INTRODUCTION
Scope of the Study
This study focuses on the use of compound adjectives in the novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, highlighting their frequent occurrence in literature, magazines, and newspapers.
This subject contains three main parts and references:
Chapter I: Introduction deal with the reasons, the aims, the methods, the scope and the format of the study
Chapter II Entiled “Theoretical background” supplies an overview of adjectives and compound adjetives in English
Chapter III is “Compound adjectives in the novel: “gone with the wind” presents the way of using compound adjectives in the novel: “Gone with the wind”
The fourth chapter give suggested exercise and instruction for both students and teachers to complete it with the aim at helping learners practise doing tasks related to compound adjectives
The last chapter is conclusion summarising the main points discussed in previous parts and giving some suggestions for further researchs
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
This chapter deals with the theory of adjectives and including compound adjectives as well as the hyphenation in compound adjectives
Numerous linguists have offered various definitions of the term "word," yet none have proven entirely satisfactory, leading to ongoing challenges in the English language Orthographically, a word is defined as any sequence of letters that is flanked by spaces on both sides.
33) thought of the word as the “minimum free form”, the smallest form that may appear in isolation In the grammatical way, words are defined as having the criteria of
Positional mobility and internal stability indicate that words are not fixed within sentences, maintaining a consistent order among smaller elements without the addition of new components Semantically, words serve as fundamental units of meaning, with certain individual units expressed through simple words According to Palmer (1981), not all words carry the same significance; some possess minimal or no meaning at all.
In English, new words can emerge through various word-formation processes, particularly in the creation of adjectives These processes include prefixation, where prefixes are added to a base word, often without altering the word class, such as in "irresponsible" and "ungrammatical." Another method is suffixation, which involves adding a suffix to the base, typically resulting in a change of word class, as seen in "boyish" and "adaptable." Additionally, conversion refers to the transformation of a word’s syntactic category without changing its form, allowing a base word to function as a different word class without morphological alteration.
In language processing, adjectives often derive from present and past participles, such as "hand" from the noun "hand" and "advise" from "advice." Clipping is a linguistic process where a word is shortened while maintaining its meaning and word class, exemplified by terms like "advertisement" becoming "ad" or "gymnastic" shortening to "gym." Additionally, acronyms are formed from the initial letters of a series of words, creating a single word that is pronounced as such, often representing the names of organizations and institutions.
Ex: UN (United Nation), NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) f) Blends: Blending is a formation of a new word-form based on combination of two or more parts of existing lexemes
Back-formation is the process of creating a new word by removing a suffix from an existing word, effectively shortening it This linguistic phenomenon often results in the formation of a new term that retains the original meaning while altering its structure Examples of back-formation include terms like "edit" derived from "editor" and "televise" from "television."
Ex: babysit from babysitter, demograph from demographics h) Compounding:
Compounding is an effective word-formation process that combines two or more smaller bases into a single unit According to R Huddleston, a compound is defined as a "compound base" made up of these smaller components V Adams further emphasizes that compounds result from fixed combinations of two lexemes, or free forms, with a specific order that cannot be altered Despite being formed from multiple free lexical units, compounds are recognized as a single word-form.
Ex: outdoorsy, laid-back bar
In addition to these four processes adjectives can be formed with the assist of combining-forms (e.g bias-, bio- ) As Quirk et al (1985) observe such forms:
Have the semantic characteristic of the first constituent in a compound but they resemble prefixes in mostly (…) being obligatrily initial, in having little or no
5 currency as separate words, and in not normally being the stressed part of a complex word (p 1520)
Adjectives are words that describe the qualities of people, things, or ideas and categorize them into classes Typically, adjectives are used alongside nouns and are positioned directly before them in a sentence.
According to general characteristic of adjectives as a word class, they should have the following syntactic properties:
• Function – adjectives can appear in attributive, predicative and postpositive function
• Gradability – adjectives are gradable, hence accept modifiers like very, too, enoughand have inflectional or analytic comparatives and superlatives
• Dependents – adjectives can take adverb modifier, e.g very (Huddleston 2002:
There are five types of Adjectives: a) Possesive Adjectives
Possesive Adjective is the Adjective which is used to point out the noun that belong to someone
There are seven Possesive Adjectives: my, your, her, his, our, their,its
Example: Your house is so beautiful
I love their song b) Descriptive Adjectives
Descriptive Adjective is Adjective that is used to tell the sorts of noun or quality Example: He is a tall man c) Demonstrative Adjectives
Demonstrative Adjective is the adjective which is used to point out the noun There are four demonstrative adjectives: this, that, these and those
Ex: I don‟t believe that story
These old house were built in fifteen century
Interrogative Adjective is Adjective that is used to ask the question They are which, whose, where, what…
Ex: What kind of flower do you like?
