Verb + Noun Compounds and their Verbal Constituent. A Focus on Italian with Insights into French and Spanish

Verb-noun (V+N) compounds have long been the subject of much discussion due to their special status as a highly productive word formation pattern in Romance languages. Especially in Italian, French and Spanish, different aspects about V+N compounds have been widely discussed among linguists.

This paper focuses on Italian V+N compounds (also briefly touching on French and Spanish), outlining the key aspects that have been cause for debate in the past and giving the commonly accepted interpretation of them. Furthermore, the final vowel of the verbal constituent of V+N compounds is discussed as the main existing analyses are presented and contextualized.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Theory on V+N Compounds
  • V+N Compounds in Italian
  • V+N compounds in French and Spanish
• The Verbal Constituent in Italian V+N compounds
• Conclusion

Objectives and Key Themes

This paper aims to analyze the structure and interpretation of Verb-Noun (V+N) compounds in Italian, particularly focusing on the final vowel of the verbal constituent. The paper will explore the debate surrounding the nature of these compounds, examining key theories and interpretations.

• The nature of V+N compounds in Romance languages, particularly Italian
• The exocentric structure of Italian V+N compounds
• The role of the verbal constituent and its final vowel
• The relationship between linking elements and inflectional morphemes
• Different theoretical perspectives on the interpretation of V+N compounds

Chapter Summaries

• The introduction provides an overview of V+N compounds in Romance languages, highlighting their productivity and key aspects of research.
• The chapter on theory explores the classification of V+N compounds in Italian, emphasizing their exocentric nature and the arguments for this interpretation. It also briefly discusses V+N compounds in French and Spanish.

Keywords

This paper focuses on the key topics of V+N compounds in Italian, including exocentric compounds, verbal constituent, final vowel, linking elements, inflectional morphemes, and theoretical interpretations of word formation.

Details

• College: Ruhr-University of Bochum (BA Linguistics)
• Course: Wordformation Processes
• Grade: 1,0
• Author: Stella Bremer (Author)
• Publication Year: 2018
• Pages: 19
• Catalog Number: V1440841
• ISBN (eBook): 9783964873828
• ISBN (Book): 9783964873835
• Language: English
• Tags: compound nouns morphology