A Study Of English And Chinese N+N Compounds Based On Figure/ground Segregation

N+N compounds are productive in both English and Chinese languages. The combination reflects not only clarity in form and expression, but also the complicated process of meaning construction. In this thesis, four types of conceptual combination of N+N compounds—relational, property-based, conjunctive, and blended combinations, are introduced. In particular, we will examine the Chinese N+N compounds with their English counterparts as a reference since English N+N compounds have been investigated comprehensively with the development of cognitive science. In this paper, the principle of Figure/ground segregation is employed to explore the N+N compounds in both English and Chinese languages. It is believed that the structure of language reflects the cognitive structure of the mind. There will always be a figure that can lead the addressee to capture the focus of meaning that an addresser presupposes in his use of compound nouns in communication. The last point that should be stressed is that semantic truth value is not the only factor that affects the production and understanding of conceptual combination, non-semantic factors such as disyllabic development or cultural factors are sometimes involved in the compounding process of Chinese conjunctives.