Rhythmic patterns in diachrony: Spanish verb+noun compounds qualifying persons

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the Spanish verb-noun compound names qualifying persons with humorous or pejorative intention (eg. picapleitos), from the diachronic perspective of word-formation. We examine the more frequent rhythm and stress patterns which underlie their formation and which allow us to classify them as fi xed expressions formed on rhythmic and metrical patterns. We analyse the punctuation of sayings and lexical unities in the printed edition of two repertoires of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their morphosyntactic features and the semantic opacity distinguishing this type of compound names from the concept of lexical matrix will be examined.