EJSR - 52 - 2 - 13 Hyphenated Compounds

European Journal of Scientific Research
ISSN 1450-216X Vol.52 No.2 (2011), pp.252-264

© EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011
http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm
Hyphenated Compounds in Pakistani English
Rashid Mahmood
Assistant Professor, Department of English
GC University, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Asim Mahmood
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics
GC University, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Tariq Saeed
Assistant Professor, Department of English
Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
E-mail: tariqsaeed@bzu.edu.pk
Abstract
The present research advocates the need to study non-native varieties of English in
their own right, as there are differences even at the micro level e.g. hyphenation. Pakistani
English exhibits differences from the standard Englishes at all the levels of linguistic
analyses especially lexis, grammar and phonology (Baumgardner, 1993, Saeed 2004,
Mehboob, 2004). The present research focuses on the fifteen most frequent hyphenated
compounds occurring in the 2.1 million words corpus of written Pakistani English. These
compounds have been studied in the three forms i.e. Hyphenated, Open and Solid. The data
have been explicated from three perspectives viz. internal variation, their comparison with
BNC and dictionary entries. The study takes into account the percentage of the hyphenated
compounds with respect to three forms within each corpus and then they are compared.
Three dictionaries and software WordNet 2.1 have been used to verify which form of these
compounds has been suggested for the learners to use. Interesting results have been found,
as in many cases there are discrepancies regarding the use of the hyphenated compounds
among the resources. Even the occurrences of them in BNC show the otherwise trends
from the resources e.g. ‘co-operation’ occurred 13% times in PE while 74% times in BNC
as hyphenated, on the other hand 87% in PE and 25% in BNC it occurred as solid.
Longman Dictionary of English Language presents it as solid, BBC English Dictionary as
hyphenated, Collins Cobuild English Dictionary as both hyphenated and solid, and
WordNet 2.1 as solid. Native speakers can rely on their intuition in such matters, but
teachers, learners and other users of non-native varieties of English have to verify (in
absence of local norms of the non-native variety) whether this particular aspect conforms to
the standard norms or not. Research based on large corpora of the non- native varieties can
solve such problems, which may not be very important in English speaking countries but
have pedagogical relevance in the Outer Circle countries.
Keywords: Non-Native varieties of English, Pakistani English, Open, Solid and

