Verb + Noun Function-Describing Compounds

In this study we examine a class of exocentric nominal compounds (i.e. compounds with an unexpressed noun head) in Spanish, French, and Chinese. This class consists of nominal compounds formed by a verb plus a noun complement, usually though not necessarily a direct object, which combine to describe a function or characteristic of a new whole. In the three languages studied here, compounds of this type tend to fall into three semantic groups: (1) utilitarian objects, such as ‘paperweights ’ and ‘armrests’, which are perhaps best and most easily described by their functions; (2) specialized professions, like ‘drivers ’ and ‘switchmen’; plus a subcategory of often pejorative, tongue-in-cheek descriptions of certain types of people, like ‘wet blankets ’ and ‘quack dentists’; and (3) plants and animals. The fact that languages in such diverse families as Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan – selectively comparing, however, only SVO languages – exhibit the same type of compound, and use it to indicate extremely similar referents, suggests that certain objects with a prominent function or peculiar characteristic (e.g. an umbrella, the main function of which is to protect one from the rain) are more likely than words not of this type to be expressed in a Verb + Noun exocentric compound, in languages in which this compound type commonly occurs. This is also true of profession names, in which function is an outstanding element, as well as of certain types of people, who are identified chiefly by a particular characteristic (such as being a ‘fight-picker’), and plants and animals possessing some salient feature. A similar compound type occurs in Burmese and Persian, both SOV languages, but in an inverted Noun + Verb format, bearing out Comrie’s (1989) observation that the syntax of a language is reflected in its morphology