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Article published In:
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 34:2 (2021) ► pp.402–434

Multi-word term variation

Prepositional and adjectival complex nominals in Spanish

ORCID logo | University of Granada
ORCID logo | University of Granada

Complex nominals (CNs) are frequently found in specialized discourse in all languages, since they are a productive method of creating terms by combining existing lexical units. In Spanish, a conceptual combination may often be rendered with a prepositional CN (PCN) or an equivalent adjectival CN (ACN), e.g., demanda de electricidad vs. demanda eléctrica [electricity demand]. Adjectives in ACNs – usually derived from nouns – are known as ‘relational adjectives’ because they encode semantic relations with other concepts. With recent exceptions, research has focused on the underlying semantic relations in CNs. In natural language processing, several works have dealt with the automatic detection of relation adjectives in Romance and Germanic languages. However, there is no discourse studies of these CNs, to our knowledge, for the goal of establishing writer recommendations. This study analyzed the co-text of equivalent PCNs and ACNs to identify factors governing the use of a certain form. EcoLexicon ES, a corpus of Spanish environmental specialized texts, was used to extract 6 relational adjectives and, subsequently, a set of 12 pairs of equivalent CNs. Their behavior in co-text was analyzed by querying EcoLexicon ES and a general language corpus with 20 expressions in CQP-syntax. Our results showed that immediate linguistic co-text determined the preference for a particular structure. Based on these findings, we provide writing guidelines to assist in the production of CNs.

Keywords: multi-word term, complex nominal, denominative variation, relational adjective, co-text, specialized language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Complex nominals in specialized texts
    • 2.2Variation in complex nominals
  • 3.Materials and methods
    • 3.1Materials
      • 3.1.1The EcoLexicon Spanish corpus
      • 3.1.2The Spanish Web corpus 2018 (esTenTen18)
      • 3.1.3Sketch Engine and CQL
    • 3.2Methods
      • 3.2.1Extraction of a list of equivalent adjectival and prepositional complex nominals
      • 3.2.2Co-textual and internal analysis
        • 3.2.2.1Extraction of complex nominals modified by adjectives
        • 3.2.2.2Extraction of complex nominals postmodified by prepositional phrases
        • 3.2.2.3Extraction of complex nominals as prepositional modifiers
        • 3.2.2.4Extraction of complex nominals coordinated with other complex nominals
        • 3.2.2.5Extraction of other internal elements
      • 3.2.3Analysis of preference for adjectival or prepositional complex nominals with esTenTen18
  • 4.Variation in complex nominals: Adjectival modification vs. prepositional modification
    • 4.1General trends in EcoLexicon ES
    • 4.2Modification by additional adjectives and prepositional phrases
      • 4.2.1Modification of CNs by additional adjectives
      • 4.2.2Modification of CNs by additional prepositional phrases
      • 4.2.3Semantic-constrained preference for interpositional or postpositional modification
      • 4.2.4Dependency analysis
    • 4.3Complex nominals as postpositional modifiers
    • 4.4Coordination with other complex nominals
    • 4.5Sentence length and type
  • 5.Recommendations of use
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.19012.cab
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