Re: "Empire-State Building"?

Salvatore Volatile wrote:

Urs Enke wrote:
Hi, somehow I remember English to be right-associative, left-associations
having to be forced by dashes like in "computer-graphics exam". Yet
"Empire State Building" seems only to be written this way instead of, as
its namesake "Empire State" (New York) would suggest, "Empire-State
Building". Is my assumption right and the common 'notation' wrong? If
not, what rule applies?

Actually, the way "Empire State Building" is pronounced, it's more like
"Empire State-Building", if you follow me.

I follow you.

In fact I followed that pronunciation straight down the primrose path when I
were a young lad. Having graduated from kindergarden on the other side of
the country and being unfamiliar with the "Empire State" nickname for the
State of New York, I formed a vague notion that there must indeed be such a
thing as a "state building" -- even though I wasn't at all sure what
exactly it was: presumably something to do with the government. After all,
there was a Federal Building in downtown L.A.; I knew all about that as my
mom worked nearby.

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