English Compound Nouns in Short Story “The Star-Child” by Oscar Wilde
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DOI: 10.24843/JH.2018.v22.i02.p21
ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 22.2 Mei 2018: 425-432
English Compound Nouns in Short Story “The Star-Child” by Oscar Wilde
Made Dwi Pratiwi
English Department, Faculty of Arts, Udayana University [mddwipratiwi@gmail.com]
Abstract
Compound noun can appear in various types and the meaning may not be determined by its components. This study aims to find out the types and analyze the meanings of compound nouns found in the short story “The Star-Child”. There are two theories used in this study. The first is the theory of types of compound noun proposed by Katamba and the second is the theory of meanings of compound noun by Palmer. The data in this study were directly taken from the full text of a short story entitled “The Star-Child” written by Oscar Wilde. They were collected by documentation method and note taking technique. The collected data were analyzed by using qualitative and descriptive method. This study applied formal and informal method to present the analysis. The analysis shows that the types of compound noun used are; endocentric, exocentric and copulative types. Besides, in relation to meanings, there are transparent and opaque meanings.
Keywords: morphology, compound, noun
Abstrak
Kata benda majemuk dapat muncul dalam tipe yang bervariasi dan memiliki makna yang barangkali tidak dapat ditentukan dari makna komponennya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui tipe dan menganalisis makna dari kata benda majemuk yang terdapat dalam cerita pendek “The Star-Child”. Penelitian ini menggunakan dua buah teori. Teori yang pertama adalah teori tipe dari kata benda majemuk yang dikemukakan oleh Katamba dan teori yang kedua adalah teori makna dari kata benda majemuk oleh Palmer. Data dalam penelitian ini diambil langsung dari teks lengkap sebuah cerita pendek berjudul “The Star-Child” oleh Oscar Wilde. Data tersebut dikumpulkan melalui metode dokumentasi dan teknik mencatat. Data yang terkumpul dianalisis menggunakan metode kualitatif dan deskriptif. Penelitian ini mengaplikasikan metode formal dan informal untuk menampilkan analisis. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa tipe kata benda majemuk yang digunakan adalah tipe endosentrik, eksosentrik dan kopulatif. Selain itu, makna yang digunakan adalah makna transparan dan buram.
Kata kunci: morfologi, kata majemuk, kata benda
Morphology is a branch of linguistics which studies the categories and rules in word formation of a language (O’Grady and Guzman, 1996). It is concerned with
the study of the internal structure of how words are formed in a language and the way forms of words are varied depending on how they are used in the sentences. There are various processes of word
formation such as affixation, blending, conversion, clipping and compounding.
In morphology, compounding is the most common way of forming words in English. According to Matthews (1974: 82) compounding is a process by which a compound lexeme is derived from two or more simpler lexemes. The result of compounding will be called compound word. In English, there are many different sub-classifications of compound word, such as compound verb, adjective, adverb and noun.
Compound noun is word made up of two or more words joined together functioning as a noun and has one meaning. Sometimes, the type of words produced by compounding process differs from one another. As stated by Katamba (1993), compound nouns can appear in different types. It is varied, depending on the role of each component, whether as the head or the modifier. A head sometimes can determine the meaning of the construction as a whole. Likewise, compounding noun is the process of bringing words together into a single noun that has one meaning. However, the original meaning of each root may be lost in compound and formed a new meaning. All of the compounding processes do not only focus on forming words, but also forming new meaning. As Palmer (1981) said that the meaning of a compound noun sometimes can and cannot be determined by the meaning of its component. Since the two aspects are interrelated, in order to define the meaning of a compound noun, to know the types is also important.
Among the others, compound noun is more interesting since it is the most prominent one. Compound noun can be productively used both in utterance or text. Automatically, it appears intensely in any form of language more than the others. Short story is fictional work of
prose that is shorter in length and deals with only one theme and a few characters. It is one of a form in written language where compound nouns regularly appear. The writer of a short story tends to use various kinds of word including compound nouns to elaborate the story. In contrast, the related works of this topic done by some other researchers mostly talk about compound words and only a few who discuss about compound nouns especially which uses short story as a data source.
Based on the above explanation, it is interesting and beneficial to discuss about the English compound word forming nouns. This study focused on analyzing the types and meanings of compound nouns found in a short story entitled “The Star-Child” written by a famous Irish writer, Oscar Wilde.
