The conceptual motivation of bahuvrihi compounds in English and Spanish

This chapter investigates a representative sample of English and Spanish bahuvrihi compounds (BCs). The main thesis is that, although BCs are motivated by the overriding metonymy characteristic property for category, the property itself can be conceptualized “literally” (as in humpback or dos piezas), metonymically (as in acidhead or simpecado), or metaphtonymically, with two major types and several subtypes (fathead, cabeza cuadrada, featherweight, caradura). The analysis is followed by a brief discussion of the connection between the semantics of BCs and their grammatical and prosodic form, and by some remarks on the contrasts between the two languages.