The article proposes a novel analysis of NPN constructions, exemplified by English expressions like back to back and year after year. An NPN is typically composed of two identical bare singular count nouns with a preposition between them. Previous research tends to treat NPNs as highly idiosyncratic. While acknowledging some idiosyncrasies, the present contribution shows that NPNs exhibit a considerable degree of regularity and compositionality. A widespread view that bare singulars normally do not function as arguments is shown to rest on weak foundations. As a consequence, the present approach is able to show that NPNs are, at the core, NPs with PP modifiers. Nominal NPNs have this basic structure, while adverbial NPNs involve an extra layer of semantics and are exocentric constructions. A distinction between nominal types and instances is employed to account for the semantics of bare singulars. NPNs exhibit two kinds of emergent meanings, leading to chain NPNs and twin NPNs. The different semantic structures of these NPN subtypes explain why some NPNs can have nominal in addition to adverbial functions. The data comes mostly from Norwegian. Details differ between languages, but central parts of the analyses can be assumed to hold for other languages as well.

中文翻译：

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NPN 结构的规则和组成方面

这篇文章提出了一种对 NPN 结构的新颖分析，以英语表达为例，例如背靠背和一年又一年。NPN 通常由两个相同的单数单数名词组成，它们之间有一个介词。以前的研究倾向于将 NPN 视为高度特殊的。虽然承认一些特质，但目前的贡献表明 NPN 表现出相当程度的规律性和组合性。一个普遍的观点认为裸单数通常不能作为论据被证明是建立在薄弱的基础上的。因此，本方法能够表明 NPN 的核心是具有 PP 修饰符的 NP。名词性 NPN 具有这种基本结构，而状语 NPN 涉及额外的语义层，并且是外中心结构。名义类型和实例之间的区别用于解释裸单数的语义。NPNs表现出两种涌现含义，导致链NPNs和孪生NPNs。这些 NPN 子类型的不同语义结构解释了为什么一些 NPN 除了副词功能外还可以具有名词性功能。数据主要来自挪威语。语言之间的细节不同，但可以假设分析的核心部分也适用于其他语言。