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a) What types of English compound nouns are found in short story entitled “The Star-Child”?
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b) What meanings of English compound nouns are found in short story entitled “The StarChild”?
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a) To find out the types of English compound nouns found in short story entitled “The Star-Child”.
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b) To analyze the meanings of English compound nouns found in short story entitled “The StarChild”.
The research method of this study includes the data source, method and technique of collecting data, method and technique of analyzing data and method and technique of presenting data. Each part of research method is explained as follows:
The data in this study were taken from a written text of a short story entitled “The Star-Child” by Oscar Wilde. The short story was taken from Oscar Wilde’s collection of short stories, “The Star-Child : Short Story” which was republished in 2014 by Harper Collins Publisher. The reason of choosing this story was that it contains compound words especially nouns which were sufficient and relevant to be used as the data source in this analysis.
The data were collected from the full text of a short story entitled “The StarChild” through documentation method. Documentation method was used to obtain the data from written material. The technique of collecting data was taking note in order to sort and classify them into the types of compound noun.
Several steps were used in order to collect the data. First, the pages of the book which contains the story were copied into paper. Then, the data were read carefully in order to find out the compound nouns. Third, the words in the story indicating compound nouns were highlighted and then took a note of compound noun that had been marked.
The collected data were analyzed by qualitative and descriptive method. It means that the data were analyzed by using deep explanation or description without involving measurement or statistics.
There were several steps taken. The first step was determining the component, construction and form of words that have been highlighted. The next was identifying the head and the modifier of the compound nouns and the
compound nouns were categorized according to the theory of types proposed by Katamba (1993: 305). Then, the compound nouns were analyzed to find the meaning using the theory of meanings of compound nouns proposed by Palmer (1981: 35).
This study applied formal and informal method to present the analysis. Formal method is a method in which the findings are presented by using symbol, diagrams, figures, and tables, while informal method refers to the method of presenting the analyzed data by using words; it means the findings can be described by using words.
In presenting the data, several steps were taken. First, the analysis was divided according to the types of compound nouns. The following step was listing the number and presenting the compound noun, components, construction, and form into table. Below the table, the number, the compound noun, the sentence where the compound noun were found and data code were given. Lastly, the discussion and result were elaborated in the form of paragraph.
Compound nouns may be subdivided into three types based on the semantic head of a compound sign. They are endocentric, exocentric and copulative compound nouns. The explanation is also followed by the analysis of meanings contained in the compound nouns which are classified into transparent and opaque meanings. The analysis of English compound nouns is explained as follows:
The endocentric compound noun expresses a semantic relationship between a head noun and a modifying element.
|
Table 1. Endocentric |
compound noun | |||
|
No |
Compound Noun |
Components |
Pattern |
Form |
|
1 |
Woodcutter |
Wood + cutter |
N+N |
Solid |
|
2 |
Pine-forest |
Pine + forest |
N+N |
Hyphenated |
|
3 |
Red Gold |
Red + gold |
Adj+N |
Open |
[5-1] Woodcutter
Once upon a time two poor Woodcutters were making their way home through a great pine-forest. (Wilde, 2014:1)
The simplest form of the word woodcutters is woodcutter. Morphologically, the word woodcutter consists of two parts; wood (Noun) and cutter (Noun) and both words formed a new word which belongs to a noun with ‘Noun + Noun’ pattern.
‘Noun+ Noun’ turns out to be the pattern which appears the most in this analysis. Likewise, Katamba (1993 : 305) also stated that this pattern is considered to be the largest sub-grouping of compound component and a great number of compound nouns are included in this pattern, therefore ‘Noun+ Noun’ nouns are easily found.
Based on its form, compound noun woodcutter can be categorized as a solid compound noun because the first element of the compound is followed by another without a pause.
The word woodcutter is classified into the endocentric compound because it expresses a semantic relationship between a head noun and a modifying element. This word has the word cutter functioning as the head and wood as the modifier. Therefore, based on the semantic relationship between the head noun and the modifier, woodcutter is a kind of cutter.
Semantically, the words wood and cutter have different lexical meaning. The word wood has the lexical meaning ‘the hard material that the trunk and branches of a tree are made of’ while the
word cutter means ‘a person or thing that cuts’. After joining together and forming a new word, it has one meaning which can be identified by the meaning of its parts. Since the meaning of the word woodcutter can be determined from the meaning of its parts wood and cutter; it belongs to transparent meaning. The compound noun woodcutter means ‘a person whose job is cutting down trees’.
