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Compound structure
quickinfo

When describing the structure (i.e. form) of compounds, two closely-related but distinct levels could be identified:

  1. On a morphosyntactic level compounds are described in terms of their constituents, and they are classified as one of the following:
    1
    Ground compound
    spinasie+plant
    [[spinasie](N)[plant](N)](N)
    spinach+plant
    spinach plant
    2
    Phrasal compound
    bek-en-klou-virus
    [[bek en klou](NP)[virus](N)](N)
    mouth-and-foot-virus
    foot and mouth virus
    3
    Verbal-nexus compound
    fiets+ry·er
    [[fiets](N)[[ry](V)[er](NMLZ](N)](N)
    bicycle+ride·NMLZ
    cyclist
    4
    (Neo)classical compound
    sosio+linguistiek
    [[sosio](root)[linguistiek](N)](N)
    socio+linguistics
    sociolinguistics
    The types of constituents include:
    • independent constituents, like different types of stems (like nouns, adjectives, etc.), reduced stems (like abbreviations and acronyms), complex words (like affixed words or compounds), multi-word units (e.g. phrasal names), and phrases and sentences; with
      • affixoids as a special kind of independent constituent; and
    • dependent constituents, like confixes (i.e. (neo)classical word formation elements, a.k.a. combination forms, like bio- in bio·diesel), libfixes (like -gate in Nkandla·gate scandal related to Nkandla), cranberry morphs (like aam- in aam+beeld anvil), and reduced stems (like clippings); with
      • interfixes as a special kind of dependent constituent.
  2. On a morphosemantic level the headedness of Afrikaans compounds are described, and compounds are classified as:
    • endocentric compounds; or
    • exocentric compounds

References
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