Drawing on a historical text corpus (15001710), this study shows how linked N+N-compounds develop and alter existing word formation patterns. The New High German love of compounds is directly attributable to these changes in productivity. Of particular interest is the non-paradigmatic s-compound. A proposed (transient) function of the s-compound results in the classification of the new type within existing models of language change.

Autorentext

Kristin Kopf, University of Münster, Germany.