Sample	  of	  Existing	  N+V=N	  Compounds	  in	  Japanese	  Kumiko	  Nakamura	  	  	  Akiko	  Takemura	  	  	  Timothy	  J.	  Vance	  This	   small	   database	   is	   the	   result	   of	   an	   effort	   to	   collect	   a	   representative	   sample	   of	   existing	  compounds	   of	   the	   form	   N+V=N,	   i.e.,	   compounds	   that	   are	   nouns	   and	   consist	   of	   a	   noun	  followed	  by	  the	  stem	  form	  (ren’yō-­‐kei)	  of	  a	  verb.	  A	  typical	  example	  of	  such	  a	  compound	  is	  te+fuki	  手拭き	  ‘hand	  towel’,	  which	  is	  based	  on	  the	  noun	  te	  ‘hand’	  and	  the	  verb	  fuk-­‐u	  ‘wipe’.	  
The	   goal	   was	   to	   provide	   a	   set	   of	   data	   relevant	   to	   a	   well-­‐known	   claim	   about	   N+V=N	   com-­‐pounds	   in	   the	   literature	   on	   rendaku,	   namely,	   that	   rendaku	   is	   the	   norm	   unless	   the	   ﬁrst	  element	   is	   semantically	   the	   direct	   object	   of	   the	   verb	   that	   the	   second	   element	   is	   based	   on	  (Okumura	  1955;	  Kindaichi	  1976;	  Sugioka	  2002,	  2005;	  Yamaguchi	  2011).	  For	  example,	  in	  the	  case	  of	  aji+tsuke	  味付け	  ‘ﬂavoring’,	  the	  accusative	  particle	  o	  in	  the	  related	  phrase	  aji	  o	  tsuke-­‐ru	   ‘to	   add	   ﬂavor’	   shows	   that	   aji	   is	   semantically	   the	   direct	   of	   object	   of	   tsuke-­‐ru.	   On	   the	   other	  hand,	   in	   the	   case	   of	   kugi+zuke	   釘付け	   ‘attaching	   with	   nails’,	   the	   instrumental	   particle	   de	   in	  the	  related	  phrase	  kugi	  de	  tsuke-­‐ru	  ‘to	  attach	  with	  nails’	  shows	  that	  kugi	  is	  not	  semantically	  the	  direct	  object	  of	  tsuke-­‐ru.	  
The	   ﬁrst	   version	   of	   this	   database	   was	   compiled	   in	   2002	   in	   order	   to	   provide	   data	   for	   a	  presentation	  (Nakamura	  and	  Vance	  2002).	  Vance	  did	  a	  systematic	  search	  using	  dictionaries,	  and	  then	  Nakamura	  reviewed	  the	  candidate	  examples	  and	  eliminated	  many	  for	  reasons	  ex-­‐plained	  below.	  Ten	  years	  later,	  Takemura	  reviewed	  the	  2002	  version,	  corrected	  the	  errors,	  and	  eliminated	  a	  few	  more	  items.	  
The	  ﬁrst	  step	  in	  the	  initial	  search	  was	  to	  make	  a	  list	  of	  all	  the	  non-­‐compound	  transitive	  verbs	  beginning	  with	  a	  voiceless	  obstruent	  that	  appear	  in	  Kazama	  1979,	  a	  reverse	  dictionary	  that	  has	  a	  separate	  section	  for	  each	  part	  of	  speech.	  There	  is	  no	  point	  in	  considering	  intransitive	  verbs,	  since	  an	  intransitive	  verb	  cannot	  take	  a	  direct	  object.	  Verbs	  that	  do	  not	  begin	  with	  a	  voiceless	   obstruent	   are	   also	   beside	   the	   point,	   since	   rendaku	   cannot	   affect	   a	   vowel	   (as	   in	  oboe-­‐ru	   ‘to	   memorize’),	   a	   sonorant	   (as	   in	   nom-­‐u	   ‘drink’),	   or	   an	   obstruent	   that	   is	   already	  voiced	  (as	  in	  das-­‐u	  ‘to	  put	  out’).	  Kazama	  1979	  includes	  many	  obsolete	  words,	  and	  the	  search	  was	   restricted	   to	   modern	   Japanese	   by	   removing	   from	   the	   list	   every	   verb	   that	   does	   not	  appear	   as	   a	   headword	   in	   Hasegawa	   et	   al.	   1986,	   a	   small	   Japanese-­‐English	   dictionary.	   Every	  verb	   that	   contains	   a	   medial	   voiced	   obstruent	   (e.g.,	   sage-­‐ru	   ‘to	   lower’)	   was	   also	   eliminated	  because	  of	  a	  well-­‐known	  constraint	  on	  rendaku	  called	  Lyman’s	  Law:	  rendaku	  almost	  never	  affects	  an	  element	  that	  already	  contains	  a	  voiced	  obstruent.	  Consequently,	  it	  would	  not	  be	  appropriate	  to	  cite	  N+V=N	  compounds	  such	  as	  ne+sage	  値下げ	  ‘price	  cut’	  (cf.	  ne	  o	  sage-­‐ru	  ‘to	  lower	  the	  price’)	  as	  support	  for	  the	  claim	  that	  compounds	  of	  this	  form	  resist	  rendaku	  when	  the	  nominal	  element	  is	  semantically	  the	  direct	  object	  of	  the	  verbal	  element.	  
