Position of the head in Italian n-n compounds: the case of “mirror compounds”

• Authors: Jan Radimský
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Several authors have recently pointed out that under certain conditions, a language can have both left-headed and right-headed compounding patterns. As contemporary Italian N-N compounds seem to encompass this phenomenon, the present article aims to examine parameters that determine or indicate the head position in these cases. Our hypotheses are based on a qualitative sample drawn from the Gradit dictionary and are further verified by a quantitative study about “mirror compounds” (radiogiornale vs. giornale radio) on the ItWac corpus. The position of the head in N-N compounds is claimed to show a strong correlation with “tight” and “loose” orthography. In conclusion, possible explanations of this phenomenon as well as open questions for future research are suggested.

Keywords

EN

word compounding; N-N compounds; learned compounding; Italian

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Republic
• Journal: Linguistica Pragensia
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 41-53

Contributors

author

Jan Radimský

• Faculty of Arts, Charles University nam. Jana Palacha 2, Praha 1, 116 38, Czech Republic