Compound Words and Phrases

Three types of interference are possible for multiple lexical units consisting of more than one morpheme. All the elements may be transferred, in analyzed form; all elements may be reproduced by semantic extensions; or some elements may be transferred, while others are reproduced.

1) Transfer of analyzed compounds occurs when the elements of a compound or phrase are adapted to word formative or syntactic patterns of the recipient language (if the elements are transferred unanalyzed, the word is to be considered simple). An example of a compound analyzed in the process of transfer is conscientious objectors, which Florida Spanish has borrowed as objectors concientes, recompounding the elements in Spanish fashion.[...]

2) Reproduction in terms of equivalent native words can be carried out with compounds, phrases, and even larger units such as proverbs. Thus English skyscraper has served as a more or less exact model for German Wolkenkratzer, French gratte-ciel, Spanish rascacielos, Russian neboskrjob, Polish drapacz chmur, etc.; Penna. German es gebbt rejje is reproduced in English as it gives rain ‘it is going to rain’, word for word. [...] This form of interference, generally called loan translation, has been subdivided as follows:

a) Loan translations proper, in which the model is reproduced exactly, element by element: Louisiana French marchandises sè ches ‘dry goods’ (i. e. textile fabrics for sale); Huguenot French avoir droit after German recht haben, Amer. Portuguese estar direito ‘to be right’, after English.

b) Loan renditions (Lehnubertragungen), in which the model compound only furnishes a general hint for the reproduction, e. g. German Vater-land after Latin patr-ia, Halb-insel ‘half-island’ after раеn-insula ‘almost island’; Wolkenkratzer ‘cloud scraper’ after sky-scraper.

c) Loan creations (Lehnschopfungen), a term applied to new coinages which are stimulated not by cultural innovations, but by the need to match designations available in a language in contact: e. g. Yiddish mitkind ‘sibling’ (literally ‘fellow child’) created on the stimulus of English sibling, German Geschwister, and equivalent terms much in vogue in present day social science.

Among loan translations, one can also distinguish those in which the com­ponents appear with their familiar semantemes (only the particular combination of them being due to another language) from those where one ormore of the components is involved in a semantic extension. An example of the first type is Florida Spanish poner a dormir ‘to put to sleep’ (standard Spanish hacer dormir, adormecer), where poner and dormir appear with ordinary meanings, only the combination being unusual; the second kind is exemplified by such forms as Canadian French escalier de feu ‘fire staircase, fire escape’, where feu appears in place of standard incendie (the whole compound corresponds to standard French escalier de sauvetage); the substandard English yes well modeled after Penna. German jawell ‘tobe sure’ or the Wisconsin German Pferds-Rettich ‘horse radish’.

3) The third type of interference in compound lexical units involves the transfer of some elements and the reproduction of others. An excellent study has been made of such hybrid compounds in Penna. German, where forms like fle-š -pai ‘meat pie’ or esix-jug ‘vinegar jug’ abound, and where even the suffix -ever has been utilized in such hybrids as wa(r)-ewe(r) ‘whoever’, was-ewe(r) ‘whatever’. In Tampa (Fla.) Spanish, many hybrid compounds are found in baseball vocabulary, such as home plato ‘home plate’, pelota de fly ‘fly ball’, and the like. [...]

Among the hybrid compounds one may also distinguish those in which the stem is transferred and a derivative affix reproduced, e. g. Amer. Yiddish farpojzenen ‘to poison’, Swiss French patois de-stopfe ‘to unplug’ (using Schwyzertü tsch š topfe), or Penna. German fils-ig (after filth-y); š ip-ig (after sheep-ish); and those in which the stem is indigenous and an affix transferred, e. g. Amer. Norwegian karrna ‘corner’, apparently a blend of English corn-er and Norwegian hyrrn-a, or German Futter-age ‘forage’, a nonce-word formed, by popular etymology, after French four-age. This last type might be called interlingual portmanteaus.

Finally, a special type of hybrid compound is represented by forms like Amer. Italian canabuldogga ‘bulldog’, where one element of a compound (dog) is both transferred and reproduced (cana-).

All that has been said about forms of lexical interference applies not only to common words but to proper names as well. Proper-name interference is particularly common; that the same place or person should be called by unrelated names in a language-contact situation is in fact the rarer case. Pairs of placenames like Italian Monfalcone — Slovene Trž ič in Italy, Romanish Musté r — German Disentis in Switzerland, German Wittingau — Czech Tř ebon in the Sudeten, Polish Tarnobrzeg — Yiddish Dž ikev in Poland, are not common. In the most usual case a name is transferred from one language to another, e. g. Italian Trieste — Slovene Trst, Ukrainian Vladimir — Yiddish Lú dmir, German Pfauen — French Faoug. Sometimes analyzable place names are “translated”, i. e. their components are reproduced from indigenous vocabulary, e. g. Czech Vrch-labi — German Hohen-elbe, Afrikaans Kapstad — English Cape-town, Italian Abbazia — Slovene Opatija. In the case of compounds, hybrids may result from the transfer of only one element; in the German name of the Sudeten village of Darkendorf, for example, the first part of the Czech name Darkovice was adopted, but a German final element substituted.

Similar choices are open for rendering personal names in another language: direct transfer (with phonemic adaptation, as in Norwegian Hæ ve > English Harvey, or without it); translations (e. g. Norwegian Langhoug > English Long-hill); and hybrids (e. g. Yiddish Finkl-š tejn > English Finkle-stone). In the case of unanalysable and untranslatable names — both first and last names — a “pseudo-translation” of sorts is sometimes made, consisting of the replacement of the old name by a new one whose first consonant, at least, is the same; cf. the equivalences of Yiddish Mojš e with English Morris, Morton; Yiddish Herš with Herbert, Harry; Yiddish Rabinovitš with Rabbins, and so on. A comprehensive study of the patterns of personal name changing has not yet been made, not even for a single socio-geographic area like immigrant America.