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Adjectival compounds

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Adjectival compounds form a productive category of Dutch compounds. The constituent on the right, the head, is an adjective. The left-hand constituent can be N, A, Adv or V:

NA: autovrij [[auto](N)[vrij](A)](A) car free, peperduur [[peper](N)[duur](A)](A) pepper-expensive very expensive

AA: jonggetrouwd [[jong](A)[getrouwd](A)](A) young-married married young, lichtgrijs [[licht](A)[grijs](A)](A) light grey

AdvA: niet-productief [[niet](Adv)[productief](A)](A) non-productive, welbekend [[wel](Adv)[bekend](A)](A) well-known

VA: kotsmisselijk [[kots](V)[misselijk](A)](A) vomit-nauseous very nauseous, spilziek [[spil](V)[ziek](A)](A) waste sick wasteful

The constituents of these adjectival compounds are usually not compounds themselves, that is, adjectival compounding is not recursive. An exception is the compound spotgoedkoop very cheap with the lexicalized adjectival compound goedkoop cheap as head.

The productive formation of adjectival compounds is restricted to four categories: elative compounds such as peperduur very expensive, colour adjectives such as diepzwart deep black, compounds with affixoid adjectives such as autovrij car-free, and compounds with participial adjectives such as computergestuurd computer-controlled as heads.

The adjectival head can be either simplex or complex (including present and perfect participles); examples with complex heads are the following:

adembenemend

[[adem](N)[benem-end](A)](A)

breathtaking

computergestuurd

[[computer](N)[ge-stuur-d](A)](A)

computer-controlled

milieuvriendelijk

[[milieu](N)[vriend-elijk](A)](A)

environment-friendly

vrouwvijandig

[[vrouw](N)[vijand-ig](A)](A)

woman-hostile

hostile to women

The non-head position can also be occupied by quantifiers, and adverbs:

Quantifiers

driedimensioneel

three-dimensional

drie-dubbel

three-double

triple

Adverbs

doornat

very wet

intriest

very sad

overgelukkig

very happy

bovennatuurlijk

supernatural

The words door, in and over in these compounds have the specific meaning 'very' that they do not have as freely occurring adverbs.

There is a large set of adjectival compounds in which the first constituent has an expressive meaning of intensification. For instance, the compound straatarm street-poor destitute means 'very poor', and ijskoud ice-cold means 'very cold'. These type of compounds are called elative compounds. A remarkable property of intensifiers such as in and door is that they can be coordinated, thus expressing the highest intensity possible, a form of repetition with iconic value:

in-en-in-triest

very, very sad

ijs-en-ijs-koud

very, very cold

dood- en doodziek

death-and-death-ill

very ill

kots- en kotsmisselijk

very nauseous

Nouns used in adjectival compounds may have special stem allomorphs with one of the linking elements -e or -s, just like NN compounds:

apetrots

monkey-proud

very proud

beresterk

bear-strong

very strong

doodsbang

death-frightened

very frightened

hondsbrutaal

dog-impertinent

very impertinent

There are also adjectival copulative compounds such as rood-wit-blauw red-white-blue and Duits-Frans German-French. Note that these compounds are copulative from a semantic, but not from a formal point of view: only the adjectival head will bear an inflectional ending when the adjective is used attributively. Hence, the rightmost adjective is the head, as illustrated by the following examples with inflected adjectives:

de rood-wit-blauwe vlag

de rood-wit-blauw-e vlag

DEF.SG.C red-white-blue-INFL flag.C

the red-white-blue flag

Duits-Franse betrekkingen

Duits-Frans-e betrekkingen

German-French-INFL relations

German-French relations

The semantic relation between heads and non-heads can differ. In AA-compounds the first adjective may modify the second, the head. In VA-compounds, the V will either function as an intensifier, as in kotsmisselijk sick as a dog (cf. kotsen to vomit), or it expresses a thematic role of the adjective, as in spilziek waste-sick wasteful (cf. spillen to waste). In NA compounds, the noun often functions as the point of comparison with respect to the property expressed by the adjectival head, as in the following examples

boterzacht

butter-soft

soft as butter, very soft

ijzersterk

iron-strong

strong as iron, very strong

lijkbleek

corpse-pale

pale as a corpse, very pale

steenkoud

stone-cold

cold as a stone, very cold

vuurrood

fire-red

red as fire, very red

The noun that functions as the point of comparison has often developed into an intensifier with the general meaning 'very'. Hence, they are referred to as prefixoids, a subclass of affixoids.

In addition, there is quite a number of NA compounds in which the noun also functions as an intensifier, without the original interpretation (point of comparison) being possible, as in:

broodnuchter

bread-sober

stone sober

doodeerlijk

death-honest

perfectly honest

oliedom

oil-stupid

very stupid

stokdoof

stick-deaf

stone deaf

straatarm

street-poor

destitute

Due to the intensifier meaning of the first constituent, it is rather odd to form comparatives and superlatives of such adjectives: forms such as ijzersterkst and vuurroder are semantically odd, although not completely impossible. For instance, a sentence such as De ouders waren nog vuurroder dan hun kinderen The parents were even more crimson than their children is certainly possible. For some NA compounds the semantic role of the noun with respect to the adjectival head can be explicated by means of a PP with that noun:

energiezuinig - zuinig met energie economical with energy

hittebestendig - bestand tegen hitte resistant to heat

loodvrij - vrij van lood free from lead

milieuvriendelijk - vriendelijk voor het milieu friendly for the environment

sneeuwzeker - zeker van sneeuw with guaranteed snow

vetarm - arm aan vet low-fat

If the adjectival head has the form of a present participle, the nominal non-head has the Theme role, whereas with past participles as heads, the noun has a variety of roles. The latter kind of adjectival compound has become very popular, probably under the influence of English:

Present participles

energiebesparend

energy-saving

grensoverschrijdend

border-crossing

crossborder, breaking new ground

hartverscheurend

heart-rending

heartrending

noodlijdend

need-suffering

needy, suffering

Past participles

inbraak-beveiligd

burglary-protected

burglar-proof

luchtgekoeld

air-cooled

noodgedwongen

need-forced

by necessity

tijdgebonden

time-bound

toekomstgericht

future-directed

future-oriented

extra

There is a correlation between the intensifier interpretation of the noun and the stress pattern of such adjectival compounds. Generally, the two constituents of an adjectival compound have either equal stress, or the location of the main stress is variable, depending on rhythmic factors and syntactic position. However, if the noun is interpreted as an intensifier, the main stress of the word is on the first, intensifying constituent. In other words, the stress pattern of an adjectival compound is co-determined by its semantic interpretation, and not only by its structural properties.

References

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About this article

Author(s): Geert Booij

Category: Dutch Morphology

Keywords: compoundadjectiveadjectivalword formation

Version: 1.0, December 2015

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Geert Booij	December 2015

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