Norwegian Compounds and Corresponding Constructions in Russian: The Case of Nouns with Deverbal Heads

Abstract

This article presents a corpus study of Norwegian compounds with deverbal heads (e.g., papirproduksjon ‘paper production’ from produsere ‘produce’) and corresponding constructions in Russian, such as the genitive (proizvodstvo bumagi ‘paper production’), the adjective (bumažnoe proizvodstvo ‘paper production’), the preposition (priglašenie na užin ‘dinner invitation’), and compound constructions (zemlevladelec ‘landowner’). Test of the “Non-Head Function Hypothesis” (Mezhevich 2002) indicates that the genitive construction is the most frequent equivalent of Norwegian compounds where the non-head functions as an internal argument (object). However, the adjective and compound constructions represent important competitors, while the preposition construction is more marginal. The genitive construction is shown to be particularly frequent for non-agentive nouns. A number of generalizations about the use of compounds are proposed, and it is argued that the adjective construction involves “typification,” which is an example of the general cognitive process “construal” (Langacker 2008). Finally, an “Extended Non-Head Function Hypothesis” is proposed, according to which the choice of a Russian construction depends on the closeness of the relation between head and non-head of the Norwegian compound. The closer the relation, the more likely is the use of the genitive. The more distant the relation, the more likely is the use of the adjective construction.