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English and Vietnamese Compounding 1
Running head: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE COMPOUNDING
English and Vietnamese Compounding: A Contrastive Analysis
Bui Thi Thao Uyen
HCMC University of Pedagogy
English and Vietnamese Compounding 2
Abstract
Compounding is a tool of language to form new words by combining or attaching two or
more words together. The meaning of a compound word, as a result is usually different
from the meaning of the roots standing alone. Compounding is a linguistic phenomenon
used commonly especially in real life as colloquial. For example, fireman and hardware
in English or anh em, xe đạp in Vietnamese. A question raised is that whether there are
any differences between the system of compounding in English and Vietnamese or not.
The purpose of this research is to explore special aspects of compounding in each
language and then contrast them through two facets: forms and semantic functions.
Also, I would like to focus on some implications for language teaching at the end of this
paper. I expect that this research will be helpful for you in pointing out similarities and
differences of compounding in English and Vietnamese in order to avoid some mistakes
in using the international language: English and our mother tongue: Vietnamese.
English and Vietnamese Compounding 3
Compounding in English
In linguistics, a compounding is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem.
Compounds can be created by combining nouns, verbs and adjectives together. English
compounds may be categorized in several ways, commonly the semantic relationship
between their components or word classes. Let us have a detailed look at semantic
classification. According to Wikipedia, there are four typical kinds included in this
category.
An endocentric compound consists of a head which represents the core
meaning of the whole compound and modifiers which limit the meaning of the head. In
general, the meaning of a compound is mainly based on the meaning of its head and
has the same word class with components. For example, a blackboard, where board is
the head and black is the modifier, is understood as a particular kind of board. Similarly,
a raincoat is a type of coat against the rain.
Another common type of compound is the exocentric compound which does
not have a head or the meaning of the head is not distinctly revealed. A redhead, for
instance, is neither a head nor a red thing; it is a person with red hair. Note that the
word class of the compound is not determined by the class of constituents. That’s why a
must-have is not a verb but a noun.
Besides these common compounding, there are other rare types as well. One of
these types is coordinate or copulative compound which joins elements considered
having semantic heads. As a result, the meaning of a compound is a generalizing
meaning. This means that the copulative compounds will indicate a larger concept than
English and Vietnamese Compounding 4
each constituent. Like a fighter-bomber, this is an aircraft that is both a fighter and a
bomber. However, these types of generalizing compounds are less frequent than the
endocentric type.
One more type is appositional compound which refers to lexemes whose
meaning can be characterized as “as well as”. Take a player-coach for example, playercoach means someone who is a player as well as a coach.
Table 1:
A Brief Summary of Semantic Classification
Type
Description
Example
Endocentric
A + B marks a special kind of B
darkroom, small talk
Exocentric
A + B marks a special kind of an
skinhead, paleface
unexpressed semantic head
(head: 'person')
A + B marks 'the sum' of what A and B
bittersweet, sleepwalk
Copulative
denote
Appositional
A and B provide different descriptions for
actor-director,
the same referent
maidservant
In English, words particularly adjectives and nouns, are combined into compound
structures in many various ways. A common pattern is that words like firefly or fire-fly
used at the same time; so what is the difference? Compounds are written in three
different ways.
English and Vietnamese Compounding 5
The “solid” or “closed” form in which two or more words are joined together to
form a single word such as housewife, wallpaper, childlike…..
The hyphenated form in which words are connected by a hyphen. A compound
is hyphenated in some cases like adjective – adjective compound (blue-green), verb –
verb compound (freeze-dry) and compounds containing affixes (house-builder), articles,
prepositions or conjunctions (rent-a-cop, mother-in-law, salt-and-pepper)….
The open or spaced form in which the two words are written as one such as
post office, real estate, middle class, full moon…..