The	  next	  step	  in	  the	  process	  was	  to	  take	  the	  stem	  form	  of	  each	  verb	  remaining	  on	  the	  list	  and	   ﬁnd	   every	   N+V=N	   compound	   containing	   that	   continuative	   form	   that	   appears	   in	   Kitahara	  1990,	   a	   small	   reverse	   dictionary	   of	   Japanese.	   Then,	   in	   an	   effort	   to	   restrict	   the	   sample	   to	  common	   words,	   every	   such	   compound	   that	   does	   not	   appear	   either	   as	   a	   headword	   or	   as	   a	  compound	   under	   its	   nominal	   element	   in	   Hasegawa	   et	   al.	   1986	   (the	   small	   Japanese-­‐English	  dictionary	   mentioned	   above)	   was	   discarded.	   For	   example,	   the	   verb	   kar-­‐u	   ‘to	   cut’	   has	   the	  stem	  form	  kari,	  and	  Kitahara	  1990	  lists	  eight	  N+V=N	  compounds	  containing	  this	  element,	  but	  only	   three	   of	   these	   appear	   in	   Hasegawa	   et	   al.	   1986:	   kaku+gari	   角 刈 り 	   ‘crew	   haircut’,	  kusa+kari	   草刈り	   ‘grass	   mowing’,	   and	   tora+gari	   虎刈り	   ‘uneven	   haircut’.	   Only	   these	   three	   are	  included	  in	  the	  database.	  
The	   next	   step	   was	   to	   specify	   two	   properties	   for	   each	   N+V=N	   compound	   in	   the	   sample:	  whether	  or	  not	  the	  nominal	  element	  is	  semantically	  the	  direct	  object	  of	  the	  verbal	  element	  (±DO)	   and	   whether	   or	   not	   the	   compound	   shows	   rendaku	   (±R).	   To	   illustrate	   with	   the	   three	  items	  containing	  the	  stem	  form	  of	  kar-­‐u	  ‘to	  cut’,	  kaku+gari	  ‘crew	  haircut’	  is	  –DO/+R	  (cf.	  kaku	  ‘square’),	   kusa+kari	   ‘grass	   mowing’	   is	   +DO/–R	   (cf.	   kusa	   ‘grass’),	   and	   tora+gari	   ‘uneven	  haircut’	  is	  –DO/+R	  (cf.	  tora	  ‘tiger’).	  
Several	   compounds	   had	   to	   be	   eliminated	   from	   the	   sample	   at	   this	   stage	   for	   a	   variety	   of	  reasons.	  First,	  a	  few	  verbs	  take	  alternative	  case	  frames	  that	  make	  it	  impossible	  to	  decide	  for	  sure	  whether	  the	  nominal	  element	  in	  a	  compound	  should	  be	  considered	  a	  direct	  object.	  One	  such	  verb	  is	  sas-­‐u	  ‘to	  stab’,	  which	  allows	  both	  X	  ni	  Y	  o	  sas-­‐u	  ‘to	  stab	  Y	  into	  X’	  and	  X	  o	  Y	  de	  sas-­‐u	  ‘to	  stab	  X	  with	  Y’.	  The	  upshot	  is	  that	  a	  compound	  like	  kushi+zashi	  串刺し	  ‘skewering’	  (cf.	  
kushi	  ‘skewer’)	  cannot	  be	  classiﬁed	  deﬁnitely	  as	  +DO	  or	  –DO,	  since	  it	  can	  be	  taken	  as	  either	  ‘stabbing	  (something)	  with	  a	  skewer’	  (cf.	  kushi	  de	  sas-­‐u)	  or	  as	  ‘stabbing	  a	  skewer	  (into	  some-­‐thing)’	  (cf.	  kushi	  o	  sas-­‐u).	  Compounds	  like	  kushi+zashi	  were	  simply	  deleted	  from	  the	  sample.	  
