Rasprave Instituta za Hrvatski Jezik i Jezikoslovlje (Jan 2010)
Copulative Compounds in Croatian
Abstract
According to descriptions in modern Croatian grammar books, one might concludethat there are either no copulative compounds in Croatian or that they are so scarce in number that they do not require any description. The paper is a reminder both of their descriptions in older Croatian grammar books and of the need for their grammatical description, owing to their number and a variety of realisations. Some Croatian nominal copulative compounds are e.g. grad-država ‘citystate’ (Gr. πόλις), točka-zarez ‘semicolon’ (lit. full stop-comma), sjeverozapad ‘North-West’; some adjectival ones are e.g. crno-bijel ‘black and white’, crvenobijelo- plav ‘red, white, and blue’, nov-star ‘new--old’; some adverbial ones are e.g. danas-sutra ‘before long’ (lit. today-tomorrow), zbrda-zdola ‘helter-skelter’, brže-bolje ‘in a hurry’ (lit. faster-better). The paper indicates the characteristics due to which these compounds should be considered words and not phrases – they do not display the characteristics of appositive phrases, they cannot be subject to the coordination ellipsis and their internal flexion does not disqualify them as words, even though Croatian recognizes internal flexion (in indefinite pronouns with the suffixoid -god, e.g. štogod – G čegagod). The language of poet Anka Žagar is used to illustrate how a pattern of copulative compounding can also acquire creative linguistic variations, which is another piece of evidence for the claim that a pattern of copulative compounding does exist in Croatian.
