La contrainte d’antériorité

La contrainte d’antériorité temporelle prédit que tout composant renvoyant à un concept premier dans le temps sera premier dans l’ordre linéaire. Cette contrainte est applicable à quatre composés amalgamés — brunch, Jacobethan, mim-mem et twinight —, à treize composés asyndétiques :

cook-chill

dinner dance

drop-kick

fly-drive

freeze-dry

hunter-killer

murder-suicide

roll-on roll-off

stop-go

stop-start

strip-search

tie-dye

washer-dryer

ainsi qu’à 74 composés syndétiques, soit, fait remarquable, 23 % de ce sous-corpus :

bait and switch

bed and breakfast

boom and bust

born and bred

breaking and entering

brown-and-serve

call-and-response

catch and release

chew-’n’-spew

clean and jerk

crash and burn

cut and fill

cut and paste

cut and run

cut-and-cover

cut-and-dried

cut-and-paste

cut-and-shut

day-and-night

dead and buried

dilation and curettage

divide and conquer/rule

drag and drop

draw and quarter

drunk-and-disorderly

ebb and flow

forgive and forget

get-up-and-go

hide-and-seek

hit-and-run

hunt-and-peck

in-and-out

kiss and make up

kiss-and-tell

lost and found

meet and greet

mix and match

name and shame

park-and-ride

pay and display

peel-and-stick

pick’n’mix

pick-and-roll

pitch-and-putt

plug-and-play

point-and-click

point-and-shoot

postage and packing

pump and dump

rip-and-read

rise and shine

run-and-gun

sale and leaseback

scissors-and-paste

scratch-and-sniff

serve-and-volley

shake and bake

show-and-tell

signed and sealed

slash-and-burn

smash-and-grab

soup-and-fish

spit and polish

splash-and-go

stop-and-go

tar and feather

tip-and-run

touch-and-go

up-and-down

up-and-over

up-and-under

wash-and-wear

wax and wane

wear and tear

Un seul composé sur 91, postage and packing, viole la contrainte d’antériorité. Cette distribution est statistiquement très significative ( (1) = 56,32 ; p ≤ 0,001). Ceci s’ex-plique par le fait que cette contrainte a une valeur iconique, l’ordre linéaire mimant l’ordre chronologique.