At 21:29 27/08/03, you wrote:
>--- Ian Spackman <ianspackman@...>
>wrote:
>
>transfer medical student
>medical transfer student
>
>Problem is, you've only switched one compound -
>medical student - for another compound - transfer
>student. To each of those, you've appended a
>modifier - medical or transfer. You haven't
>actually stuck something in the middle of a
>compound.
>
>Padraic.
Possible - what's your evidence?
The question was merely whether something could be inserted into "medical
student" - I demonstrated it could. I myself was making no claim as to
whether these things were compounds; I think my gut feeling is it's
approaching a true compound but not quite there yet.
Why do you argue that "medical student" and "transfer student" are
compounds? Intonation?
What's interesting then is that "a physics and chemistry student" seems to
have the same intonation pattern as "a medical transfer student"....
Ian