Direct speech compounds: Evoking socio-cultural scenarios through fictive interaction

Abstract

This paper examines English nominal compounds whose modifier could serve as a self-sufficient discourse unit (e.g. "Hi honey, I'm home happiness," " 'not happy, money back' guarantee"). The scant literature on the construction treats such modifiers as embedded sentences, clauses, or phrases. Drawing on a collection of over 7,000 different examples from written as well as oral English of various dialects and registers, we suggest that regardless of their internal syntax, they always constitute (pieces of) fictive conversational turns. They are structured by the conversation frame as they are based on our everyday experience with situated communication. Hence, they constitute instances of fictive interaction (Pascual 2002). The direct speech element metonymically sets up a significant and easily knowable or recognizable scenario, which serves as a reference point for subcategorizing the denotative potential of the head noun. Making use of encyclopedic and episodic knowledge, direct speech compounds serve to name subjective semantic categories. They are catchy and involving, as they construct a sense of immediacy through (re)enactment. We claim their use to be motivated by the cultural model that relates saying, believing and the truth (Sweetser 1993(Sweetser [1987) as well as the understanding of talk-in-interaction as the most concrete indication of the utterer's mental, emotional and behavioral world (cf. Cicourel 1973).

Echolalia as communicative strategy

“…Examples of this category represent formulae associated with given everyday social exchanges. These are similar to some examples of fictive interaction used in ordinary conversation, such as the nominal compounds "Good night kiss", "Hi honey, I'm home happiness", or "'How-are-you-fine-.thank-youand-you-fine-thank-you' syndrome" (Pascual et al 2013).…”

“…This enables the use of the ritualized expression "I do", for instance, as the first element of a compound to refer to entities, events, or concepts related to the wedding day or the state of being married (e.g. "I do ring", "I do kiss", "I do fear", Pascual et al 2013).…”

Viewpointed morphology: A unified account of Spanish verb-complement compounds as fictive interaction structures

“…person, tense, and/or mood), thus resembling (elliptic) clauses or sentences (e.g. Pascual 2006Pascual , 2014Pascual, Królak & Janssen 2013). Such complex nominal compounds are productive and relatively frequent in Germanic languages, compound formation in general constituting 'without doubt the most productive morphological process' in languages like Dutch (Don 2009: 583).…”

Fictive interaction and the nature of linguistic meaning

“…", she confirms, and, finally, the seller redresses her dissatisfaction by offering her money back. This entire conversation, only part of which is spelled out, modifies the noun "guarantee" and establishes a category, a kind of purchase arrangement (Pascual, Królak and Janssen 2013). Referring to this kind of guarantee and thinking of it thus involves intersubjectivity on the conceptual level.…”

“…Alas, if we probe a bit further into the fictive interaction field, we will find a class of examples with which even this defense strategy fails. I specifically refer to direct speech compounds (Pascual, Królak, & Janssen 2013;Pascual 2014, pp. 59-81), as seen in (2): (2) a.…”