The modification of compounds by attributive adjectives

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2011

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This paper examines the modification of nominal compounds by attributive adjectives in English. It draws on a distinction between compound-external (i.e. syntactic) and compound-internal (i.e. morphological) modification. An analysis is presented of more than 1000 pertinent cases, which are roughly equally divided into two-, three- and four-noun compounds. Irrespective of their positions, all constituents of all compound sizes are found to be susceptible to modification. Modification is subject to two major parameters-functional role and depth of embedding. Major heads are much more accessible than minor heads which in turn are more accessible than modifiers. The greater the structural depth of a constituent, the lower the probability of it being modified. This pattern of results suggests that the adjective in compound-internal modification has access to the structure of the full compound. That is, morphological modification has a curious syntactic ring to it. This unexpected behaviour of the adjective blurs the distinction between syntactic and morphological modification and argues against the strict separation of syntax and morphology. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

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