We also received valuable comments from Bengt Altenberg and Gunnel Tottie, who read draft versions of individual chapters. (Bengt's online ICAME Bibliography also provided us with an extremely useful starting point for our own Bibliography.) At a later stage, pre-final draft chapters were presented to the Longman Linglex Advisory Committee, where again a strong impetus to improve the book's content and presentation was provided by valuable and (often) trenchant critiques from a group of leading British linguists, under the chairmanship of Lord Quirk: Rod Rotitho, Gillian Brown, David Crystal, Philip Scholfield, Katie Wales, John Wells, and Yorick Wilks. Alan Tonkyn. | Meaning relations expressed by noun noun sequences 595 Head nouns that commonly take a plural pre-modifying noun referring to a person s job or occupation adviser agent analyst assistant clerk commissioner director engineer manager officer official operator specialist. For example corporate affairs director operations director public relations director technical services director. - Head nouns that commonly take a plural premodifying noun referring to a unit or organization court tribunal board commission committee panel business market department division group section sector affiliate company firm giant manufacturer supplier. For example boilers and radiators division building properties division construction materials division inns and taverns division. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS In news reportage nouns abound and there is often complex premodification. Noun phrases are suited to the main purpose of news reportage to convey a maximum of information as concisely as possible. The high frequency of plural first-elements in noun noun constructions fits into this general pattern. Complex premodification can accommodate a great deal of information but with the risk that the compression might create problems of interpretation. The plural ending can serve as a signal to guide the reader in unraveling the structure of a complex noun phrase. It is no coincidence that these structures are especially associated with complex first-elements see B below . Apart from this general consideration there are five specific factors which seem to influence the retention of the plural form of premodifying nouns A The noun modifier only has a plural form or has a distinctive meaning associated with its plural see Examples of this type are arms accord arts administrator customs officer explosives factory However some nouns which ordinarily have only a plural form do sometimes lose the plural ending in noun noun constructions billiard ball scissor kick trouser leg B The noun modifier is
