Re: noun compounds

On 3/6/06, caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:
> >As for "apple pear juice", that is simply ungrammatical in the
> >English I have used and spoken these past 60+ years. Heaven >preserve
> us from such juice companies.
>
> Who needs an ampersand when one can write "clamato" or "cranapple"?
> But perhaps these are no worse than "cheeseburger."
Indeed, no worse at all.  Portmanteaus are a horse of a completely
different color from compounds; their creation constitutes wordplay
rather than (allegedly) straightforward morphosyntax.   As such, all
bets are off.  I have no objection whatsoever to "cranapple", and in
general I appreciate Ocean Spray's efforts in making cranberry juice
palatable by mixing it with sweeter fare to counteract the bitterness.
 I don't recognize "clamato", but if it's "clam" + "tomato" and refers
to tomato-based clam chowder, I'm all for its adoption, since I prefer
New England's to Manhattan's and am tired of being surprised when my
clam chowder comes with a tomato base.  Yuck.

No, if the "apple pear juice" had been labeled "pearpple" or
something, that wouldn't be objectionable - just confusing.  But
"apple pear juice" is just three nouns in a row, not a recognizable
compound.  At the very least it requires a hyphen or a solidus.

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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