6.758, Sum: Synthetic compounds
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Fri Jun 2 10:08:49 UTC 1995
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LINGUIST List: Vol-6-758. Fri 02 Jun 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 347
Subject: 6.758, Sum: Synthetic compounds
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1)
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 10:50:06 -0500 (EST)
From: heather marie anderson (hmanders at indiana.edu)
Subject: synthetic compounds summary
-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 10:50:06 -0500 (EST)
From: heather marie anderson (hmanders at indiana.edu)
Subject: synthetic compounds summary
Dear Colleagues,
In April I sent a query to Linguist about synthetic compounds. I
received over 30 replies. I have tried to respond personally to all of
the replies, but a couple of my messages bounced. I apologize to anyone
I missed. I appreciated all of the response I received. I am proud to
be a part of intellectual community where so many people are eager to
share their hard won knowledge. A summary of what I have learned
follows. It can be divided into four parts. Part 1 presents some
questions about what I had taken as given in my initial query. Part 2
consists of a bibliography of works that I and others have found useful
in our research on compounds. Part 3. Is a table showing the data I
have so far. I encourage you to look over it may surprise you or you may
disagree with what I say about your favorite language (if you do please
write me, I know very little about most of these languages and have no
way of judging if what I have read about them is the widely accepted
view. In Part 4 I explain the project I am currently working on and make
yet another call for data (no matter how much I get I want more). I hope
that this summary is useful
for most of you and interesting to at least some.
Part 1:
I got some very interesting replies to my query which instead of
or in addition to offering data, questioned the very notion of synthetic
compounds that I had based my query on.
My post was as follows:
I am looking for information on synthetic compounds like the English
"truck driver" and the French "essuie-glace" where one element of the
compound is a verbal and the other element is interpreted as its object.
I am trying to find out if there is any connection between the ordering
of the elements in these compounds and the ordering of the elements in a VP.
I already have information on how these compounds are formed and
used in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Igbo, and Jacaltec, but
have been unable, despite hours in the library, to find information on
other languages.
The questions fell into two main categories?
1. What did I mean by "synthetic" compounds?
On the surface this seems like a simple terminological question but it
goes much deeper than that. In researching this type of compounds I have
seen them called by any number of names; deverbals, verbals, V+N, V+O,
nominalizations..... I don't know where the term "synthetic" comes from
I just use it because it was the one I was taught. Each of these terms
has its own merits and faults and reflects the theory of compounding the
user ascribes to, which is all well and good but it makes research in
this area very difficult. Another problem arising in part from or simply
reflected in the plethora of terms for this type of compounds is the fact
that no two linguists define the group in the same way. For some a
synthetic compound can only be made up of a verbal and noun that can be
interpreted as its direct object (dishwasher, face painting) for others
the noun can be an oblique object as well (theater goer) and other will
call any compound with a verbal element a synthetic (examining room).
For the purposes of my current work
I am only interested in the first type (V + DO), in fact only the subset
where the compound is understood to be a person or object that preforms
the action ie. A dishwasher: something / one that washes dishes.
2. Why did I think that "driver" of "truck driver" was a "verb" it is
obviously a "noun"? Why wasn't I looking at the
ordering of NPs instead of that of VPs?
Admittedly at first glance the compound "truck driver" does seem to be
made up of two nouns "truck" and "driver". In fact I cannot at this
point think of any compelling argument against this view except that
words like "driver" tend to be semantically weak and except in a few case
like that of "driver" unless they appear as part of a compound they have
no meaning out of context. Compare "grower" with "apple grower". The
French compounds present even better support for the verb based view.
The "essuie" of "essuie-glace" (windshield-wiper) is a straight forward
verb form. There is no French noun "essuie" (*wiper) thus French
synthetics at least cannot be N + N compounds, and if we want a unified
theory of synthetics then English synthetics cannot be N + N either.
If you want to comment on either of these questions, please do so
directly to Linguist. I think either of them could lead to a good
general debate and I have already said all I have to say about these
subjects at the moment.
Part 2: Synthetic Compound Bibliography (warning some citations are
incomplete, I hope this doesn't cause anyone too much trouble)
Adams, Valerie. An Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation. New
York: Longman
Bauer, Laurie. English Word Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press (1983)
---. The Grammar of Nominal Compounding: with special reference to
Danish, English, and French. Odense: Odense University Press,
(1978).