In above three forms, the hyphenated form is considered to be a troublesome
problem. “An old-furniture salesman” and “an old furniture salesman” are same or
different. Clearly, the presence of a hyphen here has an influence on the meaning of a
compound word. “An old-furniture salesman” (1) is a salesman who sells old furniture
whereas “an old furniture salesman” (2) is simply an old man. We cans see the diagram
below as an analysis:
an old furniture salesman
(1)
an old furniture salesman
(2)
When compounded modifiers come before a noun, they are often hyphenated to
avoid confusion. The similar examples are part-time teacher, fifty-yard-wide field, fireresistant curtains, high-speed chase…. Moreover, it is a must to use a hyphen in
comparative or superlative forms of adjectives like: the highest-priced car, the shorterterm loan… with the exception of some like the most talented youngster. However, in
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some cases we do not need to use a hyphen too connect words. The first is when
compounded modifiers come after the noun: a field fifty yard wide, curtains that are fire
resistant….Next, some adverbs ending with “ly” also are not hyphenated when
compounded with other modifiers such as a highly rated bank, a partially refunded
ticket, publicly held securities…
Another aspect of this hyphenated form is about spelling of compound plurals
and possessives. For this form, the –s is usually added to the component that is the
base element of the term and supposed to be the significant part, mostly the noun.
Some examples are daughters-in-law, lieutenant-generals, deputy-librarians…The
possessive of a hyphenated compound is quite tricky. It is quite to create the
possessive by attaching an apostrophe –s to the end of the compound; however, it will
be more complex to create the possessive of plural compounds. In this case, it is wiser
to use an “of” phrase instead like the meeting of the daughters-in-law, the schedule of
half-moons…
Based on the word class, compound words can be divided into three kinds:
compound noun, compound verb and compound adjective.
Compound Noun
“A compound noun is a noun that is made up of two or more word. Most
compound nouns in English are formed by nouns modified by other nouns or
adjectives.” (learnenglish). Normally, the second part of a compound noun tells us the
object or the person like man, room, table, friend… and the first part identifies what type
English and Vietnamese Compounding 7
of object or person it is, or what its purpose is. Therefore, the first part must modify or
describe the second part. Look at this table as an example
Table 2:
Compound Nouns
What type / what purpose
What or who
police
man
boy
friend
water
tank
dining
table
bed
room
(edufind.com)
Like in the bedroom, the first part “bed” modifies the second part “room” and
gives information about a special type of room. That’s why the meaning of a compound
noun is different from the two separate components. It’s the specialization of the
meaning of its head, and it is modifiers which restrict the meaning of the head what
someone does (language teacher), what something is for (waste-paper basket,
grindstone), what the qualities of something are (whiteboard), how something works
(immersion heater), when something happens (night frost), where something is
(doormat), what something is made of (woodpile), and so on. Compound noun can be
formed in some of following ways.
English and Vietnamese Compounding 8
Table 3:
Some Common Patterns to Make Compound Noun
Patterns
Examples
noun + noun
bedroom, water tank, motorcycle, printer, cartridge
noun + verb
rainfall, haircut, train-spotting
noun + adverb
hanger-on, passer-by
verb + noun
washing machine, driving license, swimming pool
verb + adverb
lookout, take-off, drawback
adjective + noun
greenhouse, software, redhead
adjective + verb
dry-cleaning, public speaking
adverb + noun
onlooker, bystander
adverb + verb
output, overthrow, upturn, input
One more thing also needs to be concerned is stress because it is a way to
differ a compound noun from a noun phrase. In compound nouns, the stress usually
English and Vietnamese Compounding 9
falls on the first syllable whereas the second syllable is stressed in a noun phrase. For
example,
a „white house = the official home of the President of the USA (a
compound noun)
a white „house = a house painted with white
(a noun phrase)
Compound Adjective
A compound adjective is a combination of two or more words. As a general rule,
