Unpacking noun-noun compounds: Interpreting novel and conventional foodnames in isolation and on food labels
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Viktor Smith
,
Daniel Barratt
Abstract
In two complementary experiments we took an integrated approach to a set of tightly interwoven, yet rarely combined questions concerning the spontaneous interpretation of novel (unfamiliar) noun-noun compounds (NNCs) when encountered in isolation, and possible (re)interpretations of novel as well as conventional (familiar) NNCs when encountered in verbo-visual context. To enhance ecological validity, we mirrored our research questions in real-life concerns on the naming of commercial food products and the risk of consumers being misled by the names that producers give to them, focusing on the Danish food market and using Danish NNCs. Specifically, we addressed a highly productive type of compound food names where the modifier denotes a geographical entity and the head denotes a type of food, e.g. Hawaii pizza. Our findings contribute new evidence to central issues of (cognitive) linguistic theory concerning the relations between semantics and pragmatics, as well as system and usage, and psycholinguistic issues concerning the processing of NNCs. New insights and methodological tools are also provided for supporting future best practices in the field of food naming and labelling.
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The Mandarin LVS construction: Verb lexical semantics and grammatical aspect
- Individual differences in the interpretation of ambiguous statements about time
- The processing of verb-argument constructions is sensitive to form, function, frequency, contingency and prototypicality
- Unpacking noun-noun compounds: Interpreting novel and conventional foodnames in isolation and on food labels
- Book Review
- Book Review
- Book Review
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- The Mandarin LVS construction: Verb lexical semantics and grammatical aspect
- Individual differences in the interpretation of ambiguous statements about time
- The processing of verb-argument constructions is sensitive to form, function, frequency, contingency and prototypicality
- Unpacking noun-noun compounds: Interpreting novel and conventional foodnames in isolation and on food labels
- Book Review
- Book Review
- Book Review
