What are the examples of nouns.? pairs of two lexical roots that function as simple nouns. The left element is always a modifier and the right element is always the head in such structures in English (unless we’re dealing with a headless compound).

(= Structure _of English _headed noun compounds, _illustrated with

“orange juice”) _The term _{‘compounding’} refers to _a word-formation

  process in morphology; the term 'complement' refers to a structural relation  

with a head in syntax. In the cited sections, the term ‘complement’ is used in a confusing way. In terms of the internal structure of a noun compound, the left element should quite simply never be considered as a complement or as modifier.

One might try to classify the modifier element in noun compounds into a, let’s say, ‘typical modifier’ and into’more complement-like modifier’. As far as I can see there is no principled way to accomplish such a classification.

Has the left lexical root always been a modifier?

(a) Order. Usually complements sound much better when they are close to their head while modifiers (MOD) can be further away from their head.

(2a) ]

]

  (= Since "of linguistics" is a complement of "student", it must be close to "student". In contrast, "in one year" is a modifier on "student", so it can be further away from "student".)  

There is no such (strong) order restriction on left elements in noun compounds. Is there a preference for more plausible orders? That shows that left elements of noun compounds are not complements. Some are more than others. I mean that leaves elements are not complements.

(3a) a _{(emphasis on “first”)}

(3b) a (emphasis _{on “linguistics”) What is 4a]? I’m a USER and my first season of college is: *}

] (= The _complement to student is only _realized as one “of”-phrase,

  but there can be many modifiers in the form of "in"-phrases. These left elements in noun compounds can be added repeatedly independently of  

their meaning (up -> B + F) (= The complement of student can only be realized as one The yield will be odd, semantically implausible or stylistically “ugly”. The compound which makes them may be on a cyclic basis, but they are not ungrammatical and should not be included. Why are left elements not complements?

The left-elements in a

compound headed by student can be

  numerous, irrespective of whether they denote subjects of study of the student or ancillary information about the student) (c) Extrapolation.  

Normally you can extract out of complements, but not out of modifiers (see Figure 12).

(9a) “he _loves linguistics, which he is, which

he is ₍₌ Since “of linguistics” is a

  complement of student), you can use "linguistics" out of it.) (7a) "he was a student in  

his first _year”

* He loves first year, which he is (=

  Since in first year is a modifier on "student", you cannot extract "first year" out of it.) As  

it is impossible to extract out of the left element in noun compounds, these elements should not be classified as complements.

A noun for _linguists (in nouns) like He’s

a “Corpus linguistics student, and he believes he has “linguistics” right _out of it) (9a) A

  ‘post first-year student’ (in nouns) [e.g. ‘pilates’ and ‘pilates’) (4) The only possible way to accomplish a categorization of the  

modifier element in _noun compounds is to have

an intuition about their meaning.

At the time of the CGEL authors, they did not have any thinking or thinking to deal with. Are so all the theories that they aimed at? Are noun compound more complicated?

For complement-like modifiers, the meaning of the modifier is entailed by (or semantically obligatory for) the head. When you think about the central aspect of Head: the vital, the critical and the important. In most cases, the relation between the compound head and its modifier corresponds to the relation between a verb phrase head and its complement. What are some examples of compound nouns which have a of -paraphrase.

10) a linguistics student

if you’re a student, you necessarily need to study something (entailment)
the subject of study is crucial to being a student (centrality)
“a linguistics student” “(to) study linguistics” (similarity with syntactic complement)
“a linguistics student?”

Is a complement like a complement, in the sense that there are similarities in syntactic structure between the two complements?

For real modifiers, the meaning of the modifier is optional (or semantically uncompelled) with respect to the head; it involves information about non-central, unimportant, additional aspects of the head. In general, the head will have no verbal analogue. I don’t think answering the question with of will be possible.

(11) a first-year student

i.e. if you’re in first year – the time when you started studying is not
crucial to being a student (non-centrality) “a first year student” 4? *?
As a left element of a noun compound, “*first
year” in “a first-year student” is a modifier. The other characters in the

plural are “*in the first year” and “before” in “after” in “after” and “after” in “after” for “before” and “after” in “after” not”. Moreover it’s a typical modifier since it shows no similarities with a syntactic complement whatsoever.

(4) Regarding the other examples you mentioned:

(a) Since they are all noun compounds, they involve left modifiers and right heads. What is the difference between modifiers and complements?

If you insist on making a distinction between typical modifiers and complement-like modifiers, you could try to apply the semantic intuitions mentioned for example, entailment, centrality, similarity with a syntactic complement and of-paraphases. You will get the feeling that it can indeed be problematic to rely on semantic intuitions for classification.

(12) a college student

do you necessity need to be anywhere? no?

“a member of a college student” “*a
member of college” (no of’some’), a ”in a noun compound” college is

a modifier.
It may also be a fairly typical modifier based on semantic considerations.

(13) a police station

if there is a station, does it need to be for someone or contain something?

* station of (the) police” (no (normal) of -phrase: (a)

As a left element in noun compound, police is a modifier.
(b) It may also be a fairly typical modifier in terms of its semantics, but the fact that we can say to station police shows that in the domain of syntax, a similar construction would allow police to function as a complement of station.

(14) tax bill

if there is a bill, does it need to be about something? I think so, yes (entailment) is
the content of a bill crucial to the concept of “bill” – maybe (perhaps centrality) there
is a parallel between “a tax bill” and “to bill tax(s)” but the meanings of the latter is very strange (almost no similarity with syntactic complement) “a
tax bill” ” a bill of tax””(very bizarre of) CONCLUSION: (a)

As a left element in a noun compound, tax is a modifier.
(b) It may be a more complement-like modifier from the viewpoint of its meaning because the concept of a legal bill entails that there must be some content of the bill, such as taxes.

What is the real meaning and reason behind the term “Spoilers”?

To steal an answer from here “a modifier, unlike a complement, is an optional element in a sentence”.

If you use the word police station as an example, then you have a street station.