Hyphenated Compounds
Hyphenated Compounds in Pakistani English 253
1. Background
A study of hyphenated compound nouns has been carried out to show the special trends of these
compounds in Pakistani English. The present research advocates the need to study non-native varieties
of English in their own right, as there are differences even at the micro level e.g. hyphenation.
Pakistani English exhibits differences from the standard Englishes at all the levels of linguistic
analyses. The authors of this research have compiled a 2.1 million words corpus of Written Pakistani
English (PWE). Data has been taken from 29 text categories including News, Columns, Articles,
Textbooks, Short stories, Novels etc. The present research focuses on the fifteen most frequent
hyphenated compounds occurring in PWE. These compounds have been studied in the three forms i.e.
Hyphenated, Open and Solid. The data have been explicated from three perspectives viz. internal
variation, their comparison with BNC, and dictionary entries.
The study takes into account the percentage of the hyphenated compounds with respect to three
forms within each corpus and then they are compared. Three dictionaries and the software WordNet
2.1 have been used to verify which form of these compounds has been suggested for the learners to
use. Interesting results have been found, as in many cases there are discrepancies regarding the
recommendations of the use of these hyphenated compounds among the sources used. Even the
occurrences of them in BNC show the otherwise trends from the resources. Even native speakers
sometimes face problems in the use of compound words i.e. whether to hyphenate them or write them
in ‘Open’ form. Webster’s Compact Writers Guide (1987) writes:
…. Writes faced with having to use compounds … cannot rely wholly on dictionaries to
guide them in their styling of compounds. They need, in addition, to develop an
approach for dealing with compounds that are not in the dictionary. (p.158)
Native speakers can rely on their intuition in such matters, but teachers, learners and other users
of non-native variety of English have to verify (in absence of local norms of the non-native variety)
whether this particular compound conforms to the standard norms or not. Research based on large
corpora of the non-native varieties can solve such problems, which may not be very important in
English speaking countries, but these have pedagogical relevance in the Outer Circle countries
(Kachru, 1992). This component of the present research is an attempt to identify the differences
between British English and Pakistani English in the use of hyphenated compounds.
2. Methodology
The compound nouns researched in this study can be written in one of the three ways i.e. Hyphenated
(as city-state), Open (as football game), and Solid (as teapot). Open or Solid compounds could be
picked up to see how many of them occurred in the other two ways, but we chose the first category i.e.
hyphenated compound because it was more relevant to start with the highly frequent hyphenated
compounds and it was rather easy to extract them. All the hyphenated compounds have been extracted
from the corpus of Pakistani Written English (PWE). Then, they have been arranged in descending
order according to their frequency of occurrence. This frequency relates only to their use as
‘Hyphenated’. Then, their frequency of occurrence as ‘Open’ and ‘Solid’ has been sought from the
corpus (PWE). PWE, 2.1 million words corpus, has been compared with BNC, 100 million words
corpus. Due to this huge difference between the corpora, it was not feasible to rely on the frequency of
occurrence of the compounds. Hence, the percentage has been calculated. The sum of the occurrence of
the compound in all three ways has been calculated to find the percentage of occurrence of each
compound in the three forms. Lists, showing the percentage of occurrence of each compound in the
three ways, have been prepared. Now, the same procedure was to be done on the data extracted from
BNC. We visited the website (Mark Davies BNC) and calculated the frequencies of each hyphenated
compound. BNC has been used as a reference corpus to compare the selected compounds. The
frequency of these compounds in BNC has been calculated in all three forms. Adopting the same
procedure, their percentage has been calculated. Constrained by the differences between the corpora
254 Rashid Mahmood, Asim Mahmood and Tariq Saeed
and the very nature of the research, we studied only 50 hyphenated compounds (Appendix-1) and the
detailed description of only 15 compounds has been given in the documentation of this research. In the
Tables 1 and 2, ‘H’ stands for ‘Hyphenated’, ‘O’ for ‘Open’ and ‘S’ for ‘Solid’ compounds.
Table 1: Frequency of Occurrence of the Compounds in PWE and BNC in Three Forms
Hyphenated Comp. H' in PWE H' in BNC O' in PWE O' in BNC S' in PWE S' in BNC
so-called 111 2644 31 21 1 8
socio-economic 101 601 7 3 11 160
sub-continent 75 102 1 2 158 97
long-term 58 4087 44 1749 1 128
Health-care 35 97 19 1615 22 253
year-old 40 261 34 2008 0 0
co-operation 38 3517 0 0 245 1235
decision-making 31 1414 36 714 0 10
sub-section 28 166 2 2 1 682
well-being 38 713 25 33 2 147
world-view 31 97 3 101 2 20
large-scale 24 1110 25 500 1 8
socio-cultural 25 58 0 0 5 31
man-made 19 375 2 74 0 36
ex-officio 19 23 6 1 0 0
Table 2: Percentage of Occurrence of the Compounds in PWE and BNC in Three Forms
% 'H' in % 'H' in %'O' in %'O' in %'S' in %'S' in

