صفتِ فاعليِ مركبِ مرخم: آري يا خير؟

Truncated Compound Agentive Adjective: Yes or No?

There exists, in the Persian language, a highly productive compounding pattern, in which a verbal element combines with a non-verbal one to produce a noun or adjective. Three distinct views can be identified regarding this pattern. Some scholars, mostly traditional grammarians, call the output "truncated compound agentive adjective". Some others accept this, but offer a modern linguistic interpretation. Still, others reject the idea of a truncated compound agentive adjective and hold a different view. Based on different pieces of evidence, the present paper, totally rejects the traditional idea and argues that, in this pattern, a verbal element (present root) simply relates to a non-verbal one through compounding. The type of relation, and hence the meaning of the compound are determined by Persian speakers on the basis of pragmatic implicature.