[5-2] Pine-forest
Once upon a time two poor Woodcutters were making their way home through a great pine-forest. (Wilde, 2014:1)
The word pine-forest consists of two parts; pine (Noun) and forest (Noun). Both words are joined together and form a new word which belongs to a noun with ‘Noun + Noun’ pattern. According to Plag (2003) in Turangan (2017), nounnoun compounds are the most common type of compound in English. The statement is appropriate since most compound nouns in this analysis are categorized in this pattern. Based on its form, compound noun pine-forest can be categorized as a hyphenated compound noun because it has a short stroke (-) which is used to join parts of word.
The word pine-forest is classified into the endocentric compound because it expresses a semantic relationship between a head noun and a modifying element. This word has the word forest functioning as the head and pine as the modifier. Therefore, based on the semantic relationship between the head noun and the modifier, pine-forest is a kind of forest.
Semantically, the words pine and forest have different lexical meanings. The word pine has lexical meaning ‘an evergreen forest tree with leaves like needles’ while the word forest means ‘a large area of land that is thickly covered
with trees’. After joining together and forming a new word, it has one meaning which can be identified by the meaning of its parts. Since the meaning of the word pine-forest can be determined from the meaning of its parts pine and forest; it belongs to transparent meaning. The compound noun pine-forest means ‘land that is covered with pine-trees’.
[5-3] Red gold
‘If to-day thou bringest me the piece of red gold I will set thee free, but if thou bringest it not I will surely slay thee.’ (Wilde, 2014:12)
The word red gold consists of two parts; red (Adjective) and gold (Noun) and both words form a new word which belongs to a noun with ‘Adjective + Noun’ pattern. Based on its form, compound noun red gold can be categorized as an open compound noun because there is a space between the first element and the other.
The word red gold is classified into the endocentric compound because it expresses a semantic relationship between a head noun and a modifying element. Most compounds are categorized in this type; therefore, the chance of occurring in the data is higher than the exocentric and copulative types. Sidupa (2015) also found out that endocentric type is the most used compound words in her data. This word has the word gold functioning as the head and red as the modifier. Therefore, based on the semantic relationship between the head noun and the modifier, red gold is a kind of gold.
Semantically, the words red and gold have different lexical meaning. The word red has lexical meaning ‘having the colour of blood or fire’ while the word gold means ‘the color of gold, a chemical element or a yellow precious metal used for making coins, jewellery, decorative objects, etc’. After joining together and
forming a new word, it has one meaning which can be identified by the meaning of its parts. Since the meaning of the word red gold can be determined from the meaning of its parts red and gold; it belongs to transparent meaning. The compound noun red gold means ‘an alloy of gold and copper’.
Exocentric or bahuvrihi compound is headless compound which does not contain an element that functions as the semantic head which is modified by the non-head element.
Table 2. Exocentric compound noun No Compound Components Pattern Form
Noun
-
1 Ice-king Ice + king N+N Hyphenated
-
2 Old Earth Old + Earth Adj+N Open
[5-4] Ice-king
The snow lay thick upon the ground, and upon the branches of the trees: the frost kept snapping the little twigs on either side of them, as they passed: and when they came to the Mountain- Torrent she was hanging motionless in air, for the Ice-King had kissed her. (Wilde, 2014:1)
The word ice-king consists of two parts; ice (Noun) and king (Noun) and both words formed a new word which belongs to a noun with ‘Noun + Noun’ pattern. Based on its form, the compound noun ice-king can be categorized as a hyphenated compound noun because it has a short stroke (-) which is used to join parts of word.
The word ice-king is classified into the exocentric compound because it does not contain an element that functions as the semantic head which is modified by the non head element. This word has no head to be modified and there is no semantic relationship between both components. It does not mean that ice-king is a kind of king or kind of ice or the
king that is cold like an ice or the king’s ice.
