This article is an attempt to explain an observable change in present-day English in terms of quite disparate influences. Since the change is not yet complete, it is a messy conspiracy of these influences. By studying life-time changes of this sort we may gain insights into how well-understood historical changes work. The change under discussion is most noticeable in the written form, but its trigger has been the phonetic realizations of the forms to be considered. The forms are exemplified by alternations in noun phrases such as box(ed)sets, skim(med) milk, arch(ed) corbel table. The relationship between the very different structures used in speech on the one hand and writing on the other is also relevant in this case. The NPs with -ed have a structure Adjpp N, whereas the forms without it are compound nouns. Some of the Adjpp forms found in such noun phrases are actually pseudo-past participles; that is, they are not formed from a verb, but take the -ed ending, e.g. four-wheeled, gate-legged. Whether native speakers learn such forms from the spoken or written language to some extent determines how they are perceived. This is relevant because the phonetic realization of members of both sets may be the same, so the phonetic form [bɒks set] may be perceived as boxed set or box set. I also consider the stress patterns of the new compounds, the orthography as a reflection of the structural change, and the ‘Germanic’ tendency towards compounding. The resultant picture is a messy one and the change has certainly not yet been completed, but we can see a conspiracy of disparate areas of the linguistic system putting pressure on certain lexical combinations. It should also be noted that ‘English’ is not a consistent linguistic system: we have to be clear about which variety is being discussed. English ‘belongs’ to many different groups of people, including non-native speakers as a lingua franca, so it is subject to many more influences today than the parochial versions of even just a hundred years ago.

本文试图以截然不同的影响来解释当今英语中可观察到的变化。由于变化尚未完成，这是这些影响的混乱阴谋。通过研究这种生命周期的变化，我们可以深入了解众所周知的历史变化是如何起作用的。讨论中的变化在书面形式中最为明显，但其触发因素是要考虑的形式的语音实现。这些形式以名词短语的交替为例，例如box(ed)sets、skim(med) milk、arch(ed) corbel table。在这种情况下，一方面语音和写作中使用的非常不同的结构之间的关系也很重要。带有 - ed的 NP具有结构 Adj pp N，而没有它的形式是复合名词。在此类名词短语中发现的一些 Adj pp形式实际上是伪过去分词；也就是说，它们不是由动词组成，而是以-ed结尾，例如four-wheeled , gate-legged。母语者是否从口语或书面语言中学习这些形式在一定程度上决定了它们被感知的方式。这是相关的，因为两个集合的成员的语音实现可能相同，因此语音形式 [bɒks set] 可能被感知为boxed set或box set. 我还考虑了新复合词的重音模式、正字法作为结构变化的反映，以及“日耳曼”复合词的趋势。由此产生的画面是一团糟，变化肯定还没有完成，但我们可以看到语言系统不同领域的阴谋对某些词汇组合施加压力。还应该注意的是，“英语”不是一个一致的语言系统：我们必须清楚讨论的是哪种变体。英语“属于”许多不同的人群，包括作为通用语的非母语人士，因此与一百年前的狭隘版本相比，它今天受到的影响要多得多。