Abstract
Verb+Noun compounds in Spanish and the other Romance
languages have well-known curious properties: (i) lack of nominalizing affix
on the Verb; (ii) obligatory presence of the Noun, interpreted as the direct
object of the Verb; (iii) interpretation as referring to persons or instruments
able to perform the action expressed by the transitive verb. Compounds are
uncommon in the Romance languages, whereas they are common and very
productive in the Germanic languages. Verb+Noun compounds, however,
are hardly found in the Germanic languages. The "Minimalist" model
adopted in the analysis will provide the basic explanation: Verb+Noun
compounds reflect the most "basic" syntactic structure, which can be used by
default as a lexical process in the Romance languages, where "real
compounding", namely, the incorporation of the noun into the verb, does
not occur. The basic syntactic-lexical process is completed by another default
process: the Verb+Noun is a lexical predicate in need of a subject, which is,
again, provided "by default": [+HUMAN] or, by extension, [+INSTRUMENT]
interpretation.
languages have well-known curious properties: (i) lack of nominalizing affix
on the Verb; (ii) obligatory presence of the Noun, interpreted as the direct
object of the Verb; (iii) interpretation as referring to persons or instruments
able to perform the action expressed by the transitive verb. Compounds are
uncommon in the Romance languages, whereas they are common and very
productive in the Germanic languages. Verb+Noun compounds, however,
are hardly found in the Germanic languages. The "Minimalist" model
adopted in the analysis will provide the basic explanation: Verb+Noun
compounds reflect the most "basic" syntactic structure, which can be used by
default as a lexical process in the Romance languages, where "real
compounding", namely, the incorporation of the noun into the verb, does
not occur. The basic syntactic-lexical process is completed by another default
process: the Verb+Noun is a lexical predicate in need of a subject, which is,
again, provided "by default": [+HUMAN] or, by extension, [+INSTRUMENT]
interpretation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 85-98 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Iberia |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |
Keywords
- Verb+Noun compounds
- Minimalism
- Germanic compounding
- compounding
- Spanish