Pashto-English Compound Words and Their Derivatives

A Comparative Investigation of Morphological and Semantic Patterns

Abstract

Cross-linguistic examination of global language systems demonstrates structural relationships across multiple linguistic domains, including phonological organisation, grammatical structures, syntactic arrangements, and morphological processes, exhibiting a spectrum from complete structural congruence to absolute divergence. This investigation employs theoretical frameworks grounded in Bauer's morphological theory, O'Grady and Archibald's word formation principles, and Haspelmath and Sims' typological morphology approach, which posits that cross-linguistic morphological patterns exist on a continuum from complete correspondence to total structural divergence. It utilises contrastive analysis theory to identify universal tendencies and language-specific patterns. The study systematically examines morphological similarities and distinctions in compound and derivative constructions between Pashto and English through qualitative and descriptive methodologies, analysing 38 lexical tokens extracted from Daryab, Taj-ul-lughat, and Oxford dictionaries via two-phase analytical procedures involving initial extraction followed by comparative semantic and morphological analysis. Principal discoveries indicate that compound and derivative phenomena demonstrate varying correspondence levels: perfect structural alignment where cross-linguistic equivalents exhibit semantic and morphological similarity, intermediate correspondence in specific constructions, and complete absence of morphological and semantic correspondence in others, providing valuable insights for comparative linguistics scholars, morphology specialists, translation practitioners, and second language learners.