Argument-linking Principle

In Lieber (1983), Argument-linking Principle is proposed as a principle that intended to account for the interpretation of synthetic compounds.

Comments

This principle accounts for the fact that the interpretation of the non-head in synthetic compounds such as truck driver and hand-woven - which are assumed to have the morphological structures [[[truck] [drive]] er] and [[[hand] [weave]] en] - is quite restricted. In these synthetic compounds, the non-heads truck and hand must be interpreted as the internal argument of drive, or the argument of weave, respectively.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

Lieber, R. 1983. Argument Linking and Compounds in English. Linguistic Inquiry 14:2, 251-285. Cambridge: MIT Press.