[Vocabulary] Compound words, noun plus noun.

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rambolola

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Hello
I was wondering how open compound words work.You can have these common compound words like ice cream, post office and credit card etc.
But what about open compound words like for example: " cheerleader trick","terminal window", "computer science". What are the rules about open compound words? Can I just make a compound word if I want? In all books and texts on the internet there is always just talked about the common open compound words(and i'm mainly talking about noun + noun) but what about the rest? I'm trying to learn computer science but I get carried away because I don't understand how noun + noun words work.
Best regards Rambolola
 

MikeNewYork

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Hello
I was wondering how open compound words work.You can have these common compound words like ice cream, post office and credit card etc.
But what about open compound words like for example: " cheerleader trick","terminal window", "computer science". What are the rules about open compound words? Can I just make a compound word if I want? In all books and texts on the internet there is always just talked about the common open compound words(and i'm mainly talking about noun + noun) but what about the rest? I'm trying to learn computer science but I get carried away because I don't understand how noun + noun words work.
Best regards Rambolola

Most nouns can be used as adjectives describing other nouns. When used that way, the noun used as an adjective is called an "attributive noun". The only rules that are involved are logic and common sense.
 

probus

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As Steven Pinker says in The Language Instinct: a noun is just a word that does nouny things. I think you can feel free to combine nouns in pairs in any way that seems to you to make sense; for example, rain gear, radium dial, snow boots. But keep your pairings two separate words. Compounds tend to become single words if they are used commonly and frequently; for example, top coat has become topcoat and rain coat raincoat, but top hat is still top hat, possibly for orthographic reasons or possibly because it has become uncommon.
 
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SoothingDave

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As a non-native speaker I would be wary about trying to create my own compound nouns. You will find that English creates them on its own.
 

MikeNewYork

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As a non-native speaker I would be wary about trying to create my own compound nouns. You will find that English creates them on its own.

Good advice. One can take "babysitter" and "house sitter" and create "dog sitter" and even "gerbil sitter", but not "hammer sitter" or "wrench sitter".
 

Tdol

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Good advice. One can take "babysitter" and "house sitter" and create "dog sitter" and even "gerbil sitter", but not "hammer sitter" or "wrench sitter".

Isn't that covered by your point about logic? Compounds come into being and may catch on when there's a need- gerbils may need a sitter, but we haven't got around to nurturing and caring for wrenches to that degree (yet).
 

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Isn't that covered by your point about logic? Compounds come into being and may catch on when there's a need- gerbils may need a sitter, but we haven't got around to nurturing and caring for wrenches to that degree (yet).

Yes, it covered by that, but I was not certain it was clear.
 

rambolola

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But what if the meaning of the noun plus noun word is not clear? Like what does command-line argument in computer programming mean? Is there no rule on how the meanings of noun plus noun alter when they're put together?
 

5jj

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But what if the meaning of the noun plus noun word is not clear? Like what does command-line argument in computer programming mean? Is there no rule on how the meanings of noun plus noun alter when they're put together?
I have no idea what 'command-line argument' means, but I don't work in computer programming, Those who do presumably know what it means.

There are NO rules. We don't have a body regulating the English language. People invent new words and compounds, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. If enough people accept and use these neologisms, they will become normal within a certain group and, perhaps, within the language community as a whole.
 

rambolola

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But what about when you put together many nouns, like: Hotel reception desk. There has to be some kind of a rule to get the meaning of that as a whole? :/
 

5jj

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The rule is common sense.
 

MikeNewYork

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But what about when you put together many nouns, like: Hotel reception desk. There has to be some kind of a rule to get the meaning of that as a whole? :/

A "hotel reception desk" is a reception desk in a hotel. That is where people go when they want to check into the hotel. You can also have "hotel room", hotel restaurant", hotel bar", etc.
 

SoothingDave

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I have no idea what 'command-line argument' means, but I don't work in computer programming, Those who do presumably know what it means.

There are NO rules. We don't have a body regulating the English language. People invent new words and compounds, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. If enough people accept and use these neologisms, they will become normal within a certain group and, perhaps, within the language community as a whole.

In the old days, people had to tell computers what to do by typing in commands on a command line. The old DOS "c prompt."

Certain commands require more information. For example, if you want to "copy" you need to tell the computer what to copy from and what to copy to. Those two items are called "arguments" for the "copy" command. You would type something like "copy oldfilename newfilename."

Argument | Define Argument at Dictionary.com

See #7 under the World English Dictionary
 

Tdol

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But what if the meaning of the noun plus noun word is not clear? Like what does command-line argument in computer programming mean? Is there no rule on how the meanings of noun plus noun alter when they're put together?

The meaning of that will be perfectly clear to those who use the command line. Much specialist language only makes sense to people familiar with that area- if they are trying to communicate with non-specialists, then they will have to use other terms.
 

Raymott

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But what about when you put together many nouns, like: Hotel reception desk. There has to be some kind of a rule to get the meaning of that as a whole? :/
No, I think it's impossible to a have a rule. It would be easy to make one up, but whatever the rule was, there'd be more exceptions than examples that followed it. A "hotel reception desk" is obviously not a desk that receives hotels, because that is something that doesn't happen in this universe. Can you think of any really ambiguous or incomprehensible three or four noun clusters that occur in colloquial language? Even if you can, it's still not a demonstration of the need for a rule, but of the need for better writing.
 

emsr2d2

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But what about when you put together many nouns, like: Hotel reception desk. There has to be some kind of a rule to get the meaning of that as a whole? :/

What sort of "rule" do you suggest? English works using a system of words in sentences and the meaning is made clear with word order, context and logic.
 

rambolola

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What sort of "rule" do you suggest? English works using a system of words in sentences and the meaning is made clear with word order, context and logic.
Well I was thinking if there was any rule about how you predict the meaning of unknown or unfamliliar compound words(noun + noun mainly)? And if there isn't any how can you predict the meaning? And i'm pretty sure everyone is gonna say the "rule is logic" so i'm lost...:(
 

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The rule is not logic. There is no rule. Quite a number of people have told you this already. If a string of nouns seems to make sense to you, go ahead and use it. And there is no limit to the number of nouns you can string together. To quote the noted linguist Steven Pinker, "English is free and easy with compounding, which glues together two words to form a new one, like toothbrush or mouse-eater... One can talk about a toothbrush holder fastener box."
 

Barb_D

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Start with the last noun. That's the main noun. Work backwards from there.

A desk.
A reception desk.
A reception desk in a hotel.

Train station ticket office.

An office.
An office where you buy tickets.
An office where you buy tickets in some sort of station.
An office where you buy tickets in a train station.
(You could probably take "train station" as one phrase and skip that third step.)
 

MikeNewYork

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The rule is not logic. There is no rule. Quite a number of people have told you this already. If a string of nouns seems to make sense to you, go ahead and use it. And there is no limit to the number of nouns you can string together. To quote the noted linguist Steven Pinker, "English is free and easy with compounding, which glues together two words to form a new one, like toothbrush or mouse-eater... One can talk about a toothbrush holder fastener box."

But not a toothbrush holder fastener box eater. That is where logic and common sense come in.
 
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