Found:
No-Phrase Constraint
MORPHOLOGY: constraint proposed by Botha (1983) which says that
root compounds may not contain syntactic phrases. This constraint accounts for the unacceptability of compounds
such as *black-as-coal bird and *slightly-used-car salesman. However, there are many counterexamples, the first one being the constraint itself. Other counterexamples are car-of-the-month election and (the)
why-does-it-always-happen-to-me complaint. Compounds having the structure [XP + N] are fully productive in Dutch: oudemannenhuis 'old men's home', onderwatergedeelte 'submerged part' (Lit. 'under water part'), and God-is-dood-these 'God-is-dead thesis'.
LIT. | Botha, R. (1983) Hoeksema J. (1985) Lieber, R. (1988) |