-1

"Grand is used in a specialized sense in kin terms like grandmother or grandson to indicate a further degree of lineal distance beyond that expressed in the head. Such forms can themselves be modified by great (with the same meaning) in a morphological construction that is recursive: there is no linguistic limit on how many great's are permitted in compounds like great-great-great-grandmother." (G.K.Pullum & R. Huddlestone, 2002)

The example is very good explained, however, what I could not understand is if we should consider the word grandmother as a compound or not. Since grand is attached to other bases, I thought that the option to consider grand as a prefix should not be avoided.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    It's stress on the "grand" part is consistent with its being a compound. But sometimes it's shortened to "gram" -- I can't think of any compounds that are similarly shortened. And even in a careful pronunciation, I would not pronounce the "d" in the full form. I think it's a simple word. – Greg Lee Feb 14 '19 at 16:53
  • Yes, it's an adjective+noun compound: grand+mother. The fact that the first base occurs in other compounds is irrelevant, cf. "blacksmith", "blackbird". – BillJ Feb 15 '19 at 12:44
0

Grandmother is indeed a a compound word coming from the French grandmère.

Grand means

a generation older than

More or less a generation removed from

Therefore the compound would translation

A generation older than mother

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Consider "grandson": it doesn't mean "a generation older than". It means "another generation removed", as OP said. Be that as it may, wouldn't it be more felicitous to analyse it as a bound morpheme, which is productive only in a certain semantic field? – OmarL Feb 15 '19 at 10:55

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.