Ambiguous meaning - two nouns in a row


I'm often confused by the meaning of two nouns in a row.


Specifically, I came across this word in a TV show:



Demon Hunter



Without looking at the context of the show, I feel like this word can mean either "A hunter who hunts demon" OR "A demon who is also a hunter". Which one is the right one?


Similarly, words like:



Child abuser



Most people would understand it as "a person who abuses a child", but why can't it mean "an abuser who happens to be just a child"?



Answer



The short answer is that there's no reason they can't mean "a demon who hunts" or "a child who abuses".


The long answer is that we won't instinctively parse them that way: in general English usage a construct like this is understood to be [attributive noun] [noun] where the attributive is modifying the one that follows.


In the case of your first example, we know we have a hunter. What kind of hunter? Demon. A hunter who hunts demons. In the second, we know we have an abuser. What kind of abuser? Child. An abuser who abuses children.


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