Historical Changes in the Structure of Compound Words
We pointed out that composition in ancient way of forming new words. A great number of English compounds is preserved from OE. Here we can mention gold - smith, firelight, midnight, quicksilver. Other compounds have undergone phonetic changes so that compounds themselves were turned into the root words. The phenomenon was investigated by Russian philologists Bogoroditsky and Amosova, who used the Russian term “опрощение основы” which may be translated into English as "simplification of stem". The degree of change can be very different. Sometimes the compound is altered beyond all recognition. Thus in the name of the flower "daizy"; or in the word "woman"; composition can be discovered by etymological analysis only: daizy - OE days eye woman - OE wifman husband - OE master of the house Demotivation (деэтимологизация) is closely connected with simplification. They may be considered as different aspects of changes that may occur simultaneously. Demotivation is etymological isolation, when the word loses its ties with other word or words with which it was formerly associated, ceases to be understood as belonging to its original word - family. e.g. kidnap - literally means to seize a young goat (now to steal a child and recently - a public figure). In present English all associations with "goats" or "nabbing" (arrest) are forgotten; the word is isolated from its etymological relatives and functions as a simple sign. The process of demotivation starts from semantic change. The change of the sound form comes later. e.g. lady - OE hlafdige (hlaf – loaf), dig (месить) – хлеб месящая lord - OE hlaford - breadkeeper Both words have become morphologically indivisible and have changed their meaning so that neither of them is connected with the word "loaf";. With some compounds the changes are still under way. e.g. cupboard breakfast - to break the fast waistcoat These words might be regarded as borderline cases, as simplification is not completed graphically.
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