compound: compound
The compound relation is one of three relations for multiword expressions (MWEs) (the other two being fixed and flat). It is used
- for any kind of X0 compounding: noun compounds (e.g., phone book), but also verb and adjective compounds that are more common in other languages (such as Persian or Japanese light verb constructions). See further discussion at Two Nominals.
phone book
compound(book, phone)
ice cream flavors
compound(cream, ice)
compound(flavors, cream)
Sam took out a 3 million dollar loan
compound(loan, dollar)
Sam took out a $ 3 million loan
compound(loan, $)
- for particle verbs (with the subtype
compound:prt):
put up
compound:prt(put, up)
- for serial verbs (with the subtype
compound:svc):
Musa bé lá èbi \n Musa came took knife
nsubj(bé, Musa)
compound:svc(bé, lá)
obj(bé, èbi)
The compound relation (nor any subtype thereof) is not used to link an inherently reflexive verb with the reflexive morpheme, despite the similarity of this construction to particle verbs. The current UD guideline is to use an appropriate subtype of the expl relation.
Each language that uses compound should develop its own specific criteria based on morphosyntax (rather than lexicalization or semantic idiomaticity),
though elsewhere the terms “compound” and “multiword expression” may be used more broadly.
In English, for example, adjective-noun combinations, prepositional phrases, and light verb constructions are better described
with other relations:
hot dog
amod(dog, hot)
the state of play
det(state, the)
nmod(state, play)
case(play, of)
make a decision
obj(make, decision)
det(decision, a)
compound in other languages: [bej] [cop] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [et] [eu] [fi] [fr] [ga] [gd] [gsw] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [kk] [no] [pcm] [pt] [ro] [ru] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [urj] [yue] [zh]