or has the largest proportion?
i think it's a close battle between German,Chinese and Hungarian?
i think it's a close battle between German,Chinese and Hungarian?
Which language has the most Compound words ?
of course Chinese.
Compounding is extremely common in both Chinese
and German. The phrase “income tax” is treated as
an NP in English, but it is a word in German, Einkommensteuer,
and in Chinese, suodesui. We suggest
that it is this rich use of compounding that causes the
wide variety of unknown common nouns and verbs
in Chinese and German. However, there are still differences
in their compound rules. German compounds
can compose with a large number of elements,
but Chinese compounds normally consist of two
bases. Most German compounds are nouns, but Chinese
has both noun and verb compounds.
Read:
Chinese: A Language of Compound Words?----by Giorgio Francesco Arcodia
http://www.lingref.com/cpp/decemb/5/paper1617.pdf
...We shall then introduce our hypothesis, namely that the creation of a large number of compounded
words was caused by the interplay of a number of factors, which include the above mentioned
phonological simplification and the fact that in the Chinese lexicon there are almost no elements which
can act as word boundaries, that is, fusive and/or agglutinative inflectional markers; moreover, the
abundance of lexical morphemes, endowed with a stable relationship between phonological and
orthographic form, is also supposed to be a facilitating factor in complex word production. We shall
compare the Chinese data with some examples of multi-word expressions from the Romance languages,
a family where the phenomenon of compounding is not as widespread as in Chinese...
Compounding is extremely common in both Chinese
and German. The phrase “income tax” is treated as
an NP in English, but it is a word in German, Einkommensteuer,
and in Chinese, suodesui. We suggest
that it is this rich use of compounding that causes the
wide variety of unknown common nouns and verbs
in Chinese and German. However, there are still differences
in their compound rules. German compounds
can compose with a large number of elements,
but Chinese compounds normally consist of two
bases. Most German compounds are nouns, but Chinese
has both noun and verb compounds.
Read:
Chinese: A Language of Compound Words?----by Giorgio Francesco Arcodia
http://www.lingref.com/cpp/decemb/5/paper1617.pdf
...We shall then introduce our hypothesis, namely that the creation of a large number of compounded
words was caused by the interplay of a number of factors, which include the above mentioned
phonological simplification and the fact that in the Chinese lexicon there are almost no elements which
can act as word boundaries, that is, fusive and/or agglutinative inflectional markers; moreover, the
abundance of lexical morphemes, endowed with a stable relationship between phonological and
orthographic form, is also supposed to be a facilitating factor in complex word production. We shall
compare the Chinese data with some examples of multi-word expressions from the Romance languages,
a family where the phenomenon of compounding is not as widespread as in Chinese...
>>Compounding is extremely common in both Chinese
and German. The phrase “income tax” is treated as
an NP in English, but it is a word in German, Einkommensteuer,
and in Chinese, suodesui.<<
English is really no different from German in this regard except with respect to orthography, as it is traditional in English to write spaces in such words while it is traditional in German to not use spaces in such. "Income tax" is not an NP but simply a compound noun just like "Einkommensteuer" is.
and German. The phrase “income tax” is treated as
an NP in English, but it is a word in German, Einkommensteuer,
and in Chinese, suodesui.<<
English is really no different from German in this regard except with respect to orthography, as it is traditional in English to write spaces in such words while it is traditional in German to not use spaces in such. "Income tax" is not an NP but simply a compound noun just like "Einkommensteuer" is.
If my language was to be put pinyin only forever, it'd very possibly become an agglutinative language. This is very easy to imagine.
The topic is irrelevant because I think human beings don't speak with separate words - or to be exact separate morphemes. In terms of length, some of the above examples might look daunting with loads of long words. But long words aren't always compounds.
The topic is irrelevant because I think human beings don't speak with separate words - or to be exact separate morphemes. In terms of length, some of the above examples might look daunting with loads of long words. But long words aren't always compounds.
It depends of what you understand by "compound word" or more precisely by "word".
If "income tax" is a compound word then "hijo de puta" is compound too.
If "income tax" is a compound word then "hijo de puta" is compound too.
<<If "income tax" is a compound word then "hijo de puta" is compound too.>>
Why? The first is two morphemes bound together while the second is two nouns connected by a preposition.
Why? The first is two morphemes bound together while the second is two nouns connected by a preposition.