Constituent polysemy and interpretational diversity in attested English novel compounds

Schäfer, Martin and Bell, Melanie J. (2020) Constituent polysemy and interpretational diversity in attested English novel compounds. Mental Lexicon, 15 (1). pp. 42-61. ISSN 1871-1375

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Abstract

We explore variation in the interpretation of attested novel compound nouns in English, especially the contribution of constituent polysemy to this diversity. Our results show that effects of polysemy are pervasive in compound interpretation, contributing both to interpretational diversity and to perceived difficulty of interpretation. The higher the uncertainty about the concept represented by the head noun, based on existing compounds with that head, the greater the diversity of interpretations across speakers and the more difficult, on average, they find it to come up with a meaning.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	novel compound, compound interpretation, compound noun, constituent family, constituent polysemy
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic User
Depositing User:	Symplectic User
Date Deposited:	20 Aug 2020 08:58
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2022 16:25
URI:	https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/705769

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