نشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی (Mar 2024)
Persian two-constituent exocentric non-verbal compound nouns: A constructional account
Abstract
Abstract Compounding is one of the most productive word-formation processes through which new words are formed. Concerning the semantic headedness, compounds are divided into endocentric compounds and exocentric compounds. This article examines Persian exocentric non-verbal compound nouns based on construction morphology theory (Booij, 2010) and explores the semantic relations in constructional schemas based on the semantic relations models of Jackendoff (2010) and Girju et al. (2005). The data is comprised of nearly 450 words and have been collected from Farhang Moɑser: Contemporary Persian Dictionary (1381) as well as media and daily conversations. According to the data, there were 9 semantic relations between the semantic head and the inner constituents of the noun compounds. Besides, there were 11 semantic relations between the inner constituents. Based on the derived constructional schemas, it was found that patterns produce the nouns of "instrument, plant, animal, location, food, part of something, job, profession, social status, job hierarchy, disease, material, sign, rhythm of a music/poem, geometric shape, object, prayer, game".. Keywords: Booij’s Construction Morphology, Constructional Schemas, Exocentric Non-verbal Compound Noun, Semantic Relations Introduction Compounding is one of the most productive word-formation processes which has been studied through different approaches. This explains why there are various definitions of compounding and compounds introduced in the literature. Compounds are made of at least two lexeme words (Booij, 2005). Compound nouns fall into two classes: endocentric compounds and exocentric compounds. Exocentric compounds lack head words. A few researches have been conducted on exocentric compounds, especially non-verbal ones in Persian language. This study seeks to analyze two-constituent exocentric non-verbal compound nouns using Construction Morphology Theory (Booij, 2010). This approach defines a morphological constituent by its form and meaning; therefore, it makes it possible to introduce regular patterns that produce these kinds of words and determine schemas to use them for making new nouns. Applying semantic relations into the schemas and defining semantic heads help us into more accurate and generalized patterns. The framework of Semantic Functions (Jackendoff, 2010) and Semantic Relations (Girju et al., 2005) are applied to extract the semantic relations. Materials and methods This study is based on a descriptive-analytical method and Construction Morphology Theory (Booij, 2010). The database included approximately 450 two-constituent exocentric non-verbal compound nouns collected from main entries and sub-entries of Farhang Moɑser: Contemporary Persian Dictionary (1381). In addition, words were randomly collected from media, daily conversations and using the internet search engines. According to the applied theoretical framework, Booij (2005) maintains that a compound is a noun which is comprised of at least two lexemes, with no functional morpheme. Therefore, we refused to include compound nouns with grammatical lexemes. The data were analyzed in two phases. Firstly, the words were categorized concerning the semantic relations between the semantic head and inner constituents. Secondly, semantic relation types were investigated and a specific schema was presented for each group. The data were then classified according to semantic heads and schemas in order to present patterns for new word formation. Discussion and conclusions The analysis of the two-constituent exocentric non-verbal compound nouns in Construction Morphology Theory (Booij, 2010) suggested 9 semantic relations between the semantic head and the inner constituents of the noun compounds. These semantic relations included “HAVING, PART-WHOLE, CAUSE, PLACE, TIME, ARGUMENT SCHEMA, PROTECTION, PURPOSE and SIMILARITY”. Besides, 11 semantic relations between the inner constituents were recognized, including “HAVING, PART-WHOLE, PLACE, TIME, ARGUMENT SCHEMA, PROTECTION, PURPOSE, ATTRIBUTE-HOLDER, SIMILARITY, MEASURE and TOPIC”. Based on the derived constructional schemas, 19 patterns were introduced to produce the nouns of "instrument, plant, animal, location, food, part of sth, job, profession, social status, job hierarchy, disease, material, sign, rhythm of a music/poem, geometric shape, object, prayer, game". According to Construction Morphology, (2010) it is the construction that specifies semantic heads and semantic relations between the semantic head and inner constituents not the compound constituents. Booij (2010, 36-38) believes that the semantics of exocentric compounds is a holistic property, like the »agent/instrument« sense in the French word “coupe-onge” meaning “nail clipper”. Besides, the results revealed that a continuum of abstraction can be assumed for the schemas dominating exocentric nonverbal noun compounds. General schemas, in which both slots are empty, have the highest degree of abstractions. If one slot is filled, the schema is known as partially-lexically-filled schemas and has lower degree of abstraction. Among datas, there were some cases in which a schema can produce a word with seemingly two different meanings like «گوش فیل» (/guʃfil/) generated by the general schema »[[X]Ni [Y]Nj]Nk ↔ [ENTITY SIMILAR to parti of animalj] «refering to a plant and a pastry. In these cases, it was assumed that the general schema was divided into two subschemas. We also came to cases where words apparently similar to each other were produced by different schemas. According to Rainer (2005) these similar words with different meanings should be called homonyms. It is worth noting that according to Booij (2010) , these words are not subject to constructional polysemy. The derived data were then classified according to semantic heads and schemas in order to present patterns for new word formation. Moreover, the conclusions are helpful to determine the definitions of words and semantic domains in lexicography. The following table presents some sample schemas, derived from the database to make animal names. By paring form and meaning in constructions, Construction Morphology helps to investigate compound nouns in terms of both structure and meaning, and not just structure or meaning. Schemas of naming animals Schemas example [[X]Numi [pɑ]N]Nk ↔ [ANIMAL HAVING legs with AMOUNTi]k هزارپا (/hezɑrpɑ/) [[X]Ai [Y]Nj]Nk ↔ [ANIMAL HAVING thingj with PROPERTYi]k سیاهگوش (siyɑhguʃ/) [[X]Ni [sorx]A]Nk ↔ [ANIMAL HAVING parti of body with (RED) PROPERTY]k سینهسرخ (/sinesorx/) [[X]Ni [Y]Nj]Nk ↔ [ANIMAL HAVING partj of body SIMILAR to thingi]k آلوسر (/ɑlusar/) [[X]Ni [Y]Nj]Nk ↔ [ANIMAL HAVING thingi in LOCATIONj]k خارتن (/xɑrtan/) [[xar]N [Y]Ni]Nk ↔ [ANIMAL HAVING parti of body with (BIG) PROPERTY]k خرگوش (xarguʃ/)
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