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Are there rules or is it just a relict of history and convention if substantives are merged? "Philosophie des Geistes" is a distinct discipline and so a proper name. But then there is also "Sprachphilosophie". Would it be correct/o.k. to say "Geistphilosophie"?

Are there more general rules when and how to merge substantives?

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1 Answer

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You have the solution already in your question: building merged nouns is case sensitive. By using genitive we may build:

Geistesphilosophie

in analogy to "Geistesgegenwart", "Geistesblitz" etc.

There are some sources that use the term "Geistesphilosphie" but it seems not to be widely accepted and is not listed in the Duden.

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It may also be interesting to have a look at Google ngrams – Hellenologophilist Jul 15 '11 at 14:23
+1 zeitgeist also fits your rule @fuz i have to bookmark this ngrams thing etymology swiss knife :) – Hauser Jul 15 '11 at 18:08
I almost included an ngram shot to the answer - but then I thought this may be overload. I like google ngrams but keep in mind they may be biased. – Takkat♦ Jul 15 '11 at 18:13

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