Biletska O. Compounds Consisting of Three Nouns in Middle High German and Modern German.

The thesis focuses on a comprehensive study of compounds consisting of three nouns in Middle High German and Modern German based on lexicographic sources. The lexeme composition of determinative compounds consisting of three nouns has been systematized in each period of the language development under discussion; the structural and semantic peculiarities of these compounds have been described. The inner organization of the compounds consisting of three nouns has been analyzed, with the complex character of their constituents, morpheme structure, and the regularities of occurrence of the linking element considered. The compounds consisting of three nouns in Middle High German and Modern German have been classified in accordance with their semantic peculiarities using the methodology worked out for the interpretation of compounds by means of explication formulas. The main principles of compatibility of lexical-semantic variants in the compounds consisting of three nouns have been established. It has been shown that these compounds tend to monosemy, which promotes their terminologization and specialization in scientific and professional texts. The structural-semantic classification has revealed the dominance of individual concrete nouns, which in most cases combine not only with each other, but also with other structural-semantic classes of nouns. The thematic classification of the compounds under analysis has been made revealing a great variety of subject groups represented by the compounds consisting of three nouns, which map the sphere of "a person and the world around". This semantic space is common for both chronological periods. A specific feature of Modern German is specialized vocabulary.