Linguist Forum

Specializations => Morphosyntax => Topic started by: Natalia on July 28, 2017, 12:30:56 PM

Title: Question about the word structure
Post by: Natalia on July 28, 2017, 12:30:56 PM

I wonder how to understand the expressions "human rights", "animal rights", "lesbian rights" and "gay rights" in terms of their structural makeup. Are these combinations of nouns plus nouns or adjectives plus nouns? I would be really grateful for your help, as I cannot find the answer on the Internet.

Title: Re: Question about the word structure
Post by: Daniel on July 28, 2017, 01:00:40 PM

They seem to be normal A-B = "B of A" compounds to me. Not too different from "doghouse". You could also paraphrase them with "for" which might be more appropriate in certain kinds of political discourse, but of course those arguing for the rights are suggesting they are inherent and therefore belonging to ("of") rather than something optional or expected ("for").

Title: Re: Question about the word structure
Post by: Natalia on August 03, 2017, 06:45:44 AM

Thank you for your comments.