they are written with a hyphen between them to avoid ambiguity and confusion. Make a
comparison these following examples:
a small appliance industry: a small industry producing appliances
a small-appliance industry: an industry producing small appliances
Clearly, hyphen in compound adjective is an important mark to help readers
differentiate a compound adjective from two adjacent adjectives, an adjective preceding
a noun: blue-sky law, a verb preceding an adjective/adverb: feel-good factor…
However, in some cases you do not need to place a hyphen in a compound adjective
such as:
The left part of a compound adjective is an adverb (usually a word ending in “ly”)
and the right part is an adjective. For example “a hotly disputed subject”, not “a hotlydisputed subject”
English and Vietnamese Compounding 10
Another case is when a compound adjective includes comparative or superlative
with “more, most, less or least”, for instance, “a more recent development”, and “the
most respected member”. In brief, a compound adjective is often hyphenated when it
comes before a noun and not when such comes after a verb as “This is a well-known
product”, “The product is well known” (grammar). There are some ways to make
compound adjective:
Table 4:
Some common patterns to make compound adjective
Patterns
Examples
adjective + present participle
good-looking, beautiful-sounding, freestanding
adverb + present participle
far-reaching, never-ending, well-becoming
noun + present participle
time-consuming, breath-taking, recordbreaking
noun + past participle
heart-broken, hand-made, sun-dried
adjective + past participle
low-paid, little-known, high-bred
adverb + past participle
outspoken, ill-equipped, well-behaved
adjective + noun
deep-sea, full-length, last-minute
adjective + noun-ed
red-haired, old-fashioned, absent-minded
English and Vietnamese Compounding 11
Compound Verb:
According to Wikipedia, a compound verb includes neither a light verb (vector)
which does not affect grammatically at all nor the meaning very much; and a primary or
heavy verb or noun which is considered to be the base of a compound verb. Learners
are usually confused and misunderstand compound verbs with some terms like:
complex verb, verb phrase and phrasal verb (a sub-type of verb phrase). How to
distinguish a compound verb from the other? Here, “pick up” is considered to be a
phrase verb than compound verbs because we can insert an object between them like
pick something up whereas it is impossible in compound verb. For instance, it is
incorrect to say spoon something feed because “spoon feed” is a compound verb. In
reality, there are still some arguments in compound verb formation. However, there are
some patterns of compounding verb formation:
Table 5:
Some common patterns to make compound verb:
Patterns
Examples
preposition + verb
overrate, underline, outrun
adverb + verb
downsize, upgrade
adjective + verb
whitewash, blacklist
noun + verb
browbeat, sidestep, manhandle
preposition + noun
out-Herod, out-fox
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Compounding in Vietnamese
Compounding is a highly productive word formation process in Vietnamese.
Compounding in Vietnamese seems to be similar to compounding in English in some
aspects. Diep (2005) states that compound words are made up of two or more single
words which generally do not have any full or partial reduplication (p. 568). In term of
grammatical aspect, compounding is divided into two groups based on the relation
between semantemes: coordinated compound word and principal-and-accessory
compound word.
Coordinated compound word
Coordinated compound words have some common features. Firstly, the
grammatical relation between components of a compound is mainly equal relation, for
example:
hòa thuận
thuận hòa
The relation between hòa (peaceful, not conflict) and thuận (agree, accept) is a
coordinated relation. Secondly, the meaning of a compound word is mainly the
combination of the elements’ meaning which is called general meaning. This refers to
objects, characteristics (action, state, property, relation). When hòa and thuận go
together, this forms a new word “hòa thuận” (concord, be in accord) whose meaning is
the combination of hòa and thuận (Nguyen, 2004, p. 20).
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According to Diep and Hoang (1998), coordinated compound word is classified
into three main branches based on the contribution of the meaning function of each
component to the meaning of the compound word (pp. 43-45).