Hyphenated Comp. PWE BNC PWE BNC PWE BNC
so-called 77.62 98.92 21.68 0.79 0.7 0.3
socio-economic 84.87 78.66 5.88 0.39 9.24 20.94
Sub-continent 32.05 50.75 0.43 1 67.52 48.26
long-term 56.31 68.53 42.72 29.33 0.97 2.15
health-care 46.05 4.94 25 82.19 28.95 12.88
year-old 54.05 11.5 45.95 88.5 0 0
co-operation 13.43 74.01 0 0 86.57 25.99
decision-making 46.27 66.14 53.73 33.4 0 0.47
Sub-section 90.32 19.53 6.45 0.24 3.23 80.24
well-being 58.46 79.84 38.46 3.7 3.08 16.46
world-view 86.11 44.5 8.33 46.33 5.56 9.17
large-scale 48 68.6 50 30.9 2 0.49
socio-cultural 83.33 65.17 0 0 16.67 34.83
man-made 90.48 77.32 9.52 15.26 0 7.42
ex-officio 76 95.83 24 4.17 0 0
The detailed description of the 15 items includes the mutual comparison of the one form of the
compound in PWE and its counterpart in BNC. The two corpora have been studied from the point of
view of the underuse or overuse of the compound being studied in any form in the corpora.
The present study also takes into account the recommendations of the following four
dictionaries regarding the use of these compounds in all three forms of the compounds:
1. Longman Dictionary of English (LDE)
2. Collins COBulild Dictionary of English (CCBD)
3. BBC Dictionary of English (BBCD)
4. WordNet (an electronic resource)
Wherever recommendations of these sources are mutually inconsistent, they have been pointed
out. The trends of the different forms of compounds in each corpus have been identified and their
conformity with the sources consulted has also been mentioned.
Table 3: Dictionary Recommendation of Usage for Fifteen Nouns
Hyphenated Compounds LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

1 so-called H H H,O H
2 socio-economic S H H,S S
3 sub-continent _ _ S,H S
4 long-term H H H H
5 health-care _ H,S,O _ H,O
6 year-old _ O O _
7 co-operation S H H,S S
8 decision-making _ _ H O
9 sub-section S S S,H S
10 well-being H H H,S H,S
11 world-view O _ S,H O
12 large-scale H H H,S H
13 socio-cultural S H S,H S
14 man-made _ H H H
15 ex-officio O O O O
Apart from the discussion on individual items, these compounds have been studied collectively
to identify the patterns of use of these compounds. The comparison of the total frequency of first 50
compounds in PWE with BNC in the three forms to see whether there is any trend to use ‘hyphenated’,
‘Open’ or ‘Solid’ compounds more frequently in one corpus than the other.
3. The Detailed Description of the Individual Hyphenated Compounds

1. So-called
Percentage of Occurrence in All Three Forms in PWE and BNC
Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

So-called H O S H O S
77.62 21.68 0.7 98.92 0.79 5.0
‘So-called’ is the most frequent hyphenated compound in PWE while it is 3rd most frequent in
BNC. There is a clear difference between the occurrences of this compound in ‘Open’ form i.e. below
1% in BNC and almost 22% in PWE. In BNC, its occurrence as a hyphenated compound is 99 %.
Recommendation of Use in dictionaries
Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

So-called H H H,O H
All the dictionaries and WordNet favour its use as hyphenated and its occurrence in BNC
conforms to its use as given by the sources ( Dictionaries & WordNet). The low frequency of ‘so-
called’ as hyphenated compound in PWE is due to 22% usage as an ‘Open’ compound, which has been
allowed by CCBD only.
2. Socio-economic

Socio-economic H O S H O S
84.87 5.88 9.24 78.66 0.39 20.94
This compound exhibits differences in ‘Open’ and ‘Solid’ forms. PWE shows tendency to use
this compound more in ‘Open’ form than BNC, but the main difference lies in its use as a ‘Solid’
compound. Its share of occurrence in this form in BNC is 21% while in PWE its use is below 10%.

Socio-economic S H H,S S
There is a discrepancy in the recommendation for the use of this compound as LDE and
WordNet use this compound as ‘Solid’ while BBCD uses it as ‘Hyphenated’. PWE shows almost 6%
use of it as ‘Open’ which has not been favoured by any dictionary.
3. Sub-continent

Sub-continent H O S H O S
32.5 0.43 67.52 50.75 1.0 48.26
In BNC the trend to use ‘Sub-continent’ as ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Solid’ compound is almost equal
in percentage. But in PWE the same compound has been used in ‘Solid’ form with more than double
percentage than its use as ‘Hyphenated’.

