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A german example (from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapax_legomenon http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapax_legomenon) is "Knabenmorgenblütenträume" from Goethe's "P
by struppi 13y ago
A german example (from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapax_legomenon http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapax_legomenon) is "Knabenmorgenblütenträume" from Goethe's "Prometheus". It is a wonderful example for how you can create new words in German by concatenating existing words:
Knabe = Boy
Morgen = Morning
Blüte = Blossom
Träume = Dreams
The literal translation of this word is somthing like "A boy's morning dreams about blossoms", but the true meaning (according to some internet discussions: http://www.gutefrage.net/frage/was-sind-knabenmorgenbluetentraeume- http://www.gutefrage.net/frage/was-sind-knabenmorgenbluetent... ) seems to be something unfinished: Every part of the word depicts something unfinished / young.
Sometimes I really love my mother tongue :)
- ygra 13y agoTechnically English allows the same, only that compound words are separated by spaces instead of either concatenated or joined with hyphens.
- 7schlaefer 13y agoHyphen concatenation is also allowed in German, and widely used.
- 7schlaefer 13y agoHyphen concatenation is also allowed in German, and widely used.
- sanoli 13y agoIt seems to work much better in german, when they are joined and feel much more like a new word. As for English allowing the same thing though with spaces, isn't concatenating words to join their meaning a feature of pretty much every language?
- losvedir 13y ago> isn't concatenating words to join their meaning a feature of pretty much every language? No, and that's the point. The fact that the grammar of the language allows strings of nouns to form compound nouns (e.g. a "River Steamboat Captain" feels natural to me) is unique and interesting, and shared by English. In Spanish, for example, you'd need prepositions/conjunctions to express that concept. The fact that if you were to write this down, you'd leave out the spaces, is just a weird quirk of the written system, and independent of the language itself.
- schoen 13y agoMy favorite example of English's willingness to do noun-noun compounding and Spanish's corresponding unwillingness is on the Boston subway: Passenger emergency intercom unit at end of car Sistema de intercomunicación para pasajeros en caso de emergencia situado al extremo del tren There are several things going on there that make the Spanish longer than the English, but one is the obligatory use of explicit prepositions relating the nouns to one another in Spanish. In English terms, the Spanish says System of intercommunication for passengers in case of emergency situated at the end of the train See also this list written up by John Cowan of some languages that do noun-noun compounding and what the implicit meanings of such compounds can be: http://recycledknowledge.blogspot.com/2009/12/noun-noun-compounds.html http://recycledknowledge.blogspot.com/2009/12/noun-noun-comp... Notice that not all types of compounds are understood in every language, even for languages that sometimes allow this!
- sanoli 13y agoThanks, that was a great example.
- RyanMcGreal 13y agoWord pairings that take off in usage gradually migrate from separated by spaces to separated by hyphens to compounded. E.g. data base data-base database
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]