Semantically, the words ice and king have different lexical meaning. The word ice has lexical meaning ‘water that has frozen and become solid’ while the word king means ‘a person, an animal or a thing that is thought to be the best or most important of a particular type or the male ruler of an independent state that has a royal family’. After joining
together and forming a new word, the meaning of the word ice-king is not possible from the meaning of its parts; therefore, it belongs to opaque meaning. In comparison with the transparent, opaque meaning only appears in small number of compound nouns especially in exocentric type. This is also applied to the findings of Rumiyati (2015). It shows that the researcher only found 125 out of 798 data of compounds that can be categorized as opaque meaning with 15,66% in percentage. The compound noun ice-king means ‘a
really handsome and intelligent gentleman who ladies love to always be around with’.
‘Weet!weet! weet!’ twittered the green Linnets, ‘the old Earth is dead and they have laid her out in her white shroud. (Wilde, 2014:1)
The word old earth consists of two parts; old (Adjective) and earth (Noun). Both words are joined together and formed a new word which belongs to a noun with ‘Adjective + Noun’ pattern. Bennett (2002) argued that English does have a productive rule for forming noun compounds, consisting of relational adjective + noun and in this analysis this pattern appears quite often. Based on its form, the compound noun old earth can be categorized as an open compound
noun because there is a space between the first element and the other.
The word old earth is classified into the exocentric compound because it does not contain an element that functions as the semantic head which is modified by the non head element. This word has no head to be modified and there is no semantic relationship between both components. It does not mean that old earth is a kind of earth or the earth that is old.
Semantically, the words old and earth have different lexical meanings. The word old has the lexical meaning ‘having lived for a long time; no longer young or having existed or been used for a long time’ while the word earth means ‘the world; the planet that we live on or land; the hard surface of the world that is not the sea or the sky; the ground’. After joined together and formed a new word, the meaning of the word old earth is not possible from the meaning of its parts; therefore it belongs to opaque meaning. The compound noun old earth means ‘the mother, a person's mother or the elder wise woman of the family’.
Copulative Compound Noun is one where it is not clear which element is the head and the compound is not a hyponym of either element. It has words which represent a coordinative relationship between the elements.
Table 3. Copulative compound noun No Compou Compo Patter Form
nd Noun nents n
Beggar- Beggar N+N Hyphe
-
1 woman + nated
woman
[5-6] Beggar-woman
And the Star-Child wept and bowed his head, and prayed forgiveness of God’s things, and went on through the forest, seeking for the beggarwoman. (Wilde, 2014:8)
The word beggar-woman consists of two parts; beggar (Noun) and woman (Noun). Both words are joined together and formed a new word which belongs to a noun with ‘Noun + Noun’ pattern. Based on its form, compound noun beggar-woman can be categorized as a hyphenated compound noun because it has a short stroke (-) which is used to join parts of word.
The word beggar-woman is classified into the copulative compound because it is not clear which element is the head and represents a coordinative relationship between two words. From semantic point of view; the coupled elements are equal status with neither element being regarded as the head that dominates the entire word. The compound noun indicates that the beggar is a woman and the woman is also a beggar.
Beggar-woman is the only word of copulative compound noun that appears in the short story. It makes this type is the least to occur in this analysis. This finding is also supported by Rumiyati (2015). In her analysis, this type of compound appears in a small percentage compared to the endocentric and exocentric types.
Semantically, the words beggar and woman have different lexical meaning. The word beggar has lexical meaning ‘a person who is typically homeless, lives by begging for money and food and often regarded as lucky, unlucky, lazy, etc.’ while the word woman means ‘an adult female human being’. After joined together and formed a new word, it has one meaning which can be identified by the meaning of its parts. Since the meaning of the word beggar-woman can be determined from the meaning of its parts beggar and woman; therefore, it belongs to transparent meaning. The compound noun beggar-woman means
‘an adult female person who is pitiful and lives by begging for money and food’.
Based on the foregoing analysis and discussion, the following points can be drawn as conclusions:
Three types of compound noun are found in the short story entitled “The Star-Child” by Oscar Wilde, they are endocentric, exocentric and copulative compound nouns. There are thirty-four words of endocentric compound nouns, five exocentric compound nouns and a copulative compound noun. It shows that endocentric compound noun is the most frequent type that appears in the story. Then, it is followed by exocentric compound noun and copulative compound noun.
Moreover, there are two meanings of compound noun found in the short story entitled “The Star-Child” by Oscar Wilde. They are transparent and opaque meaning. The analysis shows that this story contains thirty-five of compound nouns which belong to transparent meaning. Meanwhile, there are five words of compound noun analyzed as the opaque meaning. It shows that the transparent meaning appears more intense than the opaque one.
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