Sub-continent - - H,S S
LDE and BBC did not provide any guideline for the use of this compound. CCBD uses it both
ways i.e. as ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Solid’. WordNet uses it as ‘Solid’ only.
4. Long-term

Long-term H O S H O S
56.31 42.72 0.97 68.53 29.33 2.15
‘Long-term’ is the most frequent hyphenated compound in BNC while in PWE its position is
fourth according to the frequency .
Its use as a hyphenated compound in BNC is more than double when compared with its
occurrence as an open compound. In PWE the difference of use between both types is only 14 %.

Long-term H H H H
All the dictionaries consulted and the electronic resource WordNet use it in its ‘Hyphenated’
form. BNC has high frequency of its use as ‘hyphenated’, which has been favoured by all the sources.
In PWE, the case is rather different as this compound occurred as ‘Hyphenated’ slightly more than it
occurred as ‘Open’. Hence, PWE shows a different trend in this case.
5. Health- care
Health-care H O S H O S
46.05 25.00 28.95 4.94 82.19 12.88
There is a notable difference in the use of this compound in all the three forms. It occurred as
‘Hyphenated’ in PWE almost half of its overall use, but in BNC it is slightly under 5%. Another stark
difference is its use in ‘Open’ form as 25% in PWE is to be compared with 82% in BNC, which
amounts to more than three times greater than PWE. It occurred as ‘Solid’ in PWE with double
percentage.

Health-care - H,S,O - H,O
LDE and CCBD do not give any recommendation for the use of this compound. BBCD favours
it in all the three forms, and PWE also shows the same trend. WordNet uses ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Open’
forms, but in BNC the use of this compound is less than 5%. BNC seems to have established its use as
an ‘Open’ compound.
6. year-old
Year-old H O S H O S
54.05 45.95 0.00 11.50 88.50 0.00
Once again it is clear that BNC has established the use of this compound as ‘Open’ as 88.50%
is almost the double of 46% in PWE. Interestingly, PWE uses it more frequently as ‘hyphenated’ than
‘open’. The ‘Hyphenated’ use of this compound in PWE is near three times greater than its use in
BNC. In both the varieties, this compound never occurred as ‘Solid’.

Year-old - O O -
BBCD and CCBD recommend its use as ‘Open’ only. BNC exhibits the recommended use i.e.
‘Open’ but PWE uses it in both ways ‘Open’ and ‘Hyphenated’ almost equally, which has not been
used by any of these resources.
7. Decision-making
Decision-making H O S H O S
46.27 53.73 0.00 66.14 33.40 0.47
In BNC, this compound occurred with exactly double percentage as ‘Hyphenated’ than ‘Open’.
On the other hand, in PWE the occurrence of this compound as ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Open’ is almost
equal.

Decision-making - - H O
The occurrence of this compound in BNC is closer to the recommendation of CCBD while a
different trend from WordNet. In the case of PWE, the observation is exactly opposite to this.
8. Co-operation
Co-operation H O S H O S
13.43 0.00 86.57 74.01 0.00 25.99
Both the corpora exhibit very different tendencies in the use of ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Solid’
compounds. The occurrence of this compound in BNC as hyphenated is more than five times greater
than its use as hyphenated in PWE. On the other hand, in PWE its use as ‘Solid’ is more than three
times greater than that of BNC. There is no occurrence of this item as ‘Open’ in both the corpora.

