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It is assumed that semantic transparency in compounds depends on integration of constituents and head transparency. Spanish verb-noun compounds are semantically and morphologically exocentric, lacking a head. We studied if verb argument structure determines differences in semantic integration and morphological decomposition. During a lexical decision task, Agentives (referent takes the role of agent), and Metaphoricals (involving methaphorical patterns to construct meaning), were displayed as whole words or separated into constituents. Agentives were responded better and faster than Metaphoricals, with no interaction between compound type and presentation mode, suggesting constituent decomposition for both compounds. Early electrophysiological effects related to visual recognition, and an N400 component for Metaphoricals, suggest constituent semantic integration. Differences seemed related to combinatorial procedures: in Agentives the meaning of constituents is easily integrated to form compound meaning; in Metaphoricals, this procedure is inhibited, and compound meaning is accessed through the metaphoric relation that links both constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with, in a diachronic perspective, the Italian verb-noun compounds of the type portalettere and covers the time span that goes from the Origins well into the beginnings of the Twentieth century. On the basis of a rich dataset drawn from diachronic corpora and lexicographic sources, the article presents the history of this word-formation process, emphasizing the semantic and categorial nature of these compounds. The main claim is that the current semantic variability (person, instrument, event, period of time etc.) has always been available in the linguistic history of Italian as well as, to a minor extent, the categorial ambiguity by which VN compounds also function as adjectival modifiers. It is shown that this last function is much of a diachronic innovation. This paper, which stems from the theoretical premises of Construction Morphology, reveals that the productivity of the Construction [V-N]A|N is due to both the semantic and formal flexibility shown from the earliest attestations of the language, and to the productivity of some semi-specified subschemas, which have served as models for the creation of new VN compounds, especially over the past few decades.

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The following abstract contains 150 words: Studies regarding compound word processing have centred on Noun–noun words, which exhibit endocentricity. Nevertheless, other compound types, such as Spanish Verb–noun compounds, exhibit morphological particularities such as exocentricity, verb argument structure, and metaphorical features, increasing the attributes that may influence compound processing. We analysed whether these traits influenced Spanish Verb–noun compound processing. A lexical decision task was administrated with electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. Following differences in argument structure and metaphorical traits, three compound types were presented: Agentives, Locatives, and Metaphoricals. Locatives were responded worse and slower than Agentives. Metaphoricals elicited increases in the P300 and P600-like components. Thus, verb argument structure and metaphorical processes influence Spanish Verb–noun compound processing. Similarly to endocentric English Noun–noun compounds, processing Spanish Verb–noun compounds involves specific conceptual operations. These conceptual combinations appear to be determined by the projection of verb argument structure and the mapping and assignation of thematic roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a case of overabundance in the plural cell of an open subclass of Italian VN compounds. The empirical basis includes: (i) a 163-item list of relevant compounds, for which the relative frequency of cell mates has been estimated by means of Web data; (ii) a naming questionnaire based on visual input, with 30 images submitted to about 200 informants, including those of several objects whose names are scarcely established in the lexicon; (iii) a further questionnaire, adapted to each informant, asking for acceptability judgements to detect overabundance at the single speaker's level. Results show that the given subclass of VN compounds provides an instance of systematic and productive overabundance in the Italian morphological system, differently from the examples usually discussed for this language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the processing of compound words offers important insights on how the mental lexicon is organized. It is a current topic in psycho linguistics if compound words are represented and processed as unitary lexical units (full-listing models) or only as individual constituents analyzed via a combinatorial mechanism (full-parsing models). There is enough experimental evidence that both mechanisms are involved (dual-route models). Several characteristics of the stimuli, like length, morphological family size, frequency of compounds and their constituents are important factors to determine how they are processed. Compound words are meaningful units that contain smaller meaningful units. Therefore, in the domain of compounds' studies, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain how only one interpretation is achieved from two independent meanings. Models that describe the construction of lexical semantic features in compound words, like APPLE - Automatic Progressive Parsing and Lexical Excitation (Libben 1994,1998) or CARIN - Competition A mong Relations in Nominals (Gagné, 2000), are based on the notion of a morphological head. According to these theories the recognition of the head would trigger an interpretation of the whole word. In noun-noun compounds (pez espada, 'swordfish', telaraña 'spiderweb'), in which the head has the referential features, the identification of this head and the posterior clarification of the relationship with the non-head lexeme is the way to interpret the whole compound (pez 'fish' and tela 'web', respectively). However, not every compound has a head with the referential attributes inside. Verb-noun compounding is an extremely productive word-formation process in Romance languages. Spanish verb-noun compounds have the particularity of being exocentric: these con structions do not present a