Abstract

This paper shows that the existence of a linking morpheme is not related to recursion of compounds in the given language, but a linking morpheme does play a role in some ways or the other of recursion. Recursion of compounding is defined as embedding at the edge or in the center of an action or object of an instance of the same type. On the other hand, iteration, is simply unembedded repetition of an action or object (Bisetto 2010). Based on these definitions, it is argued that there are languages with a linking morpheme overtly realized in recursive languages. Second, there are also languages which have genitive compounds with a linking morpheme, although recursive compounds do not have a linking morpheme. On the other hand, there are languages with a genitive compounds and recursive compounds of coordinate VNN or nominal coordinate compounds. In these languages, recursive compounds are not so productive. Finally, Turkish and Greek show that the existence of a linking morpheme is not related to recursion of compounds. They have a linking morpheme in iterated compounds, but not in recursive compounds.

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