Co-operation S H S,H S
There are clearly different trends in both the corpora regarding the use of this compound. This
compound follows the recommendations of BBCD and CCBD in BNC. Its occurrence in PWE is in
line with the use of this compound in LDE, WordNet and CCBD. The dictionaries are not consistent on
the information regarding the use of this compound in the three forms.
9. Sub-section
Sub-section H O S H O S
90.32 6.45 3.23 19.53 0.23 80.24
This compound occurred as ‘Hyphenated’ almost five times greater than its use in the same
form in BNC. The difference in percentage becomes even wider when it comes to the occurrence of
this compound as ‘Solid’ because 3% is 27 times lesser than 80% of its use as a solid compound.

Sub-section S S S,H S
In all the dictionary sources used, ‘sub-section’ appears as ‘Solid’ except CCBD where it has
been used as ‘Solid’ and ‘Hyphenated’ both. This compound has established different preferences in
both the corpora representing two different varieties of English. BNC is following the recommended
usage by the dictionaries while PWE has set its own trend regarding its use as ‘hyphenated’. In PWE,
the recommended use of this compound by the dictionaries has been followed least of the three.
10. Well-being

Well-being H O S H O S
58.46 38.46 3.08 78.84 3.70 16.46
‘Well-being’ manifests differences mainly in ‘Open’ and ‘Solid’ forms. It has been used with
12 times greater percentage in PWE than its occurrence in BNC as an open compound. In its solid form
BNC used it almost five times greater than its occurrence in PWE in the same form.

Well-being H H S,H S,H
In PWE, the occurrence of this compound is 38% as ‘Open’ while dictionary sources consulted
did not use this compound in this form. Once again, BNC is closer to the recommendations of the
sources than PWE.
11. World-view

World-view H O S H O S
86.11 8.33 5.56 44.50 46.33 9.17
The percentage of this compound as ‘Hyphenated’ in PWE is almost double than its occurrence
in BNC. The occurrence of this compound as ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘open’ is equal in BNC. But in PWE,
there is a clear preference for its use as ‘Hyphenated’. Its percentage as ‘Open’ in BNC is five times
greater in BNC than in PWE.

World-view O - S,H O
The dictionaries are inconsistent in their recommendations regarding the use of this compound.
Two dictionaries, LDE and WordNet, favour its use as ‘Open’ but CCBD used it as ‘Solid’ and
‘hyphenated’. In both the corpora, the use of recommended ‘Open’ form has been less than 50%.
12. Large-scale

Large-scale H O S H O S
48 50 2 68.6 30.9 0.49
PWE has almost equal occurrence of this item in both ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Open’ forms. In
BNC, the percentage of this compound is double as ‘Hyphenated’ than ‘Open’.

Large-scale H H H H
All the dictionaries recommend its use as hyphenated. There is a clear tendency to use it in both
the ways i.e. ‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Open’ in PWE. BNC also shows this tendency though in lesser degree
than PWE.
13. Socio-cultural

Socio-cultural H O S H O S
83.33 0.00 16.67 65.17 0.00 34.83
PWE is fairly consistent in the use of this compound as ‘hyphenated’ with 83% of usage. The
other use of this compound i.e. in solid form is more than five times lesser in percentage than its use as
‘Hyphenated’. On the other hand in BNC, the percentage of occurrence of this compound as
‘Hyphenated’ is only double than its use in solid form. There is no instance of its use as “Open’ in both
the corpora.

Socio-cultural S H H,S S
There is inconsistency in the use of this compound by these dictionaries, as LDE and WordNet
used this compound as ‘Solid’, but BBCD as ‘Hyphenated’ and CCBD used it in both the forms i.e.
‘Hyphenated’ and ‘Solid’. In this case, PWE is near BBCD and BNC is near CCBD.
14. Man-made

Man-made H O S H O S
90.48 9.52 0.00 77.32 16.26 7.42
In PWE, this compound occurred as ‘Hyphenated’ with a decisive frequency that is 90%. The
same compound occurred as ‘Open’ less than 10% and just one occurrence as ‘Solid’ in PWE. In BNC,
although this item occurred as ‘hyphenated’ with high percentage of 77%, but there is roughly double
percentage of this compound as ‘Open’ in BNC.

