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We can and regularly do invent compound words in English too. We just write them with spaces between each word. As far as I know, this is just a minor differenc
by tshaddox 4y ago
We can and regularly do invent compound words in English too. We just write them with spaces between each word. As far as I know, this is just a minor difference in orthography with little effect on the ability to create (even arbitrarily long) compounds.
- torstenvl 4y agoExactly. I once read a linguistics text that called these a particular form of complex noun phrase, but that doesn't appear to be a standard term. Regardless, English allows you to use a noun as an adjective almost anywhere, without adding any suffix. A web font (which is not a web). A computer engineer (which is not a computer). A grocery trip (which is not a grocery). And so on. This is just like other Germanic languages, we just don't erase the space between components of the word.