Analysis of compound adjectives in the context of the microsystem "Person’s character"

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Analysis of compound adjectives in the context of the microsystem “Person's character”

Yanina Tahiltseva,

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Humanities and Social Subjects,

Poltava State Agrarian Academy

Yuliia Nikolaienko,

PhD in Pedagogics, Associate Professor of the Department of Humanities and Social Subjects,

Poltava State Agrarian Academy

The article deals with the complex research of compound adjectives used to describe a person's character and combined into an appropriate lexical microsystem. The special attention is given to the definition of the term “compound word”. Composites are analyzed at phonetical, semantic, morphological and orthographical levels. Dominating words within the researched microsystem are considered as those with the main stress on the second component, which is the semantic centre in the structure of a compound lexical unit. The most common word-building patterns (adjective + noun with the ending -ed, adverb + noun with the ending -ed or Participle II) are studied. A specific group made up of composites with such components as -tempered, -minded, -self and -headed has been analyzed. The variants in writing (as one word or with a hyphen) are considered as well. Compound adjectives used to describe a person's character may consist of two simple or two derived stems and also have one component with a derived stem expressed by Participle I, Participle II or noun with the ending -ed in their structure. The researched composites are classified into lexical sets and semantic groups. Complex lexical constructions that belong to the microsystem “person's character” can be endocentric and exocentric by their semantics.

Key words: compound adjectives, microsystem `person's character', phonetics, morphology, semantics, orthography.

Тагільцева Яніна Михайлівна,

кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри гуманітарних і соціальних дисциплін,

Полтавська державна аграрна академія

Ніколаєнко Юлія Олександрівна,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедригуманітарних і соціальнихдисциплін,

Полтавська державна аграрна академія

АНАЛІЗ СКЛАДНИХ ПРИКМЕТНИКІВ У КОНТЕКСТІ МІКРОСИСТЕМИ «ХАРАКТЕР ЛЮДИНИ»

У статті здійснюється цілісне дослідження складних прикметників на позначення характеру людини, що об'єднані у відповідну лексичну мікросистему. Подано визначення терміну «складне слово». Композити системно аналізуються на фонетичному, морфологічному, семантичному та орфографічному рівнях. З'ясовано, що в межах даної мікросистеми домінують слова з основним наголосом на другому компоненті, котрий є семантичним центром у структурі складної лексичної одиниці. Виділено типові словотвірні моделі. Простежено варіативне написання (разом або через дефіс) одного й того ж складного слова на позначення характеру людини. Досліджуються також особливості словотвору прикметників на позначення характеру людини. Композити досліджуваної тематичної категорії об'єднано у тематичні і семантичні групи. Встановлено, що складні лексичні конструкції, що належать до мікросистеми «Характер людини» є як ендоцентричними, так і екзоцентричними за своєю семантикою.

Ключові слова: складний прикметник, мікросистема «характер людини», фонетика, морфологія, семантика, орфографія.

Nowadays such a linguistic phenomenon as stem composition is gaining more popularity and becoming one of the most powerful and efficient ways of building new words in the English communication. At the current stage of the English language development we can observe an active process of formation of new words by combination of several lexical components. It is determined by the intention of a speaker to facilitate the process of communication and be neat in his or her speech.

As a result, new compound words appear in the language and this phenomenon is of great interest to researchers. For instance, Japanese scientists Yujie Zhang and Hitoshi Isahara focus on the problem of translation of English compound words [15]. Modern Russian linguists pay a lot of attention to the structure of compound words [1] and their semantic interpretation [11]. Furthermore, multicomponent lexical units become an object of the detailed study of Ukrainian researchers. For example, Vorobiova is focused on the research trends, the role and place of compound words in the modern English language [4]. Holub and Bondarenko make a comparative analysis of the peculiarities of the word building process in the English and Ukrainian languages [5].

The subject of our current research is the compound adjectives used to describe a person's character and combined into an appropriate lexical microsystem.

It is necessary to mention, that this category of words is an object of study in some foreign scientific works. For instance, French researchers Bouchet and Sannsonnet have made the classification of the “personality-traits adjectives within the facet list of the NEO PI-R taxonomy” and focus their attention on their “lexical semantics as it is expressed by the synset-gloss attached to the adjectives in the Wordnet lexical database” [13, p. 1]. In general, the adjectives of this semantic field are studied in the context of psychology [12] or psycholinguistics [13].

Our purpose is to research compound adjectives in the context of the microsystem “person's character” at the level of phonetics, morphology, orthography and semantics.