Man-made - H H H
PWE is near the recommendation of the dictionaries regarding the use of this compound. In
BNC, however, this compound occurred in the forms other than ‘Hyphenated’ more frequently than in
PWE. There is no difference in the recommendations, regarding the use of this compound as
‘Hyphenated’, given by all the dictionaries consulted.
15. Ex-officio

Ex-officio H O S H O S
76.00 24.00 0.00 95.83 4.17 0.00
‘Ex-officio’ seems to have established as a hyphenated compound in both the corpora. But in
BNC, it is more dominantly ‘Hyphenated’ than in PWE. In PWE, one-fourth of its use is as ‘Open’
which is six times greater than its use as ‘Open’ in BNC.

Ex-officio O O O O
All the sources consulted used this compound as ‘Open’, which is not the norm in both the
corpora. BNC shows even more deviant trend than PWE regarding the recommended use of this
compound by the dictionaries. PWE conforms to this use but only with 24 % of its use as ‘Open’.
4. The Accumulative Study of 50 Compounds in PWE and BNC

This aspect of the present study is an attempt to identify the preference in the use of any form of the
first 50 compounds selected from both the corpora.
Table 4: Accumulative Study of 50 Compounds in PWE and BNC
% 'H' in % 'H' in %'O' in %'O' in %'S' in %'S' in

Hyphenated Comp.
PWE BNC PWE BNC PWE BNC
so-called 77.62 98.92 21.68 0.79 0.70 0.30
socio-economic 84.87 78.66 5.88 0.39 9.24 20.94
sub-continent 34.09 50.75 0.38 1.00 65.53 48.26
long-term 56.31 68.53 42.72 29.33 0.97 2.15
health-care 46.05 4.94 25.00 82.19 28.95 12.88
year-old 54.05 11.50 45.95 88.50 0.00 0.00
co-operation 13.43 74.01 0.00 0.00 86.57 25.99
anti-dumping 100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
decision-making 46.27 66.14 53.73 33.40 0.00 0.47
self-determination 96.77 97.29 3.23 2.44 0.00 0.27
set-up 10.95 6.17 79.56 91.83 9.49 2.00
sub-section 90.32 19.53 6.45 0.24 3.23 80.24
well-being 58.46 79.84 38.46 3.70 3.08 16.46
world-view 86.11 44.50 8.33 46.33 5.56 9.17
well-known 38.27 46.41 60.49 53.37 1.23 0.22
vis-à-vis 93.10 98.55 6.90 1.45 0.00 0.00
above-mentioned 37.88 52.33 1.52 40.70 60.61 6.98
self-reliance 89.29 88.17 10.71 11.83 0.00 0.00
large-scale 48.00 68.60 50.00 30.90 2.00 0.49
short-term 62.16 67.54 37.84 32.30 0.00 0.15
socio-cultural 83.33 65.17 0.00 0.00 16.67 34.83
man-made 90.48 77.32 9.52 15.26 0.00 7.42
cross-border 80.00 91.30 20.00 7.39 0.00 1.30
decision-makers 71.43 71.54 28.57 28.46 0.00 0.00
socio-political 100.00 91.51 0.00 0.00 0.00 8.49
non-proliferation 90.48 99.26 4.76 0.74 4.76 0.00
non-availability 85.71 96.97 9.52 3.03 4.76 0.00
ex-officio 76.00 95.83 24.00 4.17 0.00 0.00
Table 4: Accumulative Study of 50 Compounds in PWE and BNC - continued
broad-based 90.00 87.74 10.00 12.26 0.00 0.00

