ABSTRACT
[Responses to an open-ended questionnaire demonstrate that readers use fairly defined methods to interpret oxymora of the adjective noun construction. Certain of these oxymora can be explicated through case grammar although the interpretations may widely differ or even conflict. The readers' interpretations of oxymora where the adjective functions more like a noun can be explicated through case grammar. The headword, the head noun, acts as the central word and case relations are assigned to the adjective, which also functions like a noun.