Do you know where is stadium? e) Numeral Adjectives
Numeral Adjective is Adjective that is used to show the number of nouns There are three types of numeral Adjective as follow:
Definite numeral adjective is used to cach one noun They are every, each, another…They are used to denote an exact number of noun as: first, second, third…
Example: This is the first time I have ever been here
That was the second time I get in that house
They are the adjective which are used to denote an inexact number of nouns as: some, any, much, little…
Example: Would you like some pieces of cake?
Could you give me some books?
Distributive Numeral Adjective is used to cach one noun They are every, each, another…
Example: Every people in this class is student
I do not like this book, I want to read another one
2.3.3 Position of Adjectives in sentences
Adjectives are usually found in one of three positions in a sentence as follow:
- Attributive position: They appear directly before the noun
Ex: She has a beautiful house
- Predicative position: They appear after a verb (usually tobe)
Ex: Vietnamese are friendly and hospitable
She looks so ugly as she goes mad
- Postpositive position: They appear directly after the noun
Ex: They heard creatures unseen
- A large number of Adjectives in English can be derived from nouns by adding on special adjectival endings such as ful, less, ent, ant, ly
Table 1: Rules to form adjectives from noun
The content of this rule is putting the such elements as y, ly, full… at the end of noun to form adjectives
- Another very common way of forming Adjectives is to use the present and past participles of verbs:
+) As a rule the past participle (usually, but not always, ending in -ed) tells us how someone feels about something with such adjectives as: interested, delighted, dedicated, complicated
Ex: I am interested in reading book
+) the present participle ending in -ing such as: interesting, annoying, confusing, boring tells us how something makes us feel
Ex: This film is so interesting
English grammarians including traditional ones have dealt with Compounds but they seem to have failed to give a accurate definition of Compounds
R Huddleston calls a compound “a compound base which is composed of two (or occasionally more) smaller bases.” (Huddleston 2002: 1642) V Adams sees a compound as a result of fixed combinations of two lexemes, free forms The order oflexemes creating a compound is fixed and cannot be changed A compound, although consisting of more free lexical units, has the identifying characteristic of single word-form (Adams1973: 30) Sweet (1891, § 63) defines a Compound as “ a combination of two words equivalent formally and logically to a single word” By formally he means a single, indivisible word like “blackwood” distinct from “black wood”
There are three forms of compound words:
- The closed form, in which the words are formed when two words are written as one word such as: firefly, secondhand, softball, childlike, crosstown, redhead, keyboard
Hyphenated compounds, such as "daughter-in-law," "master-at-arms," and "over-the-counter," play a crucial role in English grammar These terms often combine multiple words to convey specific meanings, enhancing clarity and precision Examples include "six-pack," "six-year-old," and "mass-produced," which illustrate the versatility of hyphenation in describing various concepts Understanding the use of hyphens in compound words is essential for effective communication and proper writing.
- The open form, means that the words of the compound are written separately such as post office, real estate, middle class, full moon, half sister, attorney general
Compound words can be classified as either permanent or temporary Permanent compounds are widely recognized and have become part of everyday language, often found in dictionaries In contrast, temporary compounds are formed by hyphenating words as needed, allowing for the creation of unique combinations.
Compound adjectives are created through various grammatical patterns, making their identification and adjectival status often ambiguous As stated by Chicago-Kent College of Law, a compound adjective occurs when two or more adjectives collaborate to modify the same noun, and these terms should be hyphenated to prevent confusion.
2.5.2 Orthographic features of compound adjectives a) Written form of compound adjectives
Compound adjectives can be formed from two or more lexical units, which may or may not be hyphenated in writing This article addresses the spelling of compound adjectives and how their individual components are linked in text It also outlines basic rules for writing compound adjectives and using hyphens There are three primary ways to write compound adjectives: with hyphens connecting the units, as separate words, or as a single word While compound adjectives are common in English, they are often not found in dictionaries, making it challenging to verify their correct forms The majority of compound adjectives are hyphenated, so when in doubt, using the hyphenated form is the safest option.
Oxford English Dictionary definites the following:
The hyphen (-) is utilized to connect words, signifying a combined meaning or grammatical linkage, as seen in terms like "pick-me-up" and "rock-forming minerals." It also serves to divide words at the end of a line and to indicate missing elements, exemplified by phrases such as "short- and long-term."
There are two types of hyphenation
They are the hyphens inserted automatically by a hyphenation utility
They are the hyphens that you add explicitly by entering the dash character
When using compound adjectives, specific rules for hyphenation should be followed The American Heritage Book of English Usage outlines key guidelines that clarify when to employ a hyphen in these cases.