Modern Appositional Compounds of Inanimate Reference

IN HIS 'Morphology' (A Modern English Grammar, Vol. VI, 1942), Jespersen makes the startling statement (p. 148) that, in collecting examples of appositional compounds, he has been able to find only three referring to inanimate objects: subject matter, pathway, and courtyard.' That this reference is not as rare as Jespersen's experience would indicate is shown by Koziol's list of appositional compounds, which contains a score of examples like pumice stone, mother country, grapeshot (Engl. Wortbildungslehre, 1937, PP. 49-50). Even Koziol's collection, however, which is apparently based mainly on the NED and includes examples five centuries and more old, cannot begin to suggest the enormous vitality, at the present time, of the type in question; indeed, today, compounds of inanimate reference are far more frequent than

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