Compound words are found in various lexical sets of the English language (agrarian, medical, law, everyday communication etc.). Accordingly, one can observe an increasing interest to study different language structures, namely term and concept systems as well as topical microsystems.

The adjectives used to describe a person's character refer to the so-called evaluative vocabulary, since they are used to analyze and characterize a person, to estimate his or her type of behaviour, level of mental development, endurance and stamina etc. [3, 10, 14]. With the help of an adjective we are able not only to identify a feature, but also to give a detailed estimation of a certain phenomenon and certain character traits.

In the context of our research we use the concept the microsystem “person's character”, since it can be found in some scientific works. For instance, Kolesnikova applies this concept in her study of phraseological units in the Ukrainian and English languages [7].

In our opinion, a complex study of such lexical innovations as compound adjectives used to describe a person's character will contribute to a further detailed research of the problems concerning the peculiarities of word building and morphology of the modern English language and will also raise interest to the urgent problems of lexicology in the context of anthropocentrism.

We have done a complex study of approximately 100 compound adjectives, which were divided into certain lexical sets and semantic groups.

It is necessary to state that a term “a compound word” or “a composite” (from Latin “compositus” - made up of several parts) refers to a lexical unit with a complex structure and made up by combining words which represent a certain grammar category and have an integral graphic and semantic form.

One of the criteria to identify compound words is their inseparability, by which we mean the impossibility to use any other linguistic components between these words. We completely agree with Arnold [2], who describes several characteristics of the integral formation of compound words. They include such characteristics as: phonetical (compound words have the main and alternative stress), orthographical (they can be written as one or two words or with a hyphen), semantic (they define one notion or feature), morphological (the parts of compound words can not be modified grammatically) and syntactical (the parts of compound words do not change their place and they can not be added by other components) [2, p. 85].

The phonetic characteristic refers to the stress used in compound words. Having studied the compound adjectives used to describe a person's character at phonetical level, we distinguish the following groups:

1) the words with the main stress on the first part: easy-going, trustworthy, keeping aloof, quarrelsome, spendthriftetc;

2) the words with the main stress on the second part: hot / quick/ short-tempered, sober / broad / quick /slow/feeble-minded, self-assured / blaming / confident / critical /denying / disciplined, well / ill-read; strong / weak-willed etc.

It has to be mentioned that this category of words more frequently has the main stress on the second part of a compound, which most of all is represented by the past participle (Participle II) or the noun with the ending -ed (the verbal noun) and has the main semantic stress [1]. Moreover, the first part determines the meaning of the whole compound, while the second part, which is stressed, makes contrast with the words with the same second component (broad-minded - quick-minded).

The morphological characteristic is focused on the unity of compound words opposed to word combinations, in which their components represent certain parts of speech. In accordance to it, we distinguish some typical word-building patterns in the context of the subject of our research. The most common are the following patterns:

- Adjective + noun with the ending -ed: hot/quick/short-tempered, sober/broad/quick/slow /feeble-minded, strong/weakwilled, warm / kind / heavy-hearted.

- Adverb + noun with the ending -ed or Participle II: worldly-minded, spiritually /highly-minded, well / ill-read, well-bred.

The other patterns are not so numerous:

- Adjective + Participle I: easy-going, hard-working.

- Noun + Participle II: heartbroken, level-headed, pig-headed.

- Noun + Adverb: quarrelsome, button-down.

- Noun + Adjective: carefree.

- Adjective + Adjective: straightforward.

- Adverb + Adjective: forthright.

- Participle I + Adverb: keeping aloof.

- Verb + Noun: spendthrift.

- Verb+ Participle II: able-bodied.

- Numeral + Participle II: two-faced.

Thus, we can observe the frequent use of the noun with the ending -ed and Participle II as the adjectives in the microsystem “person's character”.

A specific group is made of compound nouns in which the first component is expressed by a is Participle II (self-assured / disciplined), Participle I (self-seeking) or an adjective (self-confident / critical). These compound adjectives describe the means of personal identity and the peculiarities of a person's adaptation to his or her internal environment.

The morphological characteristic of the unity of compound words can be also found in the use of the same word as the second component of a composite. The system of the compound adjectives used to describe a person's character includes a great number of composites with the second component expressed by the lexical units “tempered” or “hearted” (concerning human abilities) and “minded” or “witted” (applied to describe a person's intelligence). The examples of such compound adjectives are the following: hot / quick / short-tempered, warm / kind / open-hearted, well / easy-natured; sober / broad /quick /slow /feeble-minded, quick / keen / ready-witted. The first component is most frequently expressed by the lexical units “well” (well-read / behaved / mannered / bred), “ill” (ill-read / behaved / mannered), “quick” (quick-tempered / minded / witted), “self” (self-assured / critical / blaming) etc.

