The article discusses compound nouns with a verbal first component; they represent a non-uniform group that includes composites both with the infinitive and with the imperative verb as the first component. A semantic analysis of compounds with an infinitive first component reveals main types of relation between the components that can be compared with nominative models. Of most interest is a group of compounds where the first component is the result of compression of an imperative sentence (bland selv-slik, bag selv-bryllupskage, byt til nyt-koncept, tag selv-bord).
Some of the analyzed elements were originally borrowed from English (gør det selv from English ‘do it yourself ’), but later developed against the Danish background and formed the basis for a variety of compounds with a modified first component (“draw it yourself ”, “paint it yourself ”, “learn it yourself ”, “type it yourself ”, “write it yourself ”). In compounds following this model, the first component, which originated as the result of a sentence compaction, substantivizes, takes a qualificative function, and gives a figurative characteristic of an object, a person, or a phenomenon specified by the second component; thus the model repeats the most frequent in Danish N+N model.
Some of imperative composites analyzed in the article are registered in dictionaries; however, occasional forms of this type appear in oral speech, advertisements, and newspapers, which proves the feasibility of the model.
