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<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">I don't mean to be a purist, but what I was
thinking of was the propriety of "the data are available" as opposed to the more
common "the data is available." I suppose you could say that "data" has become a
singular noun in terms of verb agreemet.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS">-- David Frank</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Arial Unicode MS"></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=bolstar1@yahoo.com href="mailto:bolstar1@yahoo.com">Scott Nelson</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com">lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:50
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: [Lexicog] Law of
Synonyms</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0>
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<DIV>Fritz, David, BB, et al: Question was [["</B><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Is there a <I>law</I> of synonyms? I don’t
believe in synonyms. No two words are exactly "synonymous" from the
point of view of connotation."]] </FONT><B><BR></B></DIV>
<DIV><B>[Response] Good points about the examples of "agenda"/"agendum"
(still smirking over that one), "data"/"datum" and "media"/medium." I
only picked 'phenomenona"/"phenomenon" because I cringe whenever I hear
it wrong (quirkie of me, isn't it?) I think "data" is preponderant over
"datum," partially because there is rarely statistical evidence with
only one number (datum) being reported, in which case it would be
something like "my conclusion" or "my finding" or "the answer," or "the
number"-- but not "The result of my research is this datum." (Awkward on
its face.) <BR>Fritz, I've considered your observation of the
impossibility of there being a true "synonym," too. This is why I'm
disappointed in standard dictionaries lacking listings of connotation,
frequency, and context -- which could quite easily be identified in
digital format. As to the general concept of synonyms, though, I think
there are true synonyms -- which are exhibited in divergent phrasing,
not necessarily in divergent meaning or connotation. <BR>Notice the
different grammatical form -- including tense, person, and mood -- in
the following phrases, which all mean essentially "angry." -- I lost my
cool. || I could wring his neck. || Emotions are running high. || The
room is at a boiling point. || If he even looks at me cross-eyed... ||
It galls me! || She's really hot under the collar. || He went ballistic.
|| He's fit to be tied. || She went through the roof. <BR>By the way,
Fritz, did you hear about the German <FONT face=Arial>truck that was
loaded with thesauruses yesterday? It crashed into a dictionary
publishing company building. The bystanders were surprised, amazed,
astounded, shocked, dumbfounded, thunderstruck, startled, caught
unawares, flabbergasted, taken aback, stunned, awestruck, caught with
heir pants down, ... <BR>It must be a human aversion to cliche that
makes humanity come up with synonyms. Maybe the answer is in that simple
principle.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Fritz, do Germans have synonyms?</DIV></FONT>
<DIV><BR>Scott Nelson</DIV></B><BR><BR>--- On <B>Wed, 10/15/08, Fritz
Goerling <I><Fritz_Goerling@sil.org></I></B> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid">From:
Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling@sil.org><BR>Subject: RE:
[Lexicog] Law of Synonyms<BR>To:
lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com<BR>Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2008,
12:45 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV id=yiv1406401935>
<DIV id=ygrp-text>
<DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Is there a <I><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: italic">law</SPAN></I> of synonyms? I don’t believe
in synonyms. No two words are exactly “synonymous” from the point of
view of connotation.</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Concerning
your example from the computer domain, let me mention another example,
given to me by a computer specialist. Who speaks of ‘jump drive’ or
‘pen drive’ any more? It’s probably between ‘flash drive’ and ‘thumb
drive’ nowadays. And who knows what will come up
next.</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">When two