The compound appositions

Abstract

This paper deals with a customary topic on Spanish compound studies: the structures of pez globo and niño prodigio, and their classification as compounds or appositions. I propose that both structures are appositions (created in the syntax), even if they are provided with distinctive properties. I develop a suitable framework for characterizing the existing differences between both classes. In my proposal, globo establishes with pez a different syntactic relationship (one of direct modification) from the one that prodigio establishes with niño (a predication relationship).