ON THE SEMANTICS OF SOME ENGLISH NOMINAL COMPOUNDS DENOTING OCCUPATIONS IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Abstract

The semantics of linguistic expressions is frequently explained through conceptual/semantic frames. The word formation process involved in the creation of nominal compounds can be viewed as one guided by contiguous conceptual relations in the semantic frame of the head and between the semantic frames of the compound constituent elements. This paper will attempt to examine the relations underlying the emergence of modifiers in some English nominal compounds denoting occupations in the hospitality industry and the different groups of compounds formed thereby. These groups will be described in terms of prototypical contiguities, semantic niches and abstract schemas.