[Corpora-List] What is corpora and what is not?

[Moneesha Mehta]

You just did! :-)
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Litkowski
Sent: 10/08/12 11:07 PM
To: corpora at uib.no
Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] What is corpora and what is not?

 Despite calling myself a computational lexicologist (and being rather old), I ain't never yet communicated precisely and/or concisely. Ken On 10/8/2012 10:28 PM, Laurence Anthony wrote: > On Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Angus Grieve-Smith <grvsmth at panix.com> wrote: > >> Well, people communicate or they don't. Or they sort of communicate. >> Any of these can happen with or without mutually accepted meanings. That's >> what I see in my data. What does your data tell you? > We can never have completely perfect mutually accepted meanings. So, > there is always an element of miscommunication. Scientists strive to > reduce the amount of miscommunication by being very careful with the > terms that they use. > >>>> You can decide whether or not to bury someone without any kind of >>>> definition. You don't need the words "alive" and "dead" at all. You just >>>> need a clear set of criteria. But no matter how clear you make the >>>> criteria >>>> there will always be hard-to-decide borderline cases where people just >>>> need >>>> to use their best judgment. >>> Very true. But, isn't a "clear set of criteria" a synonym for definition? >> >> Only if it's attached to a term. I'm saying that it doesn't have to be >> attached to any particular term. > Very true. But, isn't it convenient to attach a *complex* set of > criteria to a particular term? I think doctors would prefer to write > in their reports, " The patient is dead" rather than have to list up a > very long list of properties that describe the state of the person > that is no longer with us. > > Agreed definitions (mutually accepted meanings of terms) allow us to > communicate precisely and also concisely. > > Laurence. > > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE from this page: http://mailman.uib.no/options/corpora > Corpora mailing list > Corpora at uib.no > http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora > -- Ken Litkowski TEL.: 301-482-0237 CL Research EMAIL: ken at clres.com 9208 Gue Road Home Page: http://www.clres.com Damascus, MD 20872-1025 USA Blog: http://www.clres.com/blog _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE from this page: http://mailman.uib.no/options/corpora Corpora mailing list Corpora at uib.no http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora
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