Study on Formation of French Compound Nouns

Abstract

The formation of compound nouns is complex but plays an important role in language creativity. It is always an important issue in linguistic research. This article aims to present the combing rules of French compound nouns in order to better understanding their formation process. A discussion about several problematic issues in studies of compound nouns are formed firstly: the separation of morphological compounding from syntactical compounding in definition of compounds, the distinction between derivation and compounding and the delimitation of constituents of compound nouns. Then, it provides a systematic analysis of combining constraints with different types of compound nouns. The analysis considers different natures of constraints: phonological, categorical and semantic. It permits to encounter a series of rules in formation of compound nouns and have a clear view of the compound nouns formation process.