Being itself: On German selbst in synthetic compounds

Linguistics, 1986

This paper deals with the structure of so-called synthetic compounds in Dutch of the type blauwogig. Different structures are discussed for this kind of word. The general claim is that the notion of (adjectival) synthetic compound is not a morphosyntactic one but should rather be interpreted as a semantic property of the relevant category of compounds.

This paper is concerned with the classification and analysis of different types of German synthetic compounds headed by deverbal agent nouns in-er, such as Romanleser 'novel reader' or Gedankenleser 'mind reader', where the non-head is seen to saturate an argument of the head lexeme while adhering to the semantic interpretation found in corresponding VPs (e.g. the distinct senses of read in the previous examples). In contrast to several previous approaches which attempt to explain the relationship between VPs and compounds using a unified mechanism of incorporation or derivation, we argue that different compounding patterns require different analyses and that the respective constructions are to some extent independent of each other. While some such compounds are modelled after frequent, familiar VPs and take account of the usage profile of syntactic phrases, other productive sets of compounds extend independently lexicalized schemas with fixed compound heads. To support our analysis we undertake the largest empirical survey of these formations to date, using a broad coverage Web corpus. We suggest several categories of verb-object lexeme pairs to account for our data and formulate an analysis of the facts within the framework of Construction Morphology.

International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry Annual Meeting Proceedings

The article deals with a unique aspect of structural representation in chemistry, known as stereoformulas, according to IUPAC, a formal two - dimensional representation of a three - dimensional molecular structure obtained by projection of bonds (symbolized as lines) onto a plane with the designation of the positions of relevant atoms by their chemical symbols. The study takes two arguments, respectively: (i) from Cassirer ́s Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (1) – the notion of Expression, and from Husserl ́s phenomenology (2) – the notion of Intentionality, composing a semiotic study on the use of stereoformulas towards working as “ representations of representations ”. Considering any simple exercise with a representative form, for example, a Newman projection, gathers only a part of the whole set of knowledge that is available about a particular chemical entity. However, despite being incomplete under the criteria of possible relations with his representative, the Newman Projection is a powerful semiotic tool in solving problems concerning the chemical structure. This refers to the understanding that the graphical tool to use in a given situation of structural representation is the result of an intentional process. Intention and incompleteness are somewhat intertwined, because the choice of using a particular tool stems from the recognition of the different features that can be supplied by it, or from those not available, in the sense of an evaluation of the extent of incompleteness. By way of a conclusion, it appears that the recognition of the intentional character of representative activity is a certificate of humanity of this process, which is bound to the necessary recognition of its expressive function, in the sense proposed by Cassirer. (1) Cassirer, E. (1996) The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. v. 4. New York: Yale University Press. (2) Husserl, E. (2000) Logical Investigations. New York: Humanity Books.

Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, 2022

In modern Chinese, the adverb chi-zao is regarded as an adjective-adjective compound, with morphemes chi 'late' and zao 'early' as extreme poles in a gradable temporality. The formation of chi-zao as an antonymous compound has not received much attention from a diachronic construction grammar perspective. This study reports on the historical change of chi-zao as evidence showing the interplay of antonymous compounds and constructionalization in modern Chinese. Based on corpus analysis, I found that the formation of chi-zao as a lexical construction inherits from previous changes but emerges instantaneously in Pre-Modern Chinese, where its form has been condensed and its meaning has been bleached to indicate subjectivity. Three arguments shed light on the model of constructionalization: (1) constructionalization at the compound level can be associated with three motivations: subjectivity, frequency, and metaphor; and (2) the operation of constructionalization is at work not only at the sentential and phrasal level but also at the morphological level of compound word formation in Chinese; (3) rhetoric as an output of language use plays a part in the development of constructionalization in relation to antonymous compounds.

Glottometrics, 2016

The present investigation is engaged with a quantitative study of German compounds in the text of technical science. We have analyzed word classes for German compounds in Book “Wirtschaftsinformatik” by H. R. Hansen et al (2015). In such a way, 20 pages of the above-mentioned book have been studied with a sample of 221 German compounds. The data have been processed statistically. The results can be of great use for typological studies of compounds.

