The Interaction of Nominalisation and Compounding in Polish: On the Analysis of Listonosz ‘Mail Carrier’ and Korkociąg ‘Corkscrew’ in Construction Morphology

Abstract

This paper compares two analyses of interfixal-paradigmatic formations in Polish, such as listonosz ‘mail carrier’ and korkociąg ‘corkscrew’. They are often interpreted as exocentric compounds consisting of a noun stem and a verb stem connected by a linking vowel, i.e. as [N+LV+V]N formations (Kurzowa; Booij, “Morphology”). The proposal defended here is the treatment of such lexemes as [N+LV+[V]N]N compounds, in which the right-hand verb stems are assumed to undergo conversion into nouns. Semantic arguments are presented in support of such an assumption. Moreover, differences are emphasised between properties of the interfixal-paradigmatic formations in question and features of exocentric compounds in which the verb stem stands in the initial position, e.g. moczymorda ‘drunkard’. The analysis adopted here in the framework of Construction Morphology involves the simultaneous application of two morphological operations, namely compounding and nominalisation (i.e. verb-to-noun conversion), in the formation of interfixal-paradigmatic lexemes. Such an assumption allows for the explanation of the phenomenon of “embedded productivity” (Booij, Construction Morphology).