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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ron Moe said: <BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>> Listing collocates works if there aren't too
many. But for general words you<BR>> might want to consider looking for
prototypical examples. Even though 'bark'<BR>> is not very general, it is
still subject to prototype effects:<BR>> <BR>> bark v. (of a dog) to make
a quick, loud cry. Used of dogs and other animals<BR>> with a cry like a
dog's, such as a seal or cheetah.<BR>> <BR>> In other words 'bark' is not
a general animal cry. It is the cry of a dog,<BR>> extended to the cries of
animals that sound like the bark of a dog.</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>>
Yesterday I was telling a story about seeing a cheetah kill a gazelle
and<BR>> barking to call her cubs to the kill. I described the cry of the
cheetah as<BR>> a 'bark'. I think I said something like, "The cheetah started
to bark. A<BR>> cheetah's cry isn't like other cats. It's more like the bark
of a dog." The<BR>> notion of prototypes is very useful in dealing with
categories of all sorts.<BR>> If we want our example sentences to be most
useful, they should exemplify<BR>> typical usage. So the collocates used in
the sentence should be<BR>> prototypical, rather than marginal. So I would
prefer "an itchy sore" to "an<BR>> itchy wool sweater"; "cows moo", but
"bulls bellow".<BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks, Ron. IMHO, your definition of
<EM><STRONG>bark</STRONG></EM> just about hits the nail on the
head. I'd </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>like to offer<FONT> </FONT><FONT>a couple
of </FONT>intervention re prototypicality and evidence:
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. Adam Kilgarriff's wonderful WASPBENCH tool (<A
href="http://wasps.itri.bton.ac.uk">http://wasps.itri.bton.ac.uk</A>
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>-- it's free!) shows that in British English (BNC,
using the MI statistic) the most </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>significant noun </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>modified by </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2><EM><STRONG>itchy</STRONG></EM> is
<EM><STRONG>feet</STRONG></EM> (!), followed </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>by <EM><STRONG>rash, scalp, lump, skin, </STRONG></EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>and<STRONG><EM> patch. Itchy
</EM></STRONG></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>also collocates significantly with
<EM><STRONG>red.</STRONG></EM> A quick glance at the </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Associated Press </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Corpus </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>of 1991-2 suggests that the idiom
<STRONG><EM>"itchy feet"</EM></STRONG> </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>may be
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>British rather than </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>American (it does not occur in AP). The </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>significant collocates </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>of <EM><STRONG>itchy</STRONG></EM> in AP are
<STRONG><EM>rash</EM></STRONG> and <STRONG><EM>eyes</EM></STRONG>. (I do not
find "<EM><STRONG>itchy </STRONG></EM></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2><EM><STRONG>sore</STRONG></EM>" in either the Brit or </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>the American sources that I'm using. So this is a
plausible but not a supported</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>example.) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The data is quite sparse (92 occurences of
<EM><STRONG>itchy</STRONG></EM> in BNC; 52 in AP). We are
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>currently hampered in making such comparisons
by the absence of an American </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>National </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Corpus
equivalent in size and composition to BNC. (We live in hopes: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>keep up </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>the good
work, Nancy, </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Randy, and co.!) Maybe
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Americans </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>do use
the </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>idiom </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2><STRONG><EM>itchy feet, </EM></STRONG> just not AP
journalists... Anyway, t</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>he data currently
available </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>is at </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>least
sufficient to show that a </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>prototypical
example for <EM><STRONG>itchy</STRONG></EM> that is common </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>to </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>both BrE and
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>AmE is<EM><STRONG> an itchy
rash.</STRONG></EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><EM><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></EM></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>[PS for pedants: I do know that in Latin
<EM><STRONG>data</STRONG></EM> is a plural noun. In British English it
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>is an open choice between a plural noun and a mass
noun. I prefer the latter.]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. I too believe that w</FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>e should look to evidence of actual usage for examples, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>selecting </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>examples that </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>are typical. (Novice
lexicographers, in my experience, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>are </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>irresistibly
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>drawn to "boundary-case" examples -- a problem
that was greatly </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>exacerbated in </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>the
days when they were free to make up examples without </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>reference to evidence.) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We need to</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2> make
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>a clear distinction between what </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>goes on in a language and </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>what goes on </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>in the
world. Thus, in English, p</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>rototypical
(bovine) <EM><STRONG>cows moo</STRONG></EM>. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Female whales may be called "cows" but
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>they are not prototypical cows and </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>they do not moo. In fact, as Fritz points
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>out, whales "sing" (without differentiation
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>of gender). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Do (bovine, prototypical) bulls moo? I don't
think so. I can't find any evidence </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>that they do. Do they make a sound that is
qualitatively different from that made </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>by their female counterparts? I don't know,
but I do know (from corpus evidence) </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>that in English <EM><STRONG>cattle
"low",</STRONG></EM> and that <EM><STRONG>cattle</STRONG></EM> is a
gender-neutral term. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3. How to identify prototypical usage? Well,
relative syntagmatic freedom is one </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>criterion. For example, <FONT face=Arial size=2>"We saw some cows
from the train" is an unexceptional </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>sentence of English, but "we saw some cows [meaning female whales] from the
</DIV>
<DIV>boat" is very odd. </DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Patrick</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Patrick Hanks</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>DWDS Collocations Project, Berlin-Brandenburg
Academy of Sciences</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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