes (ex. review, pram, postman, stretcher, bulletproof).
• Composite: Compound words are made up of two or more lexemes and the corresponding inflectional morphemes (ex. Parasol, redhead, malvivir, corkscrew, theoretical-practical).
• Parasynthetics: Parasynthetic words have two lexemes and one or more derivative morphemes and misalignments (eg. ham). Parasynthetic words are also considered those that are formed by means of a prefix and a suffix without being able to do without one of them (ex.
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  gentrify, go crazy, tidy up, grow old).
• Acronym: Acronyms are lexical units formed by the initials of several words (ex. DNI, ESO, ATS).
• Acronyms: Acronyms are lexical units formed by the union of elements of several words (ex. AIDS, Radar).
• Apocope: The apocope consists of suppressing some sound at the end of a word (ex. movie theater, school).
• Aphaeresis: Apheresis consists of suppressing some sound at the beginning of a word (ex. norabuena, quillo, cello).

The word compounds are made up of two lexemes, two simple words that give rise to a new one with a different meaning. On rare occasions, they can be made up of two morphemes, as is the case with with what Y because.

In the Spanish language compound words are very common; They usually come from expressions or groups of words that are gradually fixed through habitual use until they become lexical, that is, they become part of the language.

How are compound words formed?

The procedures to form these words are the following:

• Sum of the components: pencil sharpener, Killjoy, car bed, buy-sell, sunflower.
• Adaptation of the first component: green-yellow, ups and downs, rectilinear, carriage, long-legged.
• With prefix roots and suffixes that do not exist in the language as simple words: macroeconomy, neo-gothic, herbivorous, car.

The components of compound words can be added in the following ways:

• Noun + noun: tin, basketball, spiderweb, sleet, singer-songwriter.
• Noun + adjective: midnight, booby trap, low tide, wrench, civil guard.
• Noun + verb: collars, spokesman, handcuff, puzzle, breakwater.
• Noun + adverb: beatitude, malnutrition, bad mood, wellbeing.
• Adjective + adjective: Spanish speaker, Asturian-Leonese, theoretical-practical, chiaroscuro, deaf-mute.
• Adjective + adverb: I thought wrong, good intention, spoiled, well met.
• Verb + verb: weave, laughing stock, pilla-pilla, sway.
• Verb + adverb: wellness, sing mornings, big shot, spyglass.
• Verb + pronoun: whoever, everywhere, any, to do.
• Adverb + adverb: the day before yesterday.
• Complete sentences: correveidile, nosy, do not forget me, smarty.

Normally compound words have two lexemes but it is not uncommon to find a word that has three as electroencephalogram or even more like it happens with cyclopentaneperhydrophenanthrene.

Most of the compound word examples we've put up so far are universal, that is, they constitute a single word without spaces. However compound words can also be pluriverbals. In the latter case, the words may or may not be separated by a hyphen.

When to use the hyphen in compound words?

The script is usually used in the following cases:

• Second names (Jose Ramon, Lucia-Rosa, Charles Albert) and compound surnames (Fernandez-Ríos, Montero-Calvo, Sánchez-Silva).
• Toponyms, for example Castilla la Mancha.
• Relational adjectives (physiochemical, historical-administrative, theoretical-practical, literary-critic, epic-lyrical). In some cases, a hyphenated word (social-cultural, sadistic-masochist) has a universal form (sociocultural, sadomasochistic) which is preferable to use.
• Nouns found in the same semantic level (hunter-gatherer, tutor teacher, Cinema theatre, school-workshop, conservative-liberal).
• Searching nouns refer to a new concept fixedly (kilometers-hour, supply-demand, price quality).
• Nouns joined in such a way that the second constitutes a apposition of the first (bridge-dwellings).
• Gentile: its use is also common in the case of relate names (Asturian-Leonese, Peruvian-Ecuadorian, Chinese Japanese, Hispano-Romans, Arab-Israeli, German-Soviet, Spanish-French).

In compound words with a hyphen, the accentuation of each simple word must be respected according to the general rules of accentuation. They should also be respect the capital letters in the case of proper names, regardless of their place within the lexical group.