A Study on the Form Class, Prosody, and Semantics of Modern Chinese clothing Compounds

Abstract

This paper examines modern Chinese clothing compound words within the framework of Generative Lexicon Theory, focusing on their prosodic mode, grammatical mode, and the qualia role. The study finds that the N+N form class and 1+1 prosodic pattern are dominant, reflecting linguistic economy, where functional verbs are often implicit, and modifiers are typically monosyllabic. Semantically, the pattern preference follows XTelic+N > XFormal+N > XConstitutive+N, which can indirectly encode the inherent functional meaning of clothing items, either by foregrounding the situational context of use or by highlighting the materials that enable such function. The paper also proposes a referential semantic template by incorporating implicit predicates within these compounds.