Compounding in Malay: A descriptive analysis

This study concerns Malay compounding. The aim is to have an in-depth description and analysis of the topic which will create a more comprehensive and systematic understanding of the phenomenon in the language. Various features and issues in relation to compounding are identified and explored in order to achieve this aim. Given that Malay compounds and phrases are structurally similar, the question of whether compounding is a morphological or syntactical product is first entertained. Discussion on this issue favours the understanding that compounds can be distinct objects from those of structurally identical phrasal ones in Malay language. The focus is then given on the topics of definition, components, headedness, criteria and classification of compounds as the foundations of Malay compoundhood. It is agreed that Malay can have left, right and headless compounds, with the prototypical structures of [X Y] (X)(Y) for endocentric and [X Y] (Z) for exocentric compounds. It is also agreed that the measures for Malay compounds (with degrees of suitability) are the syntactical criteria (inseparability, modification, component switching, circumfixation and reduplication), phonological criteria (stress and assimilation), and semantic criteria (compositional/lexicalised status) of compoundhood. This study also supports the classification of Malay compounds base on the relationship between their components, i.e. under the subordinative, attributive or coordinative relationships. Based on these foundations, this study is able to analyse and organize the different types of compounds available from the corpus, among others the (NN, NV, NA) nominal compounds, the (VN, VV, VA) verbal compounds, the (AN, AA) adjectival compounds and the idiomatic compounds. In general, the attributive relationship has the most common occurrence throughout the analysis, followed by the coordinative ones, and finally the extremely limited subordinative relationship. The discussions and findings of this study have definitely enhanced the overall knowledge on Malay compounding.