Beard, Robert. Lexeme-Morpheme Base Morphology. SUNY Press (this summer)
Booij, G. and T. van Haaften. "On the External Syntax of Derived Words:
Evidence from Dutch." Yearbook of Morphology 1. (1988): 29-44.
Chao, Yuen-ren. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of
California Press. (1968) (pages 415-434)
Chi, Telee R. RA Study of Verb-Object Compounds in Mandrin Chinese in
Thompson, S. A. & Lord, C. (1974) Approaches to the Lexicon. UCLA
Papers in Syntax, #6. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
---. A Lexical Analysis of Verb-Noun Compounds in Mandrin Chinese.
Taipei: Crane Publishing Co. (1985).
Chung, Karen Steffen. Verb + Noun Function Describing Compounds.
Bulletin of the College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University
No 41 (1994) 181-222
Craig, C. The Jacaltec Language. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1973
(has a nice section on word formation)
Darmesteter, Arsene. Traite de la formation des mots composes dans la
langue francais comparee aux autres langues romanes et au Latin.
Paris: Librairie Honore Campion (reprint of 1893 work) (1967)
Drapeau, Lynn. Aspects de la morphologie du nom en montagnais. Thesis.
Universite de Montreal. (1979).
---. "Les Noms composses en montagnais" Recherches linguistiques a
Montreal: Montreal Working Papers Vol. 12, May 1979 Linguistique
amerindinenne I: syntax algonquienne
Gavarro, Anna. Syntactic Theory and the Grammar of Catalan Compounding.
Dissertation University of Edinburgh (1990)
Greenberg, Gerald R. "Stress in Polish Compounds." Lingua:
International Review of General Linguistics. 70:2-3 (Nov.
1986): 163-170.
Koptjevskaja-Tanm, Maria. Nominalizations. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Lehmann, W. P. "Proto-Indo-European Compounds in Relation to Other
Proto-Indo European Syntactic Patterns." Acta Linguistica
Hafniensia 1969, 3-20.
Lehmann, (W.P.)? Theoretical Basis of Indo-European Linguistics.
Routledge (1993)
(pages recomended to me 64, 148-50, 255-6)
Leiber. R. "Phrasal Compounds in English and the Morphology-Syntax
Interface." Papers from the Parasession on Agreement in Grammatical
Theory. 202-22.
---. "Argument Linking and Compounds in English." Linguistic Inquiry
Vol 14 (1983)
---. Deconstructing Morphology (1992)
Leonard, Rosemary. The Interpretation of English Noun Sequences on the
Computer. Amsterdam: North Holland (1984)
Levi, Judith. "The Syntax and Semantics of Complex Nominals" in Studies
in Modern Hebrew Syntax and Semantics ed Cole North Holland Publishing
(1976) pgs. 9-55.
Li, C.N. and S. A. Thompson. Mandrin Chinese: A Functional Reference
Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Pages 73-81)
Lloyd, Paul M. Verb-Complement compounds in Spanish. Tubingen: Max
Miemeyer Verlag. (1968)
Nwaozuzu, G. I. "Nominal Compounds in Igbo." Afrika und Ubersee: Sprachen
Kulturen. 70:2, 225-244.
Selkirk, Elisabeth O. The Syntax of Words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982.
Spencer, Andrew. Morphological Theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991
Thiele, Johannes. La formation des mots en francais moderne. Translated
by Andr Clas. Montreal: Presses de l'Universite de Montreal, 1987.
Varela, Soledad. "The Organization of the Lexical Component:
Noun-Compounds in Spanish." Acta Linguistica Scientiarum
Hungaricae. 1986, 36: 1-4. 235-44.
Vogel, Irene. "Phonological Evidence for Level Ordering in Italian Word
Formation." Acta Linguistica Scientiarum Hungaricae. 1986, 36:
1-4. 245-260.
Vogel, (Irene)? and ? Napoli. The Verbal Component in Italian
Compounds. In Proceedings of the Linguistic Symposium on Romance
Languages XXII. Eds Jon Amastae, Grant Goodall, and Mario
Montabetty. Philadelphia: John Benjamins (to appear)
Wilco, G. Ter Stal and Paul E. Van der Vet. Two-level Semantic
Compounds. Wonderly (1951) International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Zwanenburg, ? . "Morphological Heads: French Compounding and Germanic
Prefixation" in Theoretical Analyses in Romance Linguistics eds Laeufer
and Morgan.