From our point of view, such polyvalency of the above-mentioned composites is determined by a numerous amount of compound adjectives used to describe a person's character and it provides a possibility of combining of lexical units with various components and gaining new meanings.

By orthographical characteristic of integral formation of compound words we mean that they can be written as one or two words or with a hyphen. At the current stage of the English language development one can observe a tendency to have different variants of writing of the same word used to describe a person's character. The second component of such an adjective is expressed by Participle I, Participle II or a noun with the ending -ed, for instance, ill-bred - ill bred, strong-willed - strong willed, worldly-minded - worldly minded, well-bred - well bred etc. The compound adjectives that belong to the other word-building patterns are graphically formed as one word, for example, quarrelsome, straightforward, spendthrift etc.

The components of the researched lexical set have various word stem structure. For instance, there are certain words which are made up of simple stems (straightforward, quarrelsome, spendthrift). However, most compound adjectives have a derived stem in their structure. This word group can be subdivided into adjectives with a component expressed by Participle I (easy-going, hard-working, self-blaming, keeping aloof), Participle II (well / ill-bred, well / ill-read) and noun + -ed (open-hearted, well/illmannered, good-natured). The special attention should be paid to the adjectives with the second component with the ending -ed. The Ukrainian researcher Mykhalchuk is fair to note that the composites like short-tempered, able-bodied, two-faced etc.can not be divided into “independent segments”, since there are no such adjectives as tempered, bodied, faced in the English language [9, p. 72]. In accordance with their structure, we consider these lexical units as a combination of a noun and -ed ending. We completely agree with the statement that this ending belongs “not only to the second component, but also the whole compound word” [9, p. 72] and in this way it amplifies characteristics of the adjective. Composites with two derived stems can also be found in the researched vocabulary, for instance, worldly / spiritually-minded.

In the context of semantics, we suppose that the compound adjectives of the microsystem “person's character” can be subdivided into the following groups:

- innate qualities: hot / quick / short-tempered, easy-going, sober-minded, worldly-minded, spiritually-minded, trustworthy, selfassured, self-blaming, self-confident, self-critical etc.;

- powers of mind: broad-minded, narrow-minded, quick-minded, dim-witted, well-read, ill-read, slow-minded, quick-witted, feeble-minded, simple-minded / hearted etc.;

- volitional powers: strong-willed, weak-willed, steel-hearted, do-or-die, strong-minded, half-hearted, lily-livered etc.;

- attitude to other people: straightforward, double-faced, trustworthy, quarrelsome, keeping aloof, hot-tempered, good-natured, well-mannered/ bred, ill-mannered, well-behaved etc.;

- attitude to spending and saving money: open-hearted, spendthrift, open-mouthed, tender-minded, mean-spirited etc.;

- attitude to work: hard-working, do-nothing, work-shy, bone-lazy etc.

Furthermore, as we have observed, the researched lexical set is represented by adjectives with positive and negative attitudinal meaning. Therefore, we subdivide these compound adjectives into the following groups:

- volatility: easy-going, light-minded, harebrained, empty-headed etc.;

- common sense and pragmatism: sober-minded, worldly-minded, level/clear-headed etc.;

- reliability and responsibility: trustworthy, self-disciplined, thick-and-thin etc.;

- confidence: self-assured, self-confident, self-reliant, full-hearted etc.;

- commitment and self-neglect: self-blaming, self-denying (-forgetful), good-natured etc.;

- curiosity and ingenuity: broad-minded, quick-minded, quick-witted, well-read;

- purposefulness and motivation: strong-willed, single-eyed (-minded), goal-oriented etc.;

- trustfulness: simple-minded (-hearted), corn fed, hayseed, dewy-eyed, open-hearted, green-horn etc.;

- honesty and sociability: straightforward, true hearted, fair-dealing, open-faced, clean-living (-handed), clear-eyed etc.;

- courage and determination: lion-hearted, steel-hearted, strong-minded, high-hearted etc.;

- politeness and good manners: well-mannered (-bred), well-behaved, good-natured etc.;

- hard work and diligence: hard-working, able-bodied etc.;

- lack of balance: hot / quick / short-tempered, quarrelsome, hot-tempered etc.;

- bad manners: ill-mannered, ill-behaved, low-bred etc.;

- prodigality: spendthrift, tender-minded, open- (free-) handed etc.;

- laziness and inactivity: do-nothing, work-shy, bone-lazy; slow-minded, ill-read, feeble-minded, weak-willed, airheaded, boneheaded, crackbrained etc.;

- cowardice: narrow-spirited, milk-livered, weak-hearted, chicken-hearted etc.

