On the lexical semantics of compounds

In this chapter I identify a type of compounding in English which I call non-affixal (de)verbal compounds in which one element of the compound is a noun and the other either a verb (attack dog) or a noun derived from a verb (dog attack). Unlike synthetic and root compounds in English, this type of compound has received very little attention, although it exhibits interesting properties. I illustrate that unlike typical synthetic compounds, non-affixal (de)verbal compounds show a propensity for subject-oriented interpretations, and I argue that this propensity follows from an analysis based within the framework of Lieber (2004, 2006, 2009).