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German Compound Nouns: A Schematic Network

German Compound Nouns: A Schematic Network. Quentin Read LING 109 April 28, 2006. Life before the right-hand head rule. Review. Compound nouns have previously been defined generally/abstractly in terms of the head

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German Compound Nouns: A Schematic Network

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  1. German Compound Nouns: A Schematic Network Quentin Read LING 109 April 28, 2006

  2. Life before the right-hand head rule

  3. Review • Compound nouns have previously been defined generally/abstractly in terms of the head • Each component is in some way dependent upon the other, based on encyclopedic knowledge • Schematic networks account for both common and uncommon patterns without resorting to concepts like 'rule' and 'exception' • This model is gradated and usage-based

  4. The Prevailing View • Selkirk, The Syntax of Words • English compounds are generable by a “context-free word structure rule”: “The rules for generating compounds are banal in their simplicity.” • Verbal vs. nonverbal (headless) compounds • “It is a mistake to attempt to characterize the grammar of the semantics of nonverbal compounds in any way.”

  5. English Schematic Network

  6. German Compounds • The vast majority of compound nouns can be defined by a few basic patterns • Some may be tempted to dismiss the remaining few as 'exceptions' and create a rule • However, a rule divorced from context would ignore most relationships between components

  7. Corpus Analysis • 100 compound nouns were randomly selected from the LIMAS-Korpus (1970) • I broke them down into their component parts, then classified them in two levels of schematicity kartoffel + salat = Kartoffelsalat MATERIAL + THING = THING N + N = N

  8. Sample Results The right-headed compounds exhibit a lot of variation! Note that the last two appear to be exocentric compounds.

  9. Data Summary • 66 Noun + Noun • 19 Verb + Noun • 12 Adj/Adv + Noun • 3 exocentrics • Important sub-schemata: object + agent = agent; verb + location = location, etc. RÄUCHER + LACHS QUARK + TORTE

  10. Works Consulted • Eichinger, Ludwig. Deutsche Wortbildung: Eine Einführung. Tübingen: Narr, 2000. • Motsch, Wolfgang. Deutsche Wortbildung in Grundzügen. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1999. • Selkirk, Elisabeth O. The Syntax of Words. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982. • Tuggy, David. Scarecrow nouns, generalizations, and Cognitive grammar. 1987. • Las estructuras del lenguaje. Preliminary edition, 2006.

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