Re: Why does German favor long compound words?

Am Sat, 4 Nov 2006 15:30:31 +0100 schrieb Helmut Richter:

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006, Joachim Pense wrote:

Am Sat, 04 Nov 2006 09:04:05 +0800 schrieb LEE Sau Dan:


But "Bundesverfassungsschutz" doesn't go beyond that: It's just a
concatenation of 2 words: Bundesverfassung and Schutz. :) (Of course,
you can recursively decompose the former further into Bund[es] and
Verfassung. But it's a deeper level.) Similar for Hauptbahnhof:
Haupt + { Bahn + Hof }.

I think it is not Bundesverfassung + Schutz, it's Bundes +
Verfassungsschutz. But you knever know.

In this case I find Joachim's version more probable, although both make
sense. The term "Bundesverfassung" is not normally used in Germany, the
constition has the title "Grundgesetz" (fundamental law) and is often
simply called "Verfassung" (constition) but not "Bundesverfassung"
(federal constitution). Also, Google hits of "Bundesverfassung"
point primarily to Swiss and Austrian sites.


Maybe "Bundesverfassungsschutz" is in fact Austrian or Swiss?


Joachim
.

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