Abstract

Researches in Linguistics /5A Semantic Analysis of Noun-Noun Compounds in PersianGh. KarimiDoustanUniversity of TehranA.VahidUniversity of TehranAbstractsIn this article, the noun-noun compounds collected from the Mo’in dictionary are investigatedand 11 basic semantic functions (classes) are determined for them. The theoretical frameworkof this study is conceptual semantics (the semantic theory of the parallel architecture ofgrammar). In order to identify the semantic structure of these compounds, we shoulddetermine the semantic relationship between two nouns and find the semantic head of thecompound. In this analysis, one noun can be an argument of the other noun or both of nounscan be an argument of another semantic function. This semantic function can be copied fromthe lexical entry of one noun or be one of basic semantic functions. In more complexsituations, basic semantic functions can combine with each other. Therefore, a generativesystem is shaped, which can produce unlimited semantic relations between two nouns.Key wordsnoun-noun compounds: conceptual semantics, the parallel architecture of grammar, semantic function, gh5karimi@ut.ac.ir anisvahid@yahoo.com