The first group is iterative compounding (từ ghép gộp nghĩa). Take “ăn uống”
for example, ăn = to eat ; uống = to drink  “ăn uống” = eat and drink. The meaning
of this group can be understood in a simple pattern AB = A + B. It means that meaning
of a compound word derives from the merger between components. Therefore, this
compounding ordinarily stands for features of both elements; however, it also implies a
general unit like quần = trousers; áo = blouse, shirt, jacket  “quần áo” = dress,
clothes. Some other iterative compounding are sống chết, xăng dầu, điện nước, tàu xe,
sống chết, nghe nhìn, may rủi, tốt đẹp…..
The second group is repetitive compounding (từ ghép lặp nghĩa). Followed by
the pattern AB = A or B, it is meant that the meaning of a compounding is the meaning
of each component because they have the same meaning or nearly similar. Let us have
an example,
“đe” = threaten with, warn with menace - “Don‟t hallo till you are out of the
wood.” (chưa đỗ ông nghè đã đe hàng tổng)
“dọa” = threaten with, frighten with - “He threatened suicide.” So, “đe dọa”
here means threaten with, menace with. Clearly, “đe” and “dọa” have the same
meaning. “Đe” combines with “dọa” to signify the meaning of compounding. It can be
concluded that “đe” = “dọa” = “đe dọa”. There are such repetitive compoundings as binh
lính, núi non, cấp bậc, tìm kiếm, chờ đợi, sửa chữa……..
English and Vietnamese Compounding 14
The third group is singulatif compounding. Let us analyze these below
examples:
(1): “ăn” = to eat, “nói” = to say, talk  “ăn nói” = to say, talk
(2): “ăn” = to eat; “nằm” = have sexual intercourse  “ăn nằm” = to have
sexual relation
In brief, “ăn nói” = “nói”, “ăn nằm” = “nằm”. The meaning of these compound
words “ăn nói, ăn nằm” is corresponding or similar to one of their components: “nói”,
“nằm”. The other “ăn” does have the totally different meaning. Compounding like these
above is called singulatif compounding. Again, this kind of compounding carries the
meaning of element which has the clearest meaning and the other’s meaning has a
tendency to fade and disappear. This characteristic makes it seem to be similar to
principal-and-accessory compound word mentioned later. Some other examples are
chợ búa, đường xá, đi đứng, sầu muộn, ăn làm…….
There are some ways to form a coordinated compound word:
Table 6:
Some common patterns to form a coordinated compound word:
Patterns
Examples
noun + noun
ruộng đất, nhà cửa, áo quần, cha mẹ…..
verb + verb
xóa bỏ, nâng đỡ, đợi chờ, đi đứng…..
adjective + adjective
tươi đẹp, ấm no, ngọt bùi, may rủi….
English and Vietnamese Compounding 15
Principal-and-accessory compound word:
Contrary to coordinated compound words, parts of principal-and-accessory ones
are subordinated to each other. One element plays the main role on which the
accessory part is dependent. Whereas the main factor determines genre, feature
(including relation, property, state….), the supplemental factor is usually to materialize
the genre mentioned which differentiates one thing from the other. The classification of
this compounding is based on the meaning contribution of subordinate element to the
meaning of compound word. Firstly, let us have a look at these examples:
(1): “xe đạp” - xe = vehicle, cart, carriage; đạp = pedal  “xe đạp” = bicycle
(2): “xe máy” – máy = machine  “xe máy” = motorcycle
(3): “ngủ mê” – ngủ = sleep; mê = dream  “ngủ mê” = dream
These examples are kinds of alterity compounding (dị biệt hóa). While “xe” is
the main element which points out the general genre, “đạp” is the subordinate that has
the role of modifying the principal component. In term of semantics, the subordinate part
(đạp, máy, mê) mostly carry the meaning of compound words.
