Influence of the Head Noun and Integration of the Dependent in Near-Compound Nominals Such as High Executive

This chapter studies nominals such as high executive, in which a head noun denoting a person in their socio-professional capacity is modified by the adjective high. It focuses on the notion of ‘head’ noun, in relation to the internal dependent and to the whole nominal: the noun is the semantic head, and its lexical features select a metaphorical meaning of the adjective. Being head of the nominal, it also determines the procedural meaning of the whole constituent. High is semantically highly integrated to the nominal, which influences its syntactic characteristics (loss of gradability, attributive-only function), and the adjective thus adopts several characteristics of the noun as a part of speech because of the strong influence of the head noun on its dependents. Due to the great integration of the two terms forming the nominal, sequences such as high executive hover in a transitional zone between random syntactic constructions and compound nouns.