Yun, Se-Woong. 1996. The Semantic Analysis of English Compound Nouns. Linguistics 4, 169-192. A compound word can be defined as a combination of two or more units, though scholars` definitions are a little different. This paper uses the definition of compound nouns as units with noun function comprised of two or more nouns in order. In this paper, it is shown that what the differences between compound nouns and noun phrases are, and what the characteristics of compound nouns are. I try to introduce some linguists` theories about compound nouns, to find the problems in their theories, and to solve the problems using the conceptual structures of compound nouns based on Sows`s conceptual structure theory. The basis of nouns are concepts. Therefore the basis of compound nouns are the combinations of concepts. The meaning of compound nouns depends on their conceptual relation types based on their conceptual structures. (Kwangju Women`s University)