Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/34540

It is known that Ainu has two types of compound noun constructions: the “modifying construction” and the “pseudo-modifying construction”. However, the term “modifying construction” from the outset contradicts the so-called “syntactic atomicity”of words, one of the most basic principles of word formation in general linguistic terms. Here, I suggest that among the compound nouns with the modifying construction, some are compound nouns exceptional in their construction, formed, as it were, directly from phrases (i.e. “phrase-word” by Bloomfield), while others are words containing a kind of verbal noun converted from the corresponding intransitive verb, formed, in turn, through “object-incorporation”. This assumption is supported by the fact that the number of compound nouns with the modifying construction is not so large in the lexicon as a whole (so, exceptional and marginal)and also supported by the fact that examples of the compound nouns with the modifying constituent “subject＋transitive verb” are extremely few: the pattern “subject＋transitive verb”is usually not possible as an intransitive verb with noun incorporation in Ainu, and therefore cannot be used as a verbal noun of the first member of a compound noun.