Also	   deleted	   were	   compounds	   with	   a	   second	   element	   that	   is	   related	   to	   a	   verb	   but	   is	   not	  synchronically	   verbal.	   For	   example,	   ishi+datami	   石畳	   ‘stone	   pavement’	   contains	   the	   voiced	  allomorph	   of	   tatami	   ‘mat’,	   which	   derives	   etymologically	   from	   the	   stem	   form	   of	   tatam-­‐u	  ‘fold’,	   but	   tatami	   functions	   as	   a	   simple	   noun	   in	   modern	   Japanese.	   In	   keeping	   with	   this	  rationale	   for	   eliminating	   items	   like	   ishi+datami	   from	   the	   sample,	   items	   like	   tatami+gae	  畳替え	   ‘mat	   changing’	   (cf.	   kae-­‐ru	   ‘to	   change’)	   were	   retained,	   since	   the	   nominal	   status	   of	  tatami	   puts	   tatami+gae	   in	   the	   N+V=N	   category.	   Along	   the	   same	   lines,	   items	   such	   as	  otoko+buri	   男ぶり	  ‘manliness’	  (cf.	  otoko	  ‘man’)	  were	  eliminated.	  Although	  buri	  is	  etymologi-­‐cally	  related	  to	  the	  verb	  fur-­‐u	  ‘to	  wave’,	  the	  semantic	  connection	  is	  tenuous,	  and	  the	  pattern	  N+buri	   is	   productive	   enough	   that	   Japanese	   dictionaries	   treat	   it	   under	   a	   separate	   entry	   for	  buri	  as	  a	  sufﬁx.	  
In	  a	  small	  number	  of	  cases,	  an	  item	  was	  eliminated	  because	  the	  apparent	  nominal	  element	  is	   a	   bound	   morph.	   For	   example,	   ka+barai	   過払い	   ‘excessive	   payment’	   (cf.	   hara-­‐u	   ‘to	   pay’)	  seems	  to	  have	  the	  form	  N+V=N,	  but	  Sino-­‐Japanese	  ka	  ‘excess’	  is	  bound,	  which	  means	  that	  it	  is	   not	   possible	   to	   offer	   a	   phrase	   of	   the	   form	   ka	   PARTICLE	   hara-­‐u	   in	   support	   of	   categorizing	  ka+barai	  as	  +DO	  or	  –DO.	  Also	  eliminated	  were	  two	  items	  that	  are	  too	  semantically	  opaque	  to	  allow	  conﬁdent	  categorization:	  mizu+hiki	  水引き	  ‘paper	  strings	  for	  tying	  presents’	  (cf.	  mizu	  ‘water’,	  hik-­‐u	  ‘to	  pull’)	  and	  heso+kuri	   臍繰り	  ‘secret	  savings’	  (cf.	  heso	  ‘navel’,	  kur-­‐u	  ‘to	  reel’).	  
(The	  nominal	  element	  in	  the	  second	  of	  these	  two	  examples	  is	  historically	  a	  folk	  etymology;	  the	   word	   heso	   ‘spool’	   dropped	   out	   of	   use,	   and	   speakers	   reinterpreted	   the	   ﬁrst	   element	   in	  heso+kuri	  as	  ‘navel’.)	  Many	   vocabulary	   items,	   including	   some	   N+V=N	   compounds,	   vary	   between	   a	   form	   with	  rendaku	  and	  a	  form	  without.	  For	  example,	  although	  Hasegawa	  et	  al.	  1986	  and	  Kitahara	  1990	  list	  saku+zuke	   作付け	  ‘crop	  planting’	  (cf.	  saku	  ‘crop’,	  tsuke-­‐ru	  ‘to	  attach’)	  only	  with	  rendaku,	  the	   entry	   in	   Kōjien 『広辞苑』 (a	   comprehensive	   dictionary	   of	   Japanese)	   says	   that	   both	  saku+zuke	   and	   saku+tsuke	   are	   possible.	   Since	   such	   variability	   complicates	   any	   statistical	  proﬁle	   of	   the	   database,	   examples	   listed	   both	   with	   and	   without	   rendaku	   in	   the	   4th	   edition	   of	  Kōjien	  (Shinmura	  1991)	  were	  simply	  deleted.	  
