Molecular names, especially in English

[AngledLuffa]

Carbon dioxide - NOUN NOUN, flat? or compound? EWT and GUM currently have both of these as compound, but I don't see why it wouldn't be flat like other names of things.

oxalic acid, ADJ NOUN, amod?

[dan-zeman]

If a name is flat, it's not because it's a name but because that particular kind of name has no internal structure. Carbon dioxide looks very much like other English NOUN-NOUN compounds to me. (And very much unlike John Smith.)

[AngledLuffa]

What I meant "like other names" is that there isn't really a reason to consider either word the head, unless we're saying "carbon" is the type of "dioxide". Which might make sense, since there are other molecule types which more clearly form a class, like esters or ketones.

[dan-zeman]

Exactly, that's how I read it. Carbon dioxide is a type of dioxide, and there are other dioxides. Like stone age is a type of age. While I would not say that John Smith is a type of Smith (if anything, it is historically a type of John).

[nschneid]

Exactly, that's how I read it. Carbon dioxide is a type of dioxide, and there are other dioxides.

Can you say "Which dioxide is this, carbon or sulfur?" It sounds strange to me, but then again I'm not a chemist.

[dan-zeman]

Can you say "Which dioxide is this, carbon or sulfur?" It sounds strange to me, but then again I'm not a chemist.

It does not sound strange to me but I am not a native speaker (which I find more important than not being a chemist). I would happily say the equivalent in Czech (but here it would be amod and not compound).

[AngledLuffa]

Can you say "Which dioxide is this, carbon or sulfur?" It sounds strange to me, but then again I'm not a chemist.

I would say so, actually. Which oxide ... for different ionizations, are all chlorides soluble when discussing different levels of solubility, etc

[amir-zeldes]

I also think oxide is a noun (you can pluralize it etc) so compound is right.

[AngledLuffa]

I didn't think its NOUNness was an issue. I was wondering what separated this NOUN-NOUN from other situations where NOUN-NOUN is flat. Unless, as mentioned, we're breaking it down as different types of oxides, different chlorides, different etc where the first word is specifying the type, and that's the reason we treat it as compound

[amir-zeldes]

Oh, yes, sorry - I meant to say it's a kind of noun by itself, so it's not surprising we can get sulfur oxides and other oxides. In other words, it's a right headed, determinative, semantically subsective compound (a subtype of oxide).