Abstract
Noun-Noun compounds (NN) are a concatenation of two nouns that function as a single unit both morphosyntactically and semantically. Two main challenges that a study of NN compounding faces are (i) identifying the implied semantic relations that hold between the nouns and (ii) explaining why NN compounds are or not productive (i.e. not very frequent) and creative (i.e. impromptu creation) in certain languages. Jackendoff (2009, 2016) proposed a model which considers the semantic relation between the head and modifier as established by an external function F(X, Y). Since Spanish NN compounds are not creative, the aim is to demonstrate whether the model can be applied to Spanish, and if so, identify the most productive basic functions. This can help us determine whether the lack of creativity of NN compounds in Spanish is due to a restricted set of productive functions. Our hypothesis is that only those relations that are productive are creative and are able to satisfy the Principle of Generalized Modification (Snyder 2012, 2016) operating at the syntax-semantics interface. The study also provides a comparison with the semantic relations attested in Spanish N-de-N constructions (i.e. buque de guerra ‘ship of war’ = war ship). Since the latter are very productive and creative, I wonder how well our hypothesis would accommodate to the data. The results indicate that few semantic relations are productive which indicates that only those should be used to interpret novel NN compounds satisfying Generalized Modification. N-de-Ns show a larger amount of functions and although the data falls short to accommodate the hypothesis, impressionistic observations tell us otherwise. Given this asymmetry, our results provide important evidence for blocking effects at the interface: the availability of the NN form blocks the surfacing of the prepositional alternative and viceversa.
Highlights
This thesis focuses on Noun-Noun compounds (NN compounds) in Spanish
It is concerned with analyzing the semantic relations that hold between the head and the modifier in Spanish NN compounds based on Jackendoff’s (2009, 2016) basic functions model
The results presented together with those in the previous sections shed light on the following research question: are NN compounds uncommon in Spanish because they are semantically inflexible due to the limited set of semantic relations that hold between the head and modifier? Though Spanish NN compounds express almost all relations established for English NN compounds, which was unexpected, the relations in Spanish are more restricted and unproductive when compared to English because there are fewer of them found and they may not allow all possible schemata proposed for the functions
Summary
This thesis focuses on Noun-Noun compounds (NN compounds) in Spanish. it is concerned with analyzing the semantic relations that hold between the head (which denotes a subtype of the whole compound) and the modifier (which provides specific information about that head) in Spanish NN compounds based on Jackendoff’s (2009, 2016) basic functions model. Given that the alternative productive structure for nominal compounding in Spanish is N de Ns (i.e. casa de campo ‘house of country’ > country house), it will be interesting to apply Jackendoff’s model to the semantic interpretation of N de N constructions Since these constructions are very frequent and productive, if the thirteen basic function model can be applied to them, N de Ns are expected to show a wider range of semantic relations as opposed to NNs. the fact that N de N constructions can be successfully interpreted by the basic function model would provide evidence that they should be treated as NN compounds semantically, because their meaning can be accounted for in the same way.
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