After	   all	   these	   adjustments,	   the	   sample	   contained	   446	   N+V=N	   items	   in	   which	   the	   verbal	  element	  is	  susceptible	  to	  rendaku.	  The	  ﬁnal	  step	  in	  2002	  was	  for	  Nakamura	  (a	  native	  speaker	  of	   Japanese)	   to	   go	   through	   these	   items	   and	   eliminate	   those	   that	   were	   not	   in	   her	   vocabulary	  and	  those	  that	  she	  thought	  allowed	  or	  required	  a	  different	  pronunciation	  (±R).	  An	  example	  of	  the	  ﬁrst	  type	  is	  tonbo+tsuri	   蜻蛉釣り	  ‘dragonﬂy	  catching’	  (cf.	  tonbo	  ‘dragonﬂy’,	  tsur-­‐u	  ‘to	  catch’),	  which	  she	  did	  not	  recall	  ever	  hearing.	  An	  example	  of	  the	  second	  type	  is	  kasen+shiki	  河川敷	   ‘river	   basin’	   (cf.	  kasen	   ‘river’,	   shik-­‐u	   ‘to	   spread’),	   for	   which	   she	   had	   the	   pronunciation	  kasen+jiki	  (+R).	  (Shinmura	  1991	  lists	  only	  kasen+shiki	  (–R),	  but	  Nihon	  kokugo	  daijiten『日本国語大辞典』[Nihon	  Kokugo	  Dai-­‐jiten	  Dainihan	  Henshū	  Iin-­‐kai	  2000–02]	  lists	  kasen+jiki	  (+R)	  ﬁrst	  and	   gives	   kasen+shiki	   (–R)	   as	   an	   alternative	   pronunciation.)	   These	   ﬁnal	   deletions	   left	   a	  sample	  of	  403	  N+V=N	  compounds	  in	  2002.	  
In	  2012,	  Takemura	  (also	  a	  native	  speaker	  of	  Japanese)	  went	  through	  the	  2002	  sample	  and	  applied	   the	   same	   criteria	   that	   Nakamura	   used.	   She	   deleted	   9	   more	   entries,	   reducing	   the	  total	   number	   of	   items	   to	   394.	   Takemura	   also	   added	   semantic	   information	   for	   each	   com-­‐pound,	  specifying	  whether	  it	  can	  denote	  a	  person,	  a	  thing,	  or	  an	  action.	  These	  categories	  are	  crude,	   and	   in	   a	   few	   cases,	   they	   are	   really	   not	   appropriate.	   For	   example,	   non-­‐human	   living	  creatures	   were	   treated	   as	   things,	   so	   the	   compound	   mizu+sumashi	   水澄まし	   ‘whirligig	   beetle’	  is	   categorized	   as	   having	   a	   “thing”	   meaning.	   On	   the	   other	   hand,	   since	   it	   does	   not	   denote	   a	  tangible,	   the	   compound	   ko+garashi	   木枯らし	   ‘cold	   winter	   wind’	   is	   categorized	   as	   having	   an	  “action”	   meaning	   but	   not	   a	   “thing”	   meaning.	   The	   upshot	   is	   that	   the	   semantic	   information	   in	  the	  database	  must	  be	  used	  with	  caution.	  
The	   list	   in	   its	   current	   form	   is	   a	   reasonably	   representative	   sample	   of	   relevant	   N+V=N	   com-­‐pounds	  that	  are	  likely	  to	  be	  in	  an	  ordinary,	  educated	  native	  speaker’s	  vocabulary.	  
References	  Hasegawa,	  Kiyoshi,	  et	  al.,	  eds.	  1986.	  Obunsha’s	  comprehensive	  Japanese-­‐English	  dictionary.	  Tōkyō:	  Ōbunsha.	  
Kazama,	  Rikizō,	  ed.	  1979.	  Tsuzuriji	  gyakujun	  hairetsu	  gokōsei	  ni	  yoru	  Daigenkai	  bunrui	  goi.	  Tōkyō:	  Fuzanbō.	  
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Kitahara,	  Yasuo,	  ed.	  1990.	  Nihongo	  gyakubiki	  jiten.	  Tōkyō:	  Taishūkan.	  
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Shinmura,	  Izuru,	  ed.	  1991.	  Kōjien,	  4th	  ed.	  Tōkyō:	  Iwanami.	  
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Yamaguchi,	   Kyoko.	   2011.	   Accentedness	   and	   rendaku	   in	   Japanese	   deverbal	   compounds.	   Gengo	   Kenkyu	   140:	  117–134.