Genitive Compounds in Frisian as Lexical Phrases

Abstract

This article investigates genitive compounds, a special type of NN compound found in West Frisian and some other languages/dialects on the North Sea littoral. Genitive compounds show a number of properties distinguishing them from normal NN compounds, the most striking of which is the obligatory definiteness/specificity of their first element and, as a consequence, of the compound as a whole. These properties can be accounted for if genitive compounds are analyzed as phrases moving towards word status. Historically they derive from the Old Frisian prenominal genitive construction, and it is shown that they still are a kind of prenominal genitive construction today, albeit heavily lexicalized, i.e., subject to lexical principles and containing specifically lexical elements. Since some of the phrasal elements in genitive compounds do not occur in syntax proper and since their definiteness produces a blocking effect on normal NN compounds, they seem to provide evidence for the concept of lexical phrases, potentially productive phrasal patterns in the lexicon.