categorical, morpholog ical or semantic head. Therefore, access to the meaning depends on the relationship between both of their constituent lexemes. For these units, the traditional distinction between semantically transparent and semantically opaque compounds is not suitable, because it doesn't take under consideration the projection of the argument structure by the verbal constituent. The semantic relationship established between the lexemes within a compound is not unique. While the prototypical semantic structure responds to the agent-patient pattern (cortacésped), there are other semantic possibilities, such as locative relationships (pasacalle). The present study addresses the issue of the comprehension of Spanish verb-noun compounds in order to provide evidence about the role of the argument structure projected by the first lexeme in the whole-word meaning. It is proposed that the argument structure of the verbal constituent has a cognitive influence on the processing and comprehension of these units. Firstly, an acceptability judgment test was administrated in order to identify a group of verbnoun compounds that were adequate for the Argentinean Spanish lexicon. Secondly, a lexical decision task was conducted with the stimuli selected as acceptable. Thirty native speakers (20 females), ranged in age from 19 to 34 years old, with at least 12 years of schooling, participated in the experiment. The lexical decision task included three types of compounds according to their argument structure: (1) Agent / patient (abrelatas), (2) Agent / patient with less prototypical features or metaphorical processes (chupasangre), and (3) locatives (guardamuebles). Stimuli were matched according to the whole-word and constituent frequency and length. For the statistical analysis, ANOVAs were calculated for error rates and response times (RTs) for each condition. Results show that reaction times (answers) to locative compounds were significantly higher than to agentpatient compounds. This contrast cannot be explain ed by differences in frequency or length, of the compounds or their constituents. Consequently, the present results seem to support the hypothesis that argument structure plays a central role in the processing of these words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verb-noun compounds are typically considered to be one of the most important innovations in the domain of Romance word-formation (cf. Bauer 2011, among many others). This morphological innovation can also be seen as part of a general tendency in Romance languages to prefer head-initial structures across different levels of the language system (cf., e.g., Ledgeway 2012: 225). However, the question of the productivity of VN compounds arises immediately as there is evidence that the pattern has become extremely productive only recently. This paper investigates the question of the productivity of the VN compounds starting out with a distinction between availability of a word-formation pattern and its profitability (cf., e.g., Bauer 2001). This article shows that the structural presence-availability-of VN compounding seems to be diachronically constant, but that the quantitative exploitation of the pattern-its profitability-turns out to be a recent phenomenon. Following recent research on compounding in Spanish (Moyna 2011) and French (Rosenberg 2007, 2008, 2011), this paper takes one concrete example of the Italian VN compounds and proceeds to show its diachronic evolution from the 16th to the 19th century on the basis of data drawn from diachronic corpora as well as from major historical dictionaries. It demonstrates that the 'dramatic increase' alluded to by Bauer (2011: 543) is not to be taken as a sign of a new structural innovation, but rather as a fortuitous exploitation of a well-settled word-formation pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Spanish verb–noun compounds in terms of the role played by, and the relationship between, metonymy and metaphor in generating them. After exploring different referent types denoted by Spanish verb–noun compounds such as instrument, agent, place, plant, animal/insect, and causer event, sample examples are analyzed in each referent type for their conceptualization patterns. The analytical tools are based on the notion of domain-internal and domain-external conceptual mappings for metonymy and metaphor, respectively, as well as on the model proposed in the Combined Input Hypothesis for the analysis of metaphors involving multiple inputs. The analysis of the data shows that there are at least four metonymic and metaphoric patterns involved in Spanish verb–noun compounds and that these patterns are productive. The four patters are: (i) only metonymy is involved; (ii) target-in-source metonymy is derived from metaphor; (iii) metaphor is derived from target-in-source metonymy, and (iv) metonymy is derived from a metaphor which is derived from metonymy. This study proposes that these four types of metonymic and metaphoric patterns mediate the production of novel Spanish verb–noun compounds. The implication of this finding is that the more complex the cognitive operations involved in verb–noun compounds, the less predictable the meaning of the compound will be for the language users who first hear them; but once learnt, the meaning of the compound is stored as a whole unit in their mental lexicon. An analysis of a larger corpus of data in future studies will reveal a more comprehensive picture of the relational patterns involved in Spanish verb–noun compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines Spanish [Verb+Noun (V+N)] compounds based on insights drawn from Construction Grammar. In contrast to previous studies that treat Spanish [V+N] compounds as having one common structural and semantic property, this study proposes two types of [V+N] compound constructions in Spanish, each with its own respective constructional meaning. It argues that the acceptability, or the lack thereof, of Spanish [V+N] compounds is not based solely on the individual lexical items that constitute the compounds or the mere composition of those items, but the two constructions that sanction individual occurrences. In the case of a compound with multiple meanings and multiple compounds expressing one meaning, the interaction between constructional meanings and item-specific knowledge about individual instances is shown to be relevant as well. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]