LINGUIST List 10.1233

Sat Aug 21 1999

Qs: Linking morphemes in Dutch compounds

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  • Andrea Krott, Linking elements in compounds

    Message 1: Linking elements in compounds

     Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 17:45:29 +0200 (MET DST)
    From: Andrea Krott <Andrea.Krottmpi.nl>
    Subject: Linking elements in compounds


    I am working on linking morphemes in Dutch nominal compounds and I am searching for other languages revealing a similar phenomenon. The only languages I know about are Dutch, German, and Danish.

    Here is a description of what linking morphemes in Dutch are: There are two main linking morphemes in Dutch: -s- and -en-. They appear between the two constituents of a nominal compound.

    examples:

    boekenkast (standard orthography) boek-en-kast (morpheme breakdown) book-LINK-shelf "book shelf"

    regeringsvorm (standard orthography) regering-s-vorm (morpheme breakdown) government-LINK-type 'type of government'

    Historically, linking morphemes in Dutch are old genitive singular suffixes or nominative plural suffixes. Syncronically, the linking -s- often cannot be interpreted as a plural or genitive suffix of the first constituent (e.g., 'regerings' is not the correct plural form for 'regering'). It is also questionable whether the -s- still bares any semantic information. On the other hand, the linking -en- only occurs after nouns which syncronically form their plural with -en, and there is evidence that -en- still bares the plural meaning.

    In Dutch linking morphemes are productively used in novel compounds. People mostly agree on which linking morpheme to use in a novel compound. Although, they have a flexible sense of what is "correct" (unlike inflectional morphology).

    I would be thankful for any information about any language with any kind of linking elements in compounds (not only in nominal compounds).

    Andrea __________________________________________

    Andrea Krott M.A.

    Interfaculty Research Unit for Language and Speech & Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Wundtlaan 1 PB 310, 6500 AH Nijmegen The Netherlands

    E-mail: akrottmpi.nl