Table 7:
Principal-and-accessory compound nouns
Compounding
Main element
Subordinate element
xe máy
xe
máy
xe đạp
xe
đạp
ngủ mê
ngủ
mê
English and Vietnamese Compounding 16
Generally, the accessory part comes after Viet word or precedes Han main
component (Diep & Hoang, 1998, p. 48). For example, xe lửa, xe hỏa, dưa chuột , làm
nông, đẹp mặt, đinh ba….or nhiệt kế, sử học, hỏa xa, tập thể hóa……(the bolded
words are accessory parts). It is common to see the phenomenon of a main part going
together with a variety of different accessory part. In this case, the accessory element
functions as a categorization tool such as these words “xe đạp, xe máy, xe lửa, xe
bò….”, “dưa chuột, dưa gang, dưa hấu, dưa bở...”, “làm việc, làm ruộng, làm rẫy,
làm nông, làm thợ…” In addition, an accessory component can also go together with
different main words which is understood as conspiring function like “nhà ăn, phòng ăn,
bàn ăn, thức ăn...”, “áo bông, mền bông, mũ bông, thỏ bông…”, “đi bộ, chạy bộ, cuốc
bộ, quá bộ….”
The second group is shading compounding (sắc thái hóa) that the accessory
ingredient supports the main one by adding a certain shade of meaning. For example,
“xanh biếc, xanh lơ, xanh lục” are somewhat different because of the accessory
factors, and all of them, of course, are different from “xanh”. The shading compounding
are usually adjective compounding such as “thẳng đơ, thẳng đuột, thẳng tắp…”, “sưng
vêu, sưng vù, sưng mọng, sưng húp….”.
Table 8:
Some common patterns to form principal-and-accessory compound words
Patterns
Examples
noun + noun
Nước mắt, đường sắt, mặt trời….
English and Vietnamese Compounding 17
noun + verb
Xe đạp, áo tắm, sân bay….
noun + adjective
Hoa hồng, áo dài, cà chua….
verb + noun
Trả lời, trả bài, ăn ý, ăn lời…
verb + adjective
Bôi nhọ, tẩy sạch, soi sáng…
adjective + noun
Tốt bụng, vui tính, mát tay…..
adjective + verb
Tươi cười, vui sống, khó chịu.…
adjective + adjective
Mát lạnh, xanh thẫm, tím nhạt……
(Dai, 1978, pp. 169-170)
Discussion
From the brief description of two languages in compounding aspect above, I
would like to identify some similarities and differences in terms of forms and semantic
function.
Firstly, compounding formation in Vietnamese and English are similar to some
extent. Both languages combine nouns, verbs, and adjectives to create compounds.
Thanks to this flexible combination, there is a huge amount of compound words in word
system of both languages. In English, in addition to affixation and conversion,
compounding is one of three universal processes to form a new word. In recent
decades, there is a prominent increase in making use of compounds. They come not
only from the combination of words but recently taking syllable of words and
compounding them such as pixel (picture element) and bit (binary digit). This is called
syllabic abbreviation (Wikipedia). The components of a compound word in
Vietnamese are quite a contrast to those in English. Compounds in Vietnamese are
English and Vietnamese Compounding 18
mainly based on Chinese words (Han-Viet) such as điện khí hóa, khảo cổ học, ampe
kế…. (Han words are underlined.). Besides, Nom words can be also used like tươi tốt,
êm dịu, khỏe mạnh….
Secondly, there is a difference in semantic function of each kind of compound
word. Bauer (1983) claims that most English compounds are made up of two nouns and
they have an endocentric function (as cited in Tang, p. 15). Vietnamese compounds
also have this function. Like hải quân “navy” is a type of quân “army” (hải “ocean”).
Moreover, Vietnamese compounds may have a generalizing function. This refers to a
combination of two similar items to point out a larger notion. Some examples of this
semantic function are:
The words bàn “table” and ghế “chair” go together to mean bàn ghế “furniture”
The words con “child” and cháu “grandchild” go together to mean con cháu
“offspring, descendents”. In English, compound words which carry the generalizing
function is less than those with endocentric type.
