Telic features in the semantics of English nominal compounds

Vitaly V. Tur

Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus

Abstract

The paper presents the results of research on the semantic combinability of constituents of English nominal compounds. In the present study we proceed from the assumption that the generation of a compound occurs due to the actualization of some parts of the meaning of its constituents which are not always given explicitly in the surface grammar. In the course of the research conceptual analysis of the compounds has been done for the purpose of finding out the cases of profiling implicit information about the denoted objects that specifies their telic roles (their functions, the ways they may typically act or be affected, the purposes they may have in performing an act, and so on). The study results allow the argument that the system of nominal compounds has a set of principles and regularities in profiling telic features in the semantics of their constituents. The principles that have been determined in the course of the study find their description in the paper we present.

Keywords:

compositional semantics, nominal compounds, qualia structure, telic role