compound words: noun + gerund

[tranlam1609]

a. It is a fire-making contest.
b. It is a bull-fighting festival.
I wonder if these compounds are adjectives or nouns. Please help me.
Thank you in advance.

 

[SoothingDave]

They are functioning as adjectives in those sentences, aren't they?

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I think they are nouns, but I am prepared to be shot down in flames on this one.

If by bullfighting you mean the national sport of Spain, and not some other exotic sport in which bulls fight each other, then it is one word (no hyphen) and only a mass noun.

If fire-making were an adjective you should be able to place it predicatively and still have a meaningful sentence.

"The contest is fire-making" doesn't sound too good to me.

 

[SoothingDave]

Nouns functions as adjectives sometimes. "Shut the car door."

I guess the real answer to "is this a noun or an adjective?" is "yes."

 

[tzfujimino]

(I'm not sure about 'fire-making', but it looks like 'filmmaking'. So, it's probably a noun/gerund.)
'bullfighting' is a 'noun'. I wouldn't call it an 'adjective'. It "functions like an adjective" in the OP's example.
In the same way, in "the car door", the noun 'car' is "functioning like an adjective". I wouldn't call it an 'adjective', either.

 

[5jj]

If fire-making were an adjective you should be able to place it predicatively and still have a meaningful sentence.

That's not always a sound test. Some adjectives are used almost exclusively before nouns. These include bloody (as an informal intensifier), elder, live (= living), mere, old (of a long lasting relationship)

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Yes, I did think of that before posting, but I couldn't think of any -ing forms that can only be used before nouns..

 

[5jj]

These spring to mind: reading glasses, a measuring cup

 

[MikeNewYork]

I wonder if these compounds are adjectives or nouns. Please help me.

A noun that is used as an adjective to modify another noun is often called an "attributive noun".

 

[tzfujimino]

These spring to mind: reading glasses, a measuring cup

Or "a walking stick", "a waiting room", "a sleeping pill", etc.

:-D

 

[MikeNewYork]

These things are less problematic in spoken English because of the stress placed on words.

READING glasses are glasses for reading. Reading GLASSES would be glasses that are reading.
A MEASURING cup is a cup for measuring. A measuring CUP would be a cup that is measuring.
A WALKING stick is a stick used for walking. A walking STICK would be a stick that is walking.
A WAITING room is a room to wait in. A waiting ROOM would be a room that is waiting.
A SLEEPING pill is a pill for sleeping. A sleeping PILL would be a pill that is sleeping.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

A waiting room is a noun just like the others on this list, and as such they are not examples of adjectives that can only be used before a noun.

Reading GLASSES, as Mike pointed out, would be glasses that are reading. This was my point in post #3.

A contest that is fire-making is nonsense.

 

[Tdol]

How about surrounding?

The surrounding area :tick:

The area is surrounding :cross:

 

[MikeNewYork]

But a FIRE-MAKING contest can be a type of contest. In that use, it is an attributive noun.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Yes, but someone in post #9 said that that was called an attributive noun.

No, wait a minute, that was you!

 

[MikeNewYork]

Sorry, I meant attributive noun. Fire-making is an activity. That makes it a noun. Sorry for the typo. But that doesn't change the reality.

 

[SoothingDave]

This is all semantics, right?

In my very first post on this thread, I pointed out that the word is functioning as an adjective. Maybe it's a special kind of adjective. Maybe it's a special kind of noun.

Isn't the function the important thing to help understand the meaning of the sentence?

 

[5jj]

Exactly. In post no. 8 I gave examples of -ing forms used only before a noun, deliberately not claiming they were participles/gerunds/adjectives/nouns/whatever. In these examples, the -ing forms function as adjectives, in my opinion.