[Lexicog] Re: Frequency & Attendant Words/Phrases for Lex. Entry

[bolstar1]

     Randy, Hayim, Rudy: Good points regarding frequency. As to the 
value of a frequency listing, yes, it would be most useful to non-
native speakers. Intuition has always played the major part of 
(proper) language usage – not rote cutting-and-pasting of technically 
correct words. (My most `erudite' ESOL student in Korea (after 
thirteen years) was a walking dictionary, but as stilted as computer-
generated voice mail. 
     That's the reason I differentiated main entries (which would 
take up as few as five spaces (including spaces) from field-specific 
sub-entries (which could also rank/differentiate lexical norms, 
though would be more difficult to standardize. (e.g. To a 
neurobiologist, `dendrite' would rank highly with a field-identified 
note, but exceedingly low as a general entry in a desk-dictionary-
size edition (perhaps non-existent in a paperback edition). Bold-
facing could accentuate the commonly-used synonyms/definitions when 
listing (especially in thesauruses) without using a ranking system. 
Bold-facing is sometimes used.
     It is also the reason I mentioned "attending words/particles" – 
or in a more general sense, phrasal usage -- as a key component of a 
good lexical work. As hard as idioms & jargon are for non-native-
speakers to master, so are the phrasal verbs -- including 
prepositional particles. I've observed for many years ESOL students, 
and for many years native-speaking secondary students (middle/high 
school). Many idioms and many allusions (basic to middle-aged 
speakers) are truly "foreign" to both groups. Attending particles are 
hardly an issue with native speakers, with basic vocabulary. But 
allude to `Ward Cleaver' or `Eddie Haskel' with a youngster, or 
ask "Where's the beef?" to a non-native speaker, and their eyes glaze 
over. They simply lack the living and reading experiences to know 
what they allude to. Particle-usage is not different.  
     Repetition is obvious a key to both areas of verbal acquisition, 
which is the reason I mentioned listing attending-words along with 
the main entry, to give the searchers semi-contextual examples of how 
to use the word. I've found that words, per se, rarely function 
alone, or can function alone with simple ideas. But they demand 
specific particles in communicating more refined academic or 
syntactic complexities. Using Rudy's example of `large' versus `big,' 
I sifted through my corpus of phrases and came up with a basic list 
of attending particles/words. There seem to be few standards to go by 
when deciding where a particular particle fits, as each word develops 
in its own unique way. The following shows this attending-word-
specific randomness, first with `big' then with `large.' Note that 
variations (e.g. "a little frog in a big pond" vs. `a small frog in a 
large pond') come from different sources (dictionaries, recordings 
from actual conversations). But most are intuitively recognized by 
seasoned native speakers as being more, or less, "common." (no 
ranking or frequency differentiation has been attempted in listing 
these examples)
  
     a (pretty) big fella/fellow 
     
     a big frog in a small pond        
     a large frog in a small pond
     a small frog in a big pond
     a small frog in a large pond
     a little frog in a big pond
     
     a small cog in a large wheel

     a large number of (something)
     
     small-scale
     large-scale

     as big as a house
     as big as you please
     as big as all outdoors
     big as all outdoors
     as big as you please
     as big as an elephant
     as big as an ox
     

     as big as life
     as big as life and twice as ugly
     as big as life and quite as natural

     as large as life
     larger than life


     as big as a barn
     
     I have put on a few pounds; you are filling out; he is getting 
     as big as a house.

     Big deal!
     Big hairy deal!
     What's the big deal?
     a big deal

     not a big deal
     mot that big a deal
     No big deal!
     It's no big deal. 
     not that big a deal 
     
     
     make a big deal out of it/something)
     make too big a deal out of it
     make too big a deal out of (something)
     
     make a big thing out of it
     make a big thing out of (something)

     no big thing No biggie!
     It's no biggie.
     No big! 

     have big bones
     a big-boned (person)
     big-boned

     in a big way
     want n a big way
     
     win/won in a big wa
     won in a big way
     lose in a big way     

     make a big joke out of it
     
     make a big production out of (something) 
     make a big production out of it
     not make a big production out of (it/something)
          
     someone's eyes are as big as bullets  
     
     the big picture (in the comparative-use `larger picture' seems 
more common)
     look at the big picture;
     have to look at the big picture
     miss the big picture
_____________________________________________________________________
          
     due in (large) part to (something)

     figure large (in something)
     loom large (on the horizon)

     based to a large degree on (something)
     
     depend to a large degree on (something)

     in large measure
     due in large measure to (something);
     
     larger than life 
     a larger-than-life (something)
     (as) large as life
     larger than life, and twice as ugly 
     
     bigger than life
     a bigger-than-life (something) 

     living large

     writ large   

     Mark Twain: The difference between the almost right word and the 
right word is really a large matter -- 'tis the difference between 
the lightning bug and the lightning. 

Scott Nelson 




 
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