The Study of Semantic Transparency and Opacity in Complex Words Derived from Nonverbal Element and Present Stem

Compound words include two or more lexical morphemes which at least contain two bases both of which are words or considered as stem of morphemes. Transparent words are words which their meaning form can be guessed from their sounds or constructions. There are some relations between  the  sounds  or  the  constructions  of  these  words  and  their meanings. This can be illustrated by examples in Persian as "chek chek" and  "khod  nevis".  Opaque  words  on  the other hand are words whose meanings cannot be guessed, e.g. "Kaghaz". Various definitions of semantic transparency and opacity were explained in this research. In the section of data analysis, five hundred compound words derived from “Dehkhoda” dictionary and were studied and analyzed with respect to semantic transparency and opacity. Six criteria were determined in this study as follows: 1- The frequency of head and modifier 2- The syntactic relation between two parts of the compounds 3- The criteria of indicators 4- Referring meaning, 5- Being independent or non--independent of the head 6- The whole meaning of the compound. Also, three categories were studied in the beginning of data analysis: 1- adverb + verb stem 2- noun + verb stem, 3- adjective + verb stem. It was shown being full indicator, the existence of opposition and the existence of syntactic relation between two parts and being referential will be effective in semantic transparency and opacity.  Then  the  degrees  of  semantic  transparency  and  opacity  were studied  and  it  was  shown  that  there  are  fourteen degrees  in  semantic transparency and opacity with respect to determined criteria.