Abstract EN:

The analysis of a compound noun with juxtaposed elements raises problems, particularly concerning the explicit description of the syntactic and semantic relation between the elements of the compound noun. In his transformational approach, Robert Lees (1963, chap. IV) proposes the creation of a minimal source-sentence, from which the compound noun would be derived through successive transformations, but his method is easily applicable only when the syntactic and semantic relation is simple; its application proves to be difficult when the relation becomes complicated, and quite impossible when change of meaning comes into play. In the lexicographic approach, the traditional definition, which is a semantically equivalent periphrasis, is mainly intended to give the meaning of the compound noun. Therefore it gives at best indirect precision on the syntactic and semantic relation between the elements. However the non- limited number of the components of a definition might allow one to analyse and describe explicitly a complex syntactic and semantic relation, even if change of meaning comes into play. A tentative synthesis of the two approaches makes it possible to imagine the creation of an explanatory text which would combine the presentation of the meaning with that of the syntactic and semantic relation. The analysis of a corpus of 8318 compound nouns that have been formed since 1933 (listed from supplements III and IV of the o. E. D. ) and classified in types, enables one to distinguish between various patterns.