Polish noun+adjective complexes and English adjective+noun combinations at the border of syntax and word-formation

The paper discusses combinations consisting of classifying adjectives and nouns in Polish and English, as exemplifi ed by the Polish expressions bomba atomowa ‘atomic bomb’, dział finansowy ‘financial department’ and their English equivalents. Apart from examining evidence indicating the phrasal status of such expressions, it presents arguments which can be employed to argue for the lexical (compound-like) nature of N+A or A+N combinations. It shows that they are at the border of the syntax and the lexicon.