Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T18:20:42.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When is a sequence of two nouns a compound in English?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Laurie Bauer
Laurie Bauer
Affiliation:
School of Linguistics and Applied Language StudiesVictoria University of WellingtonPO Box 600WellingtonNew [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Constructions of noun + noun have been treated in two distinct ways in the literature: either they have been treated as compounds, or they have been treated as noun phrases with modifiers which happen to be nouns. Sometimes it is assumed that there are two distinct classes, which can be neatly distinguished. In this paper it is argued that the criteria which are usually assumed to distinguish between these two construction types do not draw a clear and consistent distinction between a syntactic and a morphological construction. Many of the criteria instead are indirect measures of listedness, which, it is argued, is not sufficient to show morphological status. Accordingly, it is claimed that the criteria to which reference is generally made do not allow us to distinguish between a class of noun + noun compounds and a class of noun + noun syntactic constructions. Rather the two should be treated as variants of a single construction (possibly morphological, possibly syntactic), at least until such time as a suitable coherent distinction can be properly motivated.

Type
Articles
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 65 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

References

Asher, R. E. (1994). Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Bache, C. (1978). The order of pre-modifying adjectives in present-day English. Odense: Odense University Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, L. (1978). The grammar of nominal compounding. Odense: Odense University Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, L. (1983a). English word-formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, L. (1983b). Stress in compounds: a rejoinder. English Studies 64: 47–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, L. (1988). Introducing linguistic morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Bauer, L. (1993). Manual of information to accompany the Wellington corpus of written New Zealand English. Wellington: Department of Linguistics, Victoria University.Google Scholar
Bybee, J. (1985). Morphology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Dierickx, J. (1970). Why are plural attributives becoming more common? In Dierickx, J. & Lebrun, Y. (eds.), Linguistique contemporaine. Bruxelles. 39–46.Google Scholar
Di Sciullo, A.-M. & Williams, E. (1987). On the definition of word. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Downing, P. (1977). On the creation and use of English compound nouns. Language 53: 810–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabb, N. (1994). Sentence structure. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fudge, E. (1984). English word-stress. London, etc.: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Gleitman, L. R. & Gleitman, H. (1970). Phrase and paraphrase: some innovative uses of language. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. (1914). A modern English grammar on historical principles, part II: Syntax, Vol. 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard; London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. (1942). A modern English grammar on historical principles, part IV: Morphology, Vol. 1. Copenhagen: Munksgaard; London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Koskenniemi, I. (1991). The creation and use of compound words in Jacobean tragedy. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 92: 63–73.Google Scholar
Ladd, D. R. (1984). English compound stress. In Gibbon, D. & Richter, H. (eds.), Intonation, accent and rhythm. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 253–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar, vol. 1: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Lees, R. B. (1960). The grammar of English nominalizations. The Hague: Mouton. 5th edn 1968.Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. (ed.) (1949). Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Linguists. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Levi, J. N. (1978). The syntax and semantics of complex nominals. New York, etc.: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Liberman, M. & Sproat, R. (1992). The stress and structure of modified noun phrases in English. In Sag, I. A. & Szabolcsi, A. (eds.), Lexical matters. Stanford: CSLI. 131–81.Google Scholar
Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, P. H. (1972). Inflectional morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mutt, O. (1967). Some recent developments in the use of nouns as premodifiers in English. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 15: 401–8.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (1989). Learnability and cognition: the acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Plank, F. (1994). Inflection and derivation. In Asher, R. E. (ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol. 3: 1671–8. Oxford, etc.; Pergamon.Google Scholar
Tulloch, S. (1991). The Oxford dictionary of new words. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vos, A. L. (1952). Stress in English compound nouns. Unpublished Diploma Dissertation, Department of Linguistics, Edinburgh University.Google Scholar
Ward, G., Sproat, R. & McKoon, G. (1991). A pragmatic analysis of so-called anaphoric islands. Language 67: 439–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar