Orð og tunga - 01.06.2016, Blaðsíða 51

Þorsteinn G. Indriðason: Á mörkum afleiðslu og samsetningar? 41
Keywords
compounds, derivations, wordhood, types of wordlike forms, demarcations, affixoids
Abstract
In Icelandic, numerous wordforms exist that are in many ways similar to independent
words except that they can only occur as second parts of compounds, cf. -meti, -auðgi
and -fari in fiskmeti ‘fish food’, hugmyndaauðgi ‘creativity’ and geimfari ‘astronaut’.
These are so-called bound wordforms (see e.g. Dalton-Puffer and Plag 2000, Eiríkur
Rögnvaldsson 1990, Kristín Bjarnadóttir 2005 and Þorsteinn G. Indriðason 2006).
Other types of similar bound forms in Icelandic are -ynja, -kafur and -elda as in for-
ynja ’monster’, á-kafur ’eager’ and al-elda ’ablaze’, cf. Kristín Bjarnadóttir (2005:159),
and many more exist. In this article, the focus is on discussing forms which have an
-i in final position, where the -i can either be an inflectional ending or a derivational
suffix. These compositions are sometimes called derivational compounds to distinguish
them from regular compounds and other notions have been used (see e.g. Sigurður
Konráðsson 1989 and Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson 1990).
In this article three types of these word forms are discussed. Firstly, monosyllabic
forms of weak male nouns with an -i ending in nominative singular, cf. launa-auki
’fringe benefit’, ein-búi ’hermit’, ör-eigi ’proletarian’, geim-fari ’astronaut’, sjálf-sali ’slot
machine’ and hjarta-þegi ’heart recipient’. Secondly, bisyllabic strong neuter nouns
with an -i as the second syllable. These forms have an -s ending in genitive singular,
cf. til-brigði ’variation’, harð-fenni ’frozen snow’, ár-ferði ’times’, stór-grýti ’large rocks’,
búr-hveli ’sperm whale’, hjól-hýsi ’trailer’ and smá-stirni ’asteroid’. In these forms,
i-umlaut variations occur, as in hvalur – hveli and hús – hýsi. Thirdly, bisyllabic forms
of weak female nouns, cf. mann-auðgi ’human enrichment’, ein-drægni ’harmony’,
mein-fýsi ’malice’, eigin-girni ’selfishness’, sam-heldni ’solidarity’, þjóð-rækni ’patriotism’
and skað-semi ’harmfulness’. As with the neuter forms, i-umlaut variations occur, cf.
fús – fýsi and samur – semi.
Tests were carried out to determine the wordhood of these wordlike forms. The
main result of the tests showed that these forms behave in some ways like words
but in other ways like affi xes. They were also compared to affi xoids but several tests
showed that they do not fi t into that category. The study shows that these wordlike
forms should be placed between compounding and derivation as semi-words.
Þorsteinn G. Indriðason
Institutt for lingvistiske, litt erære og estetiske studier
Universitetet i Bergen
torsteinn.indridason@lle.uib.no
tunga_18.indb 41 11.3.2016 14:41:11