Naslov
Semantics and syntax of English endocentric and exocentric compounds: a corpus-based approach

Autori
Burilo, Bernarda

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Ocjenski radovi, diplomski rad, diplomski

Fakultet
Filozofski fakultet

Mjesto
Zagreb

Datum
09.10

Godina
2013

Stranica
122

Mentor
Stanojević, Mateusz-Milan

Ključne riječi
exocentric compounds; English; cognitive linguistics; metaphor; metonymy

Sažetak
There are numerous classifications of compounds, and one of the more recent ones (Scalise and Bisetto 2009) distinguishes endocentric and exocentric compounds (on three different levels). There have been claims in traditional literature that endocentric compounds prevail in English, with exocentric compounds being the exception. Endocentric compounds, such as babymother consist of two (or more) component parts and the second component representing the head element is a specification of its head element. In the example above, the concept mother is specified. In contrast, exocentric compounds are “non-headed”. In an example such as loudmouth, which refers to someone who talks a lot in an unpleasant way, the meaning of the compound is different from that of its head: the noun mouth does not correspond to the overall meaning of the compound ; it is not one’s mouth that is loud, but the entire person. The aim of this paper is to reinforce Réka Benczes’ (2004) claim that exocentric compounds are in fact similar to endocentric compounds, and that their difference is mostly in creativity rather than anything else. More specifically, based on a sample of compounds taken from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, we will show that the mechanisms which motivate the exocentric compounds are those of metaphor and metonymy, and that they are transparent rather than opaque. The paper is based on an analysis of person-based exocentric compound expressions referring to different types of people from a corpus consisting of 81 examples. Based on a cognitive linguistic analysis of their motivation, they have been proven to be as transparent and analyzable as endocentric compound expressions.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

POVEZANOST RADA