• mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 hours ago

    in that case, “great dragon” is the noun, and is consistent with the proposed rule

    • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 hours ago

      Yeah, that’s just an open compound word, like “emperor penguin” or “hammerhead shark.” We have open compounds where the component words are separated by a space, hyphenated compounds (not super common with animals but can be seen in words like “mother-in-law”) where the words are separated by a hyphen, and closed compounds that just stick the two words together (“kingfisher,” “anteater”).