1 Chapter 1. Introduction: status and definition of compounding ...

The first reason concerns the ‗creativity within the productivity constraints‘ principle.
This principle suggests that a coiner need not make use of the most productive WF rule if other
options are available. Furthermore, while the coiner forms a new naming unit with a single
general meaning, the number of possible compatibility-based combinations available to the
interpreter usually abounds.
The second reason concerns the crucial difference that any treatment of the predictability-
productivity relation must take into account. While predictability concerns the meanings of
naming units, productivity usually pertains to WF Rules, on the basis of which new naming units
are generated. By implication, while productivity is about the general, predictability is about the
individual.
Let us illustrate the point with one of my sample compounds. In the case of baby book,
the predictable readings ‗a book about babies and how to take care of them‘ and ‗a book with
photos of one‘s baby(ies)/album; with records of baby‘s development (first steps, first word,…)‘
fall within one and the same conceptual category of Patients, here represented by the semantic
structure of [Stative (=Theme) – (State) – Patient]. The latter, necessarily being a generalization,
cannot discern the subtle, but vital, difference between these two distinct readings proposed for
baby book by my informants.
Similarly, the predictable readings for flower hat, ‗a hat with flowers on it‘ and ‗a hat
made of flowers‘, belong to a productive WF rule represented by the semantic structure [Stative
(=Material) – (State) – Patient]. The predictable readings of game wheel, ‗a wheel for playing
roulette and casino games; a wheel in the Wheel of Fortune type games‘ and ‗a wheel which is
a part of a game equipment, a wheel with which a game is played‘, belong to a productive WF
rule represented by the semantic structure of ‗Process – Instrument‘.
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