Roald Amundsen

1 6.8

Norwegian explorer who first crossed the Northwest Passage and reached the South Pole in 1911

proper noun

: Roald Amundsen

The ship used by Roald Amundsen during his Arctic journey was named the Gjøa.

Examples

Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully reach the South Pole in 1911.
The famous explorer Roald Amundsen was born in Norway.
Many historians regard Roald Amundsen as one of the greatest polar explorers of all time.
Roald Amundsen led the first successful expedition to the South Pole.
Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully reach the South Pole in 1911.
Many historians regard Roald Amundsen as one of the greatest polar explorers of all time.
Roald Amundsen was the first person to traverse the Northwest Passage.

Synonyms

Amundsen

vsRoald Amundsen

3 8.1

A Norwegian explorer who first reached the South Pole in 1911

is the same biography but written in the fuller, more formal form

Surface Forms

Roald Amundsen main

Morphology

Roald + Amundsen

This is a proper name referring to a specific historical person, so its referential meaning (who he was and his achievements) is not compositionally derivable from the constituent words. Even if a learner knows the parts (and 'Amundsen' is glossed as an explorer), a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer the full biographical meaning, so the expression is idiomatic/opaque in terms of morphological transparency.

Etymology

Roald Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer who in 1911 became the first person to reach the South Pole. Picture a small team with dog sleds moving quickly across white ice — that clear image helps you remember he used fast, careful travel to win the race, so his name now stands for 'polar explorer' and 'being first'.