Exercises

I. Find compounds in the following jokes and extracts and write them out in three columns: A. Neutral compounds. B. Morphological compounds. C. Syntactic compounds.

1. Pat and Jack were in London for the first time. During a tour of the shops in the West End they came to an expensive-looking barber's. "Razors!" exclaimed Pat. "You want one, don't you? There's a beauty there for twenty-five bob,¹ and there's another for thirty bob. Which would you sooner have?" "A beard," said Jack, walking off.

Bob – a shilling (pl. bob) a free-for-all-a fight without rules

2. The children were in the midst of a free-for-all.² "Richard, who started this?" asked the father as he came into the room. "Well, it all started when David hit me back."

3. That night, as they cold-suppered together, Barmy cleared his throat and looked across at Pongo with a sad sweet smile. "I mean to say, it's no good wor­rying and trying to look ahead and plan and scheme and weigh your every action, because you never can tell when doing such-and-such won't make so-and-so happen — while, on the other hand, if you do so-and-so it may just as easily lead to such-and-such."

4. When Conan Doyle arrived in Boston, he was at once recognized by the cabman whose cab he engaged. When he was about to pay his fare, the cabman said:

"If you please, sir, I should prefer a ticket to your lecture."

Conan Doyle laughed. "Tell me," he said, "how you knew who I was and I'll give you tickets for your whole family."

"Thank you, sir," was the answer. "On the side of your travelling-bag is your name."

5. An old tramp sailed up to the back door of a little English tavern called The George and Dragon and beck­oned to the landlady.

"I've had nothing to eat for three days," he said. "Would you spare an old man a bite of dinner?"

"I should say not, you good-for-nothing loafer," said the landlady and slammed the door in his face.

The tramp's face reappeared at the kitchen window. "I was just wonderin'," he said, "if I could 'ave a word or two with George."

6. "Where are you living, Grumpy?"

"In the Park. The fresh-air treatment is all the thing nowadays."

7. Arriving home one evening a man found the house locked up. After trying to get in at the various windows on the first floor he finally climbed upon the shed roof and with much difficulty entered through a second-sto­ry window. On the dining-room table he found a note from his absent-minded wife: "I have gone out. You'll find the key under the door mat."

8. One balmy, blue-and-white morning the old wom­an stood in her long, tidy garden and looked up at her small neat cottage. The thatch on its tip-tilted roof was new and its well-fitting doors had been painted blue. Its newly-hung curtains were gay... Bird-early next morn­ing Mother Farthing went into the dew-drenched gar­den. With billhook and fork she soon set to work clear­ing a path to the apple tree.

(From Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by R. Dahl)

II. Identify the neutral compounds in the word combina­tions given below and write them out in 3 columns: A. Simple neutral compounds. B. Neutral derived com­pounds. C. Neutral contracted compounds.

An air-conditioned hall; a glass-walled room; to fight against H-bomb; a loud revolver-shot; a high-pitched voice; a heavy topcoat; a car's windshield; a snow-white handkerchief; big A. A. guns; a radio-equipped car; thousands of gold-seekers; a big hunting-knife; a lightish-coloured man; to howl long and wolf­like; to go into frantic U-turns;¹ to fix M-day².

 

¹ U-turn ['jftfen] — R. поворот "кругом".

² M-day — the first day of mobilization.

 

III. Arrange the compounds given below into two groups:
A. Idiomatic. B. Non-idiomatic. Say whether the semantic change within idiomatic compounds is partial or total. Consult the dictionary if necessary.

Light-hearted, adj.; butterfly, п.; homebody, п.; cabman, п.; medium-sized, adj.; blackberry, п.; blue­bell, п.; good-for-nothing, adj.; wolf-dog, п.; highway, п.; dragon-fly, п.; looking-glass, п.; greengrocer, п.; bluestocking, п.; gooseberry, п.; necklace, п.; earth­quake, п.; lazy-bones, n.

 

IV. Say whether the following lexical units are word-groups or compounds. Apply the criteria outlined in the foregoing text to motivate your answer.

Railway platform, snowman, light dress, traffic light, railway station, landing field, film star, white man, hungry dog, medical man, landing plane, top hat, distant star, small house, green light, evening dress, top student, bluecoat,¹ roughhouse,² booby trap,³ black skirt, medical student, hot dog, blue dress, U-shaped trap, black shirt⁴.

V. Find shortenings in the jokes and extracts given be­low and specify the method of their formation.

1. В г о w n: But, Doc, I got bad eyes!
Doctor: Don't worry. We'll put you up front. You won't miss a thing.

2. "How was your guard duty yesterday, Tom?"
"O.K. I was remarkably vigilant."

"Were you?"

"Oh, yes. I was so vigilant that I heard at once the re­lief sergeant approaching my post though I was fast asleep."

3. "Excuse me, but I'm in a hurry! You've had that phone 20 minutes and not said a word!" "Sir, I'm talk­ing to my wife."

¹ bluecoat — policeman.

² roughhouse — play that has got out of hand and turned
into brawling (R. скандал, драка).

³ booby trap — a trap laid for the unawary as a practical
joke, often humiliating (R. ловушка).

⁴ black shirt — a fascist (black shirts were part of uniform
of the Italian Fascist party).

⁵ We'll put you up front. — R. 1. Мы пошлем вас на
передовую. 2. Мы посадим вас в первый ряд (игра слов).

 

Lecture 8. What is “Meaning”?