This study addresses agentive nominal compounds in French and Swedish containing N and V constituents. French has only one such compound, VN, whereas Swedish has at least four, NV-are, NV-a, NV and VN. The study explores the semantic characteristics of their constituents and their semantic structures. Formal aspects are also considered within a lexeme-based morphology. The analysis shows that, although French and Swedish compounds differ formally, they share more or less the same semantics. Their V constituent takes one or more arguments, and their N constituents display several semantic roles. Semantically, the compounds generally denote an Actor of verbs taking two arguments, and the N constituents denote an Undergoer, except in Swedish VN compounds, which denote an entity which fills the same role as that of the N constituent, generally an Actor. Non argumental interpretations, such as Place or Event, are less frequent. In conclusion, the study can have typological value for the semantics of agentive nominal compounds.1
