Acknowledgements - 7 -- Table of Contents - 9 -- 1 Introduction -13 -- 1.1 Aims - 14 -- 1.2 Overview of the research - 14 -- 2 Noun Phrase Structure - 17 -- 2.1 Definition, function and structural patterns of noun phrases -18 -- 2.1.1 Definition of noun phrases -18 -- 2.1.2 Noun phrases and nominals - 23 -- 2.1.3 Structural patterns - 24 -- 2.2 Premodification - 30 -- 2.2.1 Component parts of premodification - 30 -- 2.2.2 Order of premodifiers - 31 -- 2.2.3 Possible combinations - 33 -- 2.3 The role of premodification as opposedto postmodification - 36 -- 2.3.1 Previous studies - 36 -- 2.3.2 Lack of explicitness and context information - 37 -- 2.3.3 The pragmatic function of premodification - 40 -- 2.4 Summary and concluding remarks - 42 -- 3 Nominal Modifiers: Definition and Characteristics - 45 -- 3.1 Nominal modifiers - 45 -- 3.1.1 Nouns as modifiers - 46 -- 3.1.2 The variability of stress patterns - 49 -- 3.1.3 Morphological properties of nouns as modifiers - 53 -- 3.1.4 Suggested reasons for the use of N+N sequences - 56 -- 3.1.4.1 Compactness - 56 -- 3.1.4.2 Availability - 57 -- 3.1.4.3 Predictability - 58 -- 3.2 Earlier analyses of N+N structures - 59 -- 3.3 Ambiguity in N+N sequences - 67 -- 3.3.1 Syntactic ambiguity - 68 -- 3.3.2 Semantic ambiguity - 70 -- 3.3.3 Categorial ambiguity: gradience andconversion in N+N structures - 74 -- 3.4 The boundary between syntax and morphology - 78 -- 3.4.1 Criteria for the definition of the statusof N+N structures - 80 -- 3.4.2 The process of acquisition of new lexicon:institutionalisation and lexicalisation - 88 -- 3.4.2.1 Compounding and compounds - 88 -- 3.4.2.2 Institutionalisation and lexicalisation - 96 -- 3.4.3 Concluding remarks. Can N+N structuresbe considered a method of word formation? -100.

3.5 Nominal modifiers versus other kinds of modificationwithin the noun phrase (genitive phrases, adjectives,prepositional phrases, and relative clauses) -102 -- 3.5.2 The postmodifying position -106 -- 3.6 Summary and concluding remarks -108 -- 4 Corpus Analysis - 111 -- 4.1 A hypothesis around four variables - 112 -- 4.1.1 Text category - 113 -- 4.1.2 Speech community - 119 -- 4.1.3 Time period - 119 -- 4.1.4 Mode -120 -- 4.2 The corpus -120 -- 4.2.1 The corpora of written English -121 -- 4.2.2 The corpora of spoken English -122 -- 4.2.3 Text sampling -126 -- 4.2.4 Methodology -134 -- 4.3 Overview of the data -137 -- 4.3.1 Text category -140 -- 4.3.2 Speech community -140 -- 4.3.3 Time period -144 -- 4.3.4 Mode -145 -- 4.4 N+N structures and lexicalisation -146 -- 4.4.1 Criteria for the classification of lexicalisedand non-lexicalised N+N structures -147 -- 4.4.2 General results -151 -- 4.4.3 Text category -151 -- 4.4.4 Speech community -152 -- 4.4.5 Time period -154 -- 4.4.6 Mode -156 -- 4.4.7 Summary -158 -- 4.5 General discussion -160 -- 5 Summary and Conclusions -173 -- Appendices -185 -- References -205 -- Index -215.