[Lexicog] Long compound words

[maxwell]

Back on German, we mustn't forget what Mark Twain wrote on the subject 
of compounds:
-------
An average sentence, in a German newspaper... is built mainly of 
compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be 
found in any dictionary -- six or seven words compacted into one, 
without joint or seam -- that is, without hyphens.
...
Some German words are so long that they have a perspective. Observe 
these examples:

     Freundschaftsbezeigungen.
     Dilettantenaufdringlichkeiten.
     Stadtverordnetenversammlungen.

These things are not words, they are alphabetical processions. And they 
are not rare; one can open a German newspaper at any time and see them 
marching majestically across the page -- and if he has any imagination 
he can see the banners and hear the music, too. They impart a martial 
thrill to the meekest subject. I take a great interest in these 
curiosities. Whenever I come across a good one, I stuff it and put it in 
my museum. In this way I have made quite a valuable collection. When I 
get duplicates, I exchange with other collectors, and thus increase the 
variety of my stock. Here are some specimens which I lately bought at an 
auction sale of the effects of a bankrupt bric-a-brac hunter:

     Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen.
     Alterthumswissenschaften.
     Kinderbewahrungsanstalten.
     Unabhaengigkeitserklaerungen.
     Wiedererstellungbestrebungen.
     Waffenstillstandsunterhandlungen.

Of course when one of these grand mountain ranges goes stretching 
across the printed page, it adorns and ennobles that literary landscape 
-- but at the same time it is a great distress to the new student, for 
it blocks up his way; he cannot crawl under it, or climb over it, or 
tunnel through it. So he resorts to the dictionary for help, but there 
is no help there. The dictionary must draw the line somewhere -- so it 
leaves this sort of words out. And it is right, because these long 
things are hardly legitimate words, but are rather combinations of 
words, and the inventor of them ought to have been killed. They are 
compound words with the hyphens left out. The various words used in 
building them are in the dictionary, but in a very scattered condition; 
so you can hunt the materials out, one by one, and get at the meaning at 
last, but it is a tedious and harassing business.

I wish to submit the following local item, from a Mannheim journal, by 
way of illustration:

     "In the daybeforeyesterdayshortlyaftereleveno'clock Night,
     the inthistownstandingtavern called `The Wagoner' was
     downburnt. When the fire to the onthedownburninghouseresting
     Stork's Nest reached, flew the parent Storks away. But when
     the bytheraging, firesurrounded Nest itself caught Fire,
     straightway plunged the quickreturning Mother-stork into
     the Flames and died, her Wings over her young ones outspread."
...
I would do away with those great long compounded words; or require the 
speaker to deliver them in sections, with intermissions for 
refreshments.
...
Can the terse German tongue rise to the expression of this impulse? Is 
it 
Freundschaftsbezeigungenstadtverordnetenversammlungenfamilieneigenthümlichkeiten?
------

    Mike Maxwell


------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    lexicographylist-digest at yahoogroups.com 
    lexicographylist-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/