It should be mentioned that positive or negative meaning of a compound adjective is most frequently expressed by the first component, for instance, well / ill-bred, easy-going, good-natured, pigheaded, heavy-hearted etc.

In order to identify components of a compound word, it is necessary to find out their meaning. It is well known that according to the semantic criterion composites are divided into subordinate (endocentric), coordinative, appositive, exocentric and synthetic. While studying the semantic structure of compound adjectives in the microsystem “person's character”, it should be noted that most words are endocentric. It means that their “semantic structure is logically formed by the semantic structure of their components” [5, p. 136] (hard-working, open-hearted, good-natured, keeping aloof). Ukrainian researchers Dubravska and Vanivska distinguish two parts in the structure of composites - the “main element” which determines to what part of speech a compound word belongs to, and a “modifier” [6, p. 109]. Composites with Participle I and II are governed by a verb form and it determines the status of the first component (well-read, ill-bred, self-assured). In accordance to this, we can make a conclusion that most compound adjectives used to describe a person's character have a dependent type of link between their components.

Some compound adjectives have a coordinate type of link, which is characterized by equal significance of both components. These adjective can be subdivided into the following groups:

- three component composites with the common element -and-: half-and-half (uncertain), thick-and-thin (reliable) etc.;

- two component composites which consist of repeated components, but with the changed sound: ding-dong (brave), wishy- washy (feeble), shilly-shally (hesitatory), hoity-toity (haughty), highty-tighty (light-minded) etc.

It is significant to mention that there are also exocentric or idiomatic compound adjectives and their semantic centre is beyond a composite, since the meanings of its components do not correspond to the semantics of the whole word. From the point of view of Kustova, these complex units are united by an integral seme of possessiveness that logs information concerning one of the basic (biological, possessive and perceptive) life situations, which form a prototype set of the main activities of a person [8, p. 85]. In accordance with Holub and Bondarenko, “these words often represent a distinctive feature of a person due to metaphoric or metonymic transfer of the meaning of the first part of compound words” [5, p. 138]. This semantic group is represented by adjective composites with the common element -headed, -brained, -hearted as well as some other adjectives (lily-livered - cowardly, green-horn - inexperienced, thick-and-thin - faithful). Moreover, idiomatic compound adjectives also include slang words, which appear in the English language due to the American variant. For instance, compound adjectives with the second component -headed (blockheaded, bubbleheaded, airheaded, boneheaded, flatheaded, muttonheaded, fatheaded, mush-headed, knuckleheaded) and -brained (featherbrained, crackbrained) are considered as ones with the seme “stupid”. On the other hand, composites with the segment -hearted can possess both negative (chickenhearted - cowardly), and positive meaning (gentle-hearted, soft-hearted - kind, considerate).

We completely agree with the statement of the researchers Holub and Bondarenko that “almost all English words are morphologically and semantically motivated” [5, p. 137]. However, it can not be said about compound adjectives which belong to the lexical microsystem `person's character' and it is not always possible to identify a semantic form of the whole composite from the meaning of its components.

The formation of complex lexical constructions is a distinctive feature of the modern English language and refers to a specific compression tendency which allows to provide sufficient information richness of the material as well as compactness within a large content. Such structures are becoming more and more widespread in the English language discourse. They are characterized by flexibility, expressiveness and clarity. The ability to combine several words into a single one is determined by the analytical form of the modern English language.

The researched compound adjectives within the microsystem “person's character” are an essential part of the English discourse. These words can be characterized by their specific meaning (endocentric and exocentric) and multilevel semantic form (the lexical microsystem is represented by lexical sets and semantic groups). According to the structural context, the most common are compound adjectives with two or three components. It is necessary to mention that adjectives with two parts usually have a noun with the ending -ed as their second component. At phonetical level the most frequently used are compound adjectives with the main stress on the second component, which is the semantic focus. The structure of the compound adjectives used to describe a person's character generally consists of adjectives, adverbs, verb forms and nouns with the ending -ed. Thus, it provides certain lexical units of attributive semantics as well as the language in general with additional expressiveness. Furthermore, in such a way the researched compound adjectives fulfil their significant function to identify, evaluate and characterize a person (from the point of view of a speaker) as concisely as possible at psychological, emotional and mental level. It should be stated that the formation of compound words is a permanent phenomenon in the English language discourse and therefore it requires further research.

Література

lexical construction adjective character

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