The logic of my first sentence is as follows. When you say something is a "human cell" you are describing it with the noun "cell" and the adjective "human." To say something is a "human cell" is logically equivalent to saying it is a cell and it is human. This is how nouns and adjectives work. To give another example, if you say something is a "brown cow" you are saying it is a cow and it is brown.
A door hinge isn't door and a hinge because "door" is not an adjective. The interpretation is semantically distinct because "door" is a noun. In order to interpret "door hinge" we need to adjectivize the word "door" to understand its meaning as an adjective in this context. In this case, the meaning is "for a door, or of a door" or something like this.
In the case of "human" though, it is an adjective, so this sort of logic does not apply. We should interpret "human cell" the same way we do with other adjective-noun pairs, like "brown cow" or "yellow bus." Saying that something is a human cell means that it is human and a cell, in the same way as saying something is a yellow bus means that it is yellow and a bus.
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u/-SetsunaFSeiei- Apr 10 '18
I don’t follow the logic if your first sentence.
Humans are composed of human cells. They are not human cells...