Re: morphological terms for compound words


Julius wrote:
Recently, I have examined in a homework the effects of the 1990's
"Rectifications orthographiques" (kind of spelling reform) on the
French morphology.

Because of this reform, you can for example now leave out hyphens in
some words:
- "extra-parlementaire" (eng: 'extraparliamentary') ->
"extraparlementaire"

I'm astonished that I haven't found in the specialized literature any
morphological terms to distinguish between:
- compounds written with a hyphen (eng: "counter-claim"),
- compounds seperated by a blank character (eng: "aircraft carrier")
and
- compounds written in one word (eng: "counterpart" instead of "counter
part" or "counter-part").

Even my teacher didn't know appropriate terms.

Since I cannot imagine that there doesn't exist a differentiation, I'm
turning to you. Do you know any?

The use of hyphens, at least in English, is not a question of grammar
or linguistics, but a question of orthography, which in
English-speaking countries is not a matter for government intervention
(or for linguists).

Policy on hyphenating compound words is decided by lexicographers, who
document current practice, and perhaps impose some sort of
systematicity in compiling lemmata in dictionaries.

The Chicago Manual of Style, which is the American standard reference
for most publishers, reports a trend toward using fewer hyphens and
more solid compounds. The latest (15th) edition devotes almost ten
pages (300-308) to principles, examples, and lists. (Which is a
decrease from the 14th ed.) Hyphens occur more frequently in British
than in American publications.

.