Though English and Chinese belong to synthetic and analytic language respectively,both have a lot in common in terms of the basic types of word-forming morphemes,word-generating rules and basic patterns of the morphological structures of words,which reflects the universality of and similarity between human thought patterns.

The latter arises not only from the analytical and explanatory nature of Chinese word-formation that results in a conflict between the need for simple word structure and the need for comprehensive and accurate definition, but also from the ever-present interference from the connotations of the constituent morphemes of the compound word.