Morphology: Compounds and Headedness 1.2

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This exercise will help you better understand the concept of endocentric and exocentric compound words.

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Question 1

The compound word 'big mouth' (e.g. he can be such a big mouth!) is:

A	exocentric
B	endocentric Hint: Although 'big mouth' is an idiom whose head, 'mouth', is semantically related to the compound, a big mouth is NOT actually a type of mouth.

Question 2

The compound word 'flashdrive' is:

A	exocentric Hint: This compound is endocentric because 'flashdrive' is a type of computer 'drive'.
B	endocentric

Question 3

The compound word ‘well-being’ is:

A	exocentric Hint: 'Well-being' is a hyphenated compound with the head 'being'. Because it contains a head, it is an endocentric compound.
B	endocentric

Question 4

The compound word 'steamboat' is:

A	endocentric
B	exocentric Hint: A steamboat is a type of its head, 'boat', thus this compound is endocentric.

Question 5

The compound word ‘bookstore’ is:

A	endocentric
B	exocentric Hint: This is an endocentric compound due to the fact that the compound's head ('store') defines the meaning of the word. A 'bookstore' is a type of 'store'.

Question 6

The compound word ‘newspaper’ is:

A	exocentric Hint: The compound 'newspaper' is a type of its own head, which is 'paper'.
B	endocentric

Question 7

The compound word 'door handle' is:

A	exocentric Hint: This compound is endocentric because a 'door handle' is a type of 'handle'.
B	endocentric

Question 8

The compound word ‘showoff’ is:

A	exocentric
B	endocentric Hint: The head of this compound does not determine its meaning. The meaning of 'showoff' is not directly related to either the words 'show' or 'off'.

Question 9

The compound word ‘breakup’ is:

A	endocentric Hint: There is no head in the compound 'breakup'.
B	exocentric

Question 10

The compound word 'change-over' is:

A	exocentric
B	endocentric Hint: This compound is exocentric because it is not a type of 'change'.

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Morphology: Compounds and Headedness 1.2

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