Are Verb-Noun Compounds Syntactically or Lexically Related to Verb Phrases?

Abstract This paper explores the links between Spanish verb-noun (VN) compounds and verb phrases (VPs) (limpiabotas lit. ‘clean+boots’ ‘shoe shine’/limpiar botas ‘to clean boots’), particularly between those with idiomatic meaning (metepatas lit. ‘put+paws’ ‘bungler’/meter la pata lit. ‘put the paw’ ‘to put your foot in it’). I discuss the theoretical implications of different accounts of the phrase-compound divide, namely, whether or not compounds are created by rules of a different nature than those for phrases (lexicalist vs. neoconstructionist approaches), and whether or not VN compounds can be derived from phrases through applying any kind of transformation. I show that VN compounds share key properties with VPs which could justify their treatment as syntactic objects. By contrast, the VN compound pattern presents unique restrictions that challenge the empirical adequacy of derivational approaches, which are likely to overgenerate ill-formed compounds from existing phrases. Once stored as lexical objects, however, VN compounds and VP idioms may evidence strong semantic connections as illustrated by the pair metepatas/meter la pata, which suggests the need to carefully examine lexical associations to ensure a balanced understanding of the phrase-compound divide.