The other variety of word formation, compounding, seems fairly straightforward, even if the actual facts can be quite complex at times. Compounds are built of two (or more) independent words, and have (at least in their original form) a meaning that involves those of their components. Thus, a catfish is a kind of fish sharing some property with a cat (in this case, the whiskers). Like derived forms, compounds are independent lexemes in their own right, and as such quickly take on specialized meanings that are not transparently derived from those of