French VN lexemes: morphological compounding in HPSG

Résumé En

Although the original framework of HPSG is mostly compatible with independent theoretical claims or analyses in lexeme base morphology (Anderson 1992, Aronoff & Fudeman 2004, Beard 1995, Booij 2005, Carstairs-McCarthy 1992, Fradin 2003, Haspelmath 2002, Matthews 1991, Plag 2003, for example), so far, most morphological research in morphology has been done on inflexional phenomena (Orgun & Inkelas 2002, Bonami & Boyé 2006), and few on derivational morphology has been addressed by only a few (Koenig 1999, Riehemann 1998). Yet, we believe it is worth investigating how the formal and theoretical apparatus of HPSG deals with capturing multilevel constraints that apply in the lexeme formation of French Verb-Noun nominal compounds in French (, such as as GRILLE-PAIN, (lit. grill-bread, ‘toaster'), PERCE-OREILLE, (lit. pierce-ear, ‘earwig'), TOURNEVIS, (lit. turn-screw, ‘screwdriver'), or LÈCHEVITRINE, (lit. lick-window, ‘window-shopping'), can be captured by the formal and theoretical apparatus of HPSG. Contrary to the view what has often expressed in the pastbeen said, we argue that VN lexemes formation comes under is subject to morphological constraints rather than to but not under syntactic mechanisms. Our analysis integrates VN lexemes into a multiple-dimensional typed- hierarchy of lexemes and provides an account for of semantic generalizations involved in different types of lexeme formation (compounding, derivation, and conversion).