Windmills, Nizaa and the typology of binominal compounds

Abstract

Data from the African language Nizaa can shed light on two central issues in the typology of compounding: the position of the compound head, and the classification of compounds. The Nizaa data prompt a revision of two of the findings of the Morbo/Comp project. Firstly, the claim that there is a canonical position for the head in each compound type in a given language requires a definition of ‘compound type’ that includes the semantic relation as well as the input and output categories. Secondly, an understanding of semantic relations based on Cognitive Grammar suggests a principled way of distinguishing between “subordinate” and “attributive” compounds. This chapter has been published in Word-formation across languages. © Cambridge Scholars Publishing.