Historical productivity of VERB-NOUN compounds in English

Abstract

English shows an exocentric verb-noun compound type with an uninflected verb followed by a noun object, e.g. pickpocket, where noun pocket is the object of verb pick. These “pickpocket compounds” first appeared in English under French influence post-1066 (Marchand 1960:37–39). We delve into English pickpocket compounds with the OED as our primary source. Despite fluctuations in frequency for individual forms throughout their history, we demonstrate pockets of productivity analogically involving compounds with similar semantics and compounds with the same verb as first member, or similar nouns as second. These were productive enough to compete directly with and even be preferable to more usual noun-verb compounds with similar meaning and components; for instance, sweepchimney (1657) predates chimneysweep (1709) by decades. Particularly telling regarding productivity into the 20th century are over 20 pickpocket coinings by humorist James Thurber (1951). These examples show that although pickpocket compounds have always been rare, they have enjoyed sustained productivity in English. Viewing these compounds through an analogical lens, versus a general compounding rule, better predicts the pockets of observed productivity.