Re: Question about a grammatical term

Jeff Jones wrote:
> All that I can think of right now are food examples, like potato salad. I
> don't understand the difference between the 2 types. In both cases, both
> words are nouns. Wait -- how about spittin' image? I've never heard heavy
> stress on the first word (even by Southerners!), despite that it's a set
> phrase.
Hmm ... well, in that case, I'd analyze it as simply a phrase rather
than a compound, altho why it hasn't been converted into an adjective
yet, I'm not sure.

So, some different types in English:
"Earthworm" - Compound word written as a single word
"X-ray" - Compound word written with a hyphen
"On-line" - Hyphenated word pronounced by some as a compound word, and
other as two words
"water cooler" - compound word written as two words
"Chicken soup" - usually two words, but a compound word in some dialects
"Potato salad" - I've only heard it as two words, are there any dialects
that make it a compound word?

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