Another aspect about Vietnamese and English compounding that we should
concern is the location of the head. As a rule, the head of an English compound word is
on the right such as over-ripe, underworld, highlight…….In contrast, in Vietnamese, the
head (usually singulatif or principal-and-accessory compounding) can precede or come
after the modifier. As mentioned above, the head is on the left if it is a Viet word. The
head is on the right if it is a Han word.
Last but not least, hyphen occurs frequently in English compound words than in
Vietnamese in order to avoid confusion between a compound word and word modified
English and Vietnamese Compounding 19
by an adjective (noun phrase). There are a number of cases that are needed to add a
hyphen
An adjective preceding a noun: “round-table discussion”, “blue-sky law”……
A verb preceding an adjective or an adverb: “feel-good factor”, “buy-now paylater purchase”……
A verb preceding a preposition: “stick-on label”, “walk-on part”……..
An adjective preceding a noun_ed: “loud-mouthed hooligan”, “middle-aged
lady”……
A noun/adjective/adverb preceding a present participle: “an awe-inspiring
personality”, “a long-lasting affair”….. And of course are many other cases (Wikipedia).
English and Vietnamese Compounding 20
With this paper, through the concise description and the contrastive view
between two languages, I would like to discuss some suggestions for teaching
compounding at school.
First, teachers should draw students to be well-aware of compounding of each
language. Whereas Vietnamese compound words are usually divided into two main
groups: subordinated and principal-and-accessory compound words, English
compounds are mainly grouped into compound noun, compound verb and compound
adjective. To have an accurate view of compounding in both mother tongue and the
second language helps students develop linguistic skills and avoid misunderstanding
transference.
Secondly, in term of teaching, teachers should pay much more attention to
distinguish a compound with a phrase, mostly a compound noun with a noun phrase. To
do this effectively, teachers’ duty is to analyze components in each term and point out
the differences between them. Until this stage, the explanation of a hyphen in a
compound word is also necessary. Since then, it gives students a clear distinction
between two confused concepts.
Moreover, in term of practicing, instead of asking students to learn these
compounding by heart, teachers should provide more interesting exercises like
matching in two columns, or doing exercise basing on the situation, then emphasize on
its stress. These kinds of exercise may arouse students’ interest and motivate them
more active.
English and Vietnamese Compounding 21
Conclusion
In conclusion, compounding is a common feature in linguistics. This is used more
and gradually formed more because of the needs in social communication.
Compounding plays an important role in a variety of word system in both English and
Vietnamese. A contrastive analysis in his field between English and Vietnamese is
actually helpful and interesting because it gives more information on formation and
semantic functions. Clearly, it shows that there are various ways to make up a
compound word and different semantic functions. Furthermore, some implications are
included in this paper for references. Within this research, I hope that it, to a certain
extent, will help language teachers some ideas for teaching this area better.
English and Vietnamese Compounding 22
References
Compound (linguistics). (2008, January). Retrieved October 10, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_(linguistics)
Compound adjectives. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2009, from
http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/compadjterm.htm
Compound nouns. (1999, September). Retrieved October 10, 2009, from
http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/nouncompound.htm#top
Compound nouns. (n.d.). Retrieved October 25, 2009, from
http://www.edufind.com/English/Grammar/NOUNS4.CFM
Compound verbs. (2009, December 18). Retrieved October 25, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_verb
Dai, X.N. (1978). Hoat dong cua tu tieng viet. Hanoi: Social Science Publish House.
Diep, Q.B. (2005). Ngu phap tieng viet. Ho Chi Minh City: Education Publish House.
Diep, Q.B., & Hoang, V.T. (1998). Ngu phap tieng viet. Ho Chi Minh City: Education
Publish House.
English compound. (2009, December 23). Retrieved October 25, 2009 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_compound
Nguyen, C.H. (2004). Ngu phap tieng viet thuc hanh. A practical grammar of
vietnamese. Hanoi: National University Publish House.
English and Vietnamese Compounding 23
Tang, M.G. Cross-linguistic analysis of Vietnamese and English with implications for
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