Part 3
The following table summarizes the data from all the languages
examined. "?" indicates holes in the data
Language VP order Compound order V affixed N affixed
PIE OV OV ? ?
Sanskrit OV OV ? ?
Latin Free/ OV OV ? ?
French VO VO no no
Italian VO VO no yes
Spanish VO VO no yes
English VO OV yes no
Dutch VO OV yes no
German VO OV yes no
Danish VO OV yes no
Swedish VO OV yes no
Icelandic VO OV yes no
Russian free OV yes no
Serbo-Croatian free/ VO VO yes yes
Polish VO VO yes no
Welsh VO VO yes yes
OV yes no
Igbo VO VO yes no
Jacaltec VO VO yes no
Pulaar VO VO yes yes
Finnish VO OV yes yes
West Armenian OV OV ? no
Mandrin Chinese ? VO no ?
Irish Gaelic VO VO yes ?
Thai SVO SVO ? ?
Galacian VO VO ? no / yes
Hebrew VO VO yes? no
Czech ? VO ? ?
Japanese ? OV yes ?
If your favorite language(s) is(are) missing or you disagree with what I
have here please read the next section and send me the data I need to set
things right.
Part 4
In the paper I am currently working on I amattempting to see which of
two theories makes the correct predictions about the surface form of
synthetic compounds. The first theory, based on Hawkins view of parsing,
predicts that the surface form of synthetics will differ as much as possible
in ordering and affixation from the corresponding VP so that the listener
will not confuse the two. The second theory, based on any number of generative
theories of word formation, predicts that synthetics and VPs will be as
similar as possible so that the derivation of synthetics will be as
simple as possible. Thus English with the affix -er and different word orders
for synthetics and VPs conforms with the first theory and French with a
similar ordering conforms with the second. Basically I need data from as
many languages as possible in order to see which of the two theories makes the
most accurate prediction.
I am putting severe limits on the data which I am considering. I am
only looking a one subset of synthetics, those with an agentive reading.
By this I mean compounds indicating people or instruments that are the
agent of the corresponding VP, like the English "truck driver" and
"dishwasher" or the French "porte-parole" and "essuie-glace". I chose
this subset because it is the most semantically distinct from the VP.
The problems caused by a listener confusing agentive compounds and the
VPs would be the more severe than with any other subset and thus this is
the environment where one would most expect to see evidence for the first
theory. If the first theory does indeed make correct predictions, I
might consider other types of synthetics and try to see if there is any
type of hierarchy within synthetics based on how semantically distinct
they are from their corresponding VPs. However that is later, for now I
just need data about agentive synthetics.
If you are willing to send me data on any of the languages
missing above please include at least
1. The name of the language in question (so I can look it up to
get other typological information)
2. Two or more examples with a morpheme by morpheme gloss and a
free gloss
3. Simple sentences with the corresponding VPs glossed as above
4. The plural and feminine forms of examples if they exist
5. And a judgement of how productive this compounding process is
in the language
6. Any other comments you think are helpful
For example
French (francais)
(l') essuie-glace "wipe ( V stem/ 3rd sing (depending on
analysis) - glass ( N stem(sg/fem))" "windshield wiper (N sg masc)"
(le) porte-parole "carry (V stem)- speech (N stem) "spokesman
(N sg masc)"
Il essuie la glace. "He (nom) wipes (3rd sing pres) the (fem
sing) glass (fem sing)
?Elle porte la parole. "She (nom) carries (3rd sing pres) the
(fem sing) speech (fem sing).
les essuie-glaces (pl) no fem exists
les porte-paroles (pl) la porte-parole (fem)
This pattern is very productive in French especially with -er verbs.
These compounds are always masculine regardless of the gender of
the nominal element.
"essuie" and "porte" independently can only be interpreted as
verb stems of 3rd singular pres. They cannot be used as nouns or
adjectives. Phillipe Barbaud at Universite du Quebec a Montreal
wrote a nice paper (the name of which escapes me) on French compounds
in the late 80's
Thanks again to all those who replied to my first query. I hope this
summary has been of some use.
Heather Anderson hmanders at indiana.edu
322 Memorial Hall
IU
Bloomington, IN 47405
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