German Compound Nouns:A Schematic Network

Quentin ReadLING 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

● 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

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.”

English Schematic Network

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

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 = KartoffelsalatMATERIAL + THING = THINGN + N = N

Sample Resultswarte + saal VERB + LOCATION = LOCATION V + N = Nplatte-n + spieler OBJECT + AGENT = AGENT N + N =Nklein + kind ADJ + PERSON = PERSON ADJ + N =N

THING + THING = THING N + N =NMotor-en + raum THING + LOCATION = LOCATION N + N =Nbrenn + stoff VERB + THING = THING V + N = Njahr + hundert TIME + NUMBER = TIME N + ADJ = Ndrei + eck NUMBER + CHARACTERISTIC = THING ADJ + N =N

scheiß + dreck

The right-headed compounds exhibit a lot of variation!

Note that the last two appear to be exocentric compounds.

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

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.