"baby mama" does not mean what they thought it means

[Marc Velasco]

So it seems semantically settled.

But what about construction?

Baby mama is derived from the possessive "baby's mama" no?

Are there similar terms with like construction, where a possessive has
been dropped to create something like a compound word?

Is there a name for this grammatical construction?

Marc


On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
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>  Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
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> Subject:      Re: "baby mama" does not mean what they thought it means
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 12:22 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > What is the source of the OED's assertion: "... _not (in most cases)_
>  >  his current or exclusive partner"?
>
>  They don't give the source online, but here's a fuller excerpt. All
>  the terms are under headword "baby".
>
>   * baby-mama n. (also baby-mamma) colloq. (chiefly in
>  African-American usage) = baby-mother n.
>
>  1986 Toronto Star (Nexis) 23 Mar. F3 Songs that promoted racial
>  tolerance..and the dignity of women ('Hush *Baby Mama'). 2003 N.Y.
>  Times (National ed.) 5 Oct. II. 31/2 It was a crossover hit, thanks to
>  'Ms. Jackson', a conflicted ode to baby-mamas.
>
>
>
>   * baby-mother n. (orig. Caribbean and in British Afro-Caribbean
>  usage) the mother of a man's child, who is not his wife nor (in most
>  cases) his current or exclusive partner.
>
>  1966 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 11 Dec. (Mag.) 4 Two girls have
>  three children for him. One *baby-mother is in America and the other
>  is in the country. 2001 Touch Dec. 112/2 Jody..is 20 years old, lives
>  at home with his mum.., doesn't have a job and his two babymothers
>  Yvette..and Peanut..are always on his case.
>
>
>
>  They also list the parallel male terms:
>
>   * baby-daddy n. colloq. (chiefly in African-American usage) = baby-father n.
>
>  1993 Independent 1 Dec. 35/5 Her '*baby-daddy'{em}the father of her
>  child{em}had been stabbed. 2003 A. VALDES-RODRIGUEZ Dirty Girls Social
>  Club 55 They ask me to give shout outs to their baby daddies.
>
>
>
>   * baby-father n. (orig. Caribbean and in British Afro-Caribbean
>  usage) the father of a woman's child, who is not her husband or (in
>  most cases) her current or exclusive partner.
>
>  1978 Sunday Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 5 Mar. 9/2 The true
>  relationship must be based on *baby-father taking his true place in
>  the home and among the community. 1998 Guardian 11 Sept. (Friday Rev.
>  section) 11/2 Among Britons of West Indian origin, a man refers to a
>  woman as his babymother when she has borne his child out of wedlock.
>  He is her babyfather.
>
>
>
>  --
>  Mark Mandel
>
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