COMPOUND NOUNS IN GERMAN YOUTH VOCABULARY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the structural and semantic analysis of compound nouns in German youth vocabulary. Compounding is a productive means of forming new lexical units in German language in general and its subsystems in particular. The author studies young people’s vocabulary recorded in modern lexicographic sources. Most of the analyzed compound nouns consist of two stems. However, there are lexical units formed by compounding three stems. In the process of forming compound nouns in youth vocabulary a small number of word-building models are used. It is caused by the secondary nature of the analyzed language subsystem. Metaphorization is a characteristic feature in the process of compounding. It is regarded as a convenient means to express creativity and originality. Metaphorized words have positive or negative connotation and are used for verbal self-identification. In this way youth vocabulary is opposed to colloquial and literary styles of German language. The morphologic structure of compound nouns can also include word-building morphemes. Suffixes are the most productive type of these morphemes. They are used to point to young people’s subjective attitude to the everyday world. A number of compounds are stylistically invectives. They reflect young people’s need for uniqueness ad opposition. Most frequent types of semantic relations between stems of compounds are singled out. It has been established that these relations are extralingually determined. Loanwords borrowed from American English represent a significant share of the analyzed vocabulary. The use of these words is determined by the subcultural influence. These lexical units can be formed by combining English and German stems. Metaphorization is typical for formation of the given compounds. Social, age, and subcultural factors play an important role in creating German youth vocabulary. Young people try to express subjective assessment, irony. They also tend to verbal sel-identication among other representatives of German-speaking community. Therefore, the analyzed vocabulary is characterized by pragmatic efficiency and is often preferred to attract attention of communicative partners.