Linguistics, 2022

This article studies the role of synthetic-compound families, both formal families and their semantic (or rather conceptual) subfamilies, in the analysis of synthetic compounds (SCs). For this purpose, four formal families of English non-Latinate synthetic compounds sharing their second base and three Latinate families have been investigated. Unlike previous approaches ranging from a purely syntactic treatment of SCs to a more lexical treatment, this study aims at providing a novel explanation for these complex formations. First, it argues that SCs have an ambiguous nature, hovering between (a) morphological suffixation of a verb/word group and (b) morphological derivation and subsequent compounding. Second, it emphasizes the importance of compound families and subfamilies in SCs’ formation and interpretation. By combining a corpus-based analysis with a qualitative synchronic and diachronic investigation of seven compound families – namely X-breaker, X-holder, X-killer, X-maker, X-m...

2020

The papers collected in this volume have very diverse topics – such as prosodic peculiarities (Meinunger and Hamlaoui & Roussarie), morphological items (McFadden and Steriopolo), or phenomena concerning syntax and its interfaces, such as syntax-morphology (Kamali), syntax-parsing (Winkler), or syntax-pragmatics (Bittner & Dery). The languages considered range from quite prominent German and French via Turkish to very exotic Nuuchahnulth or no longer spoken Old and Middle English. However, all contributions center around structural phenomena and provide analyses in terms of grammatical theory.

Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 2010

This chapter focuses on a traditional issue of word formation, namely synthetic compounds. The three basic approaches to the question will be reviewed and analyzed with the help of a large text corpus. The latter is of paramount importance for the analysis because dictionaries usually are not reliable for investigating highly productive word formation patterns and especially German compounding. It is shown that purely syntactic approaches do not cope well with the data, whereas a lexical approach like Construction Morphology is able to grasp the fine-grained distributional properties displayed by compounds. Furthermore, the corpus-based analysis allows us to shed some light on the complex network of semantic properties guiding the selective solidarity between deverbal head and nominal modifier by representing argument structure as a bundle of Dowty's base-roles. * This chapter results from a research developed within the PRIN-project COMPONET coordinated by Sergio Scalise (2005-07). I am deeply indebted with the editors and with an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. Needless to say, opinions expressed and remaining mistakes are of my own responsability. Sergio Scalise & Irene Vogel (eds.), Cross-Disciplinary Issues in Compounding, Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 219-235.

Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 2022

The question whether synthetic compounds should be analyzed as including a verbal core or as root compounds has issued a long theoretical debate in the linguistic literature since the '70s. It is precisely their mixed properties that make this debate so difficult to settle. We investigate compounds headed by suffix-based deverbal nouns and propose that they are ambiguous between true synthetic compounds, which include verbal structure, and root compounds. We trace this ambiguity back to Grimshaw's (1990) distinction between argument structure nominals (realizing verbal arguments) and result or simple event nominals (which do not realize verbal arguments). The true synthetic compounds are headed by argument structure nominals and realize the verb's internal argument as a non-head (e.g. book reading, book reader), but deverbal nouns may also head root compounds when interpreted as simple event or result nominals and realize a modifier as their non-head (e.g. police questioning). We account for the differences and similarities between synthetic compounds and argument structure nominals in the framework of Distributed Morphology and show how Voice-related properties account for further characteristics of synthetic compounds concerning event implication and accommodation of idioms.

2013

It is widely acknowledged in the literature that the common function of the modifier in nominal compounds is the classifying function. Classifying modifiers specify what kind of entity is being denoted by the head noun, that is, they specify subkinds; e.g. apple juice ‘a kind of juice made from apples’. While the classifying function can certainly be regarded as the default function of lexical modification, lexical modifiers in nominal compounds may also have functions other than classification. Drawing on functional types of noun phrase modification from the typological literature, the paper discusses lexical modifiers in German nominal compounds with an attitudinal or an identifying function, and the conditions under which they arise.