multi-dimensional 61.54 56.38 11.54 2.13 26.92 41.49
in-laws 92.00 87.83 0.00 11.30 8.00 0.87
sub-project 94.44 50.00 5.56 0.00 0.00 50.00
follow-up 44.83 0.00 55.17 0.00 0.00 0.00
two-third 63.64 0.00 36.36 0.00 0.00 0.00
one-third 68.18 0.00 31.82 0.00 0.00 0.00
have-nots 91.67 94.44 8.33 0.00 0.00 5.56
re-election 100.00 95.52 0.00 0.30 0.00 4.18
nation-state 100.00 41.62 0.00 58.38 0.00 0.00
load-shedding 58.33 100.00 37.50 0.00 4.17 0.00
policy-making 100.00 73.14 0.00 24.67 0.00 2.19
build-up 33.33 25.51 61.11 72.54 5.56 1.95
non-governmental 76.19 99.36 4.76 0.00 19.05 0.64
office-bearers 48.15 100.00 51.85 0.00 0.00 0.00
pre-Islamic 100.00 100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
full-scale 90.91 80.51 9.09 19.06 0.00 0.43
far-flung 61.90 79.41 38.10 18.63 0.00 1.96
US-led 100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
non-professional 100.00 90.20 0.00 1.96 0.00 7.84
member-states 100.00 1.14 0.00 98.86 0.00 0.00
post-graduate 38.24 11.96 11.76 3.13 50.00 84.92
Total 3614.80 3086.04 968.17 932.93 417.04 481.03
Mean of Percentage 72.28 68.57 19.36 20.71 8.43 10.68
In table 4, the percentage of occurrence of these compounds has been calculated to see if there
is any marked preference of usage of one form in one corpus than the other. Mean of the percentage
has been calculated for the ease of comparison. The mean has been calculated by dividing the total of
percentage to 50 in PWE as there are 50 compounds from PWE, but in BNC the mean has been
calculated by dividing the total to 45 as there are five items that did not occur in BNC. There do not
seem highly significant differences in the preference of use of these compounds in any form by
comparing these lists. Hence, the differences identified earlier are related to individual items and not to
the overall preference of any form (hyphenated, open, solid) over the other.
After finding no comprehensive trends in PWE that are different form BNC, there was a
question, whether PWE has common tendencies with BROWN and FROWN corpora i.e. in American
corpora. As BROWN and FROWN are one million words each, they have been combined to make a
comparable corpus with PWE. The 15 compounds that have been studied in PWE and BNC have also
been studied from BROWN+FROWN corpus.
Table 5: Percentage of Occurrence of 15 Compounds in Three Forms in BROWN +FROWN
Hyphenated Compounds H O S Sum % of 'H' %of 'O' % of 'S' Nearness

so-called 75 0 0 75 100 0 0 BNC
Socio-ecomonic 4 0 11 15 36.36 0 73.33 Different
long-term 83 6 0 89 93.25 6.74 0 BNC
health-care 5 34 0 39 12.82 87.17 0 BNC
year-old 139 9 0 148 93.91 6.08 0 PWE
co-operation 12 0 78 90 13.33 0 86.66 PWE
decision-making 9 7 0 16 56.25 43.75 0 PWE
sub-section 0 0 32 32 0 0 100 BNC
well-being 25 1 1 27 92.59 3.7 3.7 BNC
World-view 0 9 1 10 0 90 10 Different
well-known 37 17 1 55 67.27 30.9 1.81 Different
Large-scale 38 2 0 40 95 5 0 BNC
Socio-cultural 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
man-made 8 2 2 12 66.66 16.66 16.66 BNC
ex-officio 0 1 0 1 0 100 0
The frequency of occurrence and then percentages of the 15 hyphenated compounds has been
calculated as earlier it had been calculated in PWE and BNC. In the last column of the table 5, their
nearness has been mentioned i.e. whether a particular compound in Brown + Frown corpus shows a
trend which is near BNC or near PWE. In case, the compound shows different trend from both the
corpora, it has been mentioned as ‘Different’ in the last column of the table.
In the column ‘Nearness’, two items ‘Socio-cultural’ and ‘ex-officio’ have been left blank as in
the case of one item it did not occur in Brown + Frown corpus, and in the case of the second, it
occurred just once. So, they have not been aligned with any trend. The results of the study of 15
compounds of the table 5 can be summed up in terms of nearness as:
BNC=7
PWE=3
Different or American= 3
Seven hyphenated compounds occurred near the trend established in BNC regarding the use of
these compounds in a particular form. There are three items in the American corpora, which have been
noted showing a trend of usage of these compounds which is closer to PWE than BNC. The three
hyphenated compounds showed different trend from both the corpora i.e. BNC and PWE.
5. Conclusion
The results clearly suggest that there are differences among the Pakistani, British and American
varieties of English even at such a micro level of punctuation. This research shows that despite of
considerable differences between Pakistani English and British English in the pattern of occurrence of
individual compounds, the overall percentage of occurrences of compound nouns in any of the three
forms (i.e. Hyphenated, Open and Solid) is almost the same. Hence, it becomes even more difficult for
the learners of English in the Outer Circle countries to learn the standard orthography of such
compounds. They have to consult dictionaries but the available major dictionaries do not manifest
uniform trends. In non-native contexts of ELT, there is a dire need to provide the teachers and the
learners with authentic information regarding the use of hyphenated compounds. This component of
the present research is a small step towards the identification and codification of certain areas of
Pakistani English. This research further illustrates that Pakistani English not only shows resemblances
with the British English and the American English in some respects, but it also shows, like any other
non-native variety of English, certain trends of its own.
References
[1] Baumgardner, R. J. (1993). The English language in Pakistan. Karachi ; Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
[2] BBC English. (1992). BBC English dictionary. London, BBC English.
[3] Collins COBUILD English dictionary. (1995). ([New ed.). London: HarperCollins.
[4] Davies, M (2010). BYU BNC http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/
[5] Kachru, B. B. (1982). The other tongue : English across cultures. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press.
[6] Longman dictionary of the English Language. (1991). (2nd ed ed.). Harlow: Longman.
[7] Mehboob, A. (2004). Pakistani English: An overview of its syntax, morphology, and lexis.
Kortmann et al (eds.) (2004). In A Handbook of Varieties of English, 2, 1045-1057.
[8] Saeed, T. (2004). Pakistani English: A study of its pronunciation. Unpublished MA Thesis,
University of Leeds, UK.
[9] Slomin, D. T. (2005). WordNet. Prinston University Cognitive Lab. USA.
[10] Talaat, M. (1993). Lexical variation in Pakistani English. In Robert J. Baumgardner (Ed.), The
English Language in Pakistan (pp.55–62). Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press.
[11] Websters Compact Writers Guide (1987). Merriam Webster Inc. Springfield, Massachusetts.
USA.

EJSR - 52 - 2 - 13 Hyphenated Compounds

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EJSR - 52 - 2 - 13 Hyphenated Compounds

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European Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN 1450-216X Vol.52 No.2 (2011), pp.252-264

Hyphenated Compounds in Pakistani English

Keywords: Non-Native varieties of English, Pakistani English, Open, Solid and

% 'H' in % 'H' in %'O' in %'O' in %'S' in %'S' in

Hyphenated Compounds LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

3. The Detailed Description of the Individual Hyphenated Compounds

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

Hyphenated Compound Percentage in PWE Percentage in BNC

Recommendation of Use in dictionaries

Hyphenated Compound LDE BBCD CCBD WordNet

4. The Accumulative Study of 50 Compounds in PWE and BNC

Table 4: Accumulative Study of 50 Compounds in PWE and BNC

% 'H' in % 'H' in %'O' in %'O' in %'S' in %'S' in

broad-based 90.00 87.74 10.00 12.26 0.00 0.00

Table 5: Percentage of Occurrence of 15 Compounds in Three Forms in BROWN +FROWN

Hyphenated Compounds H O S Sum % of 'H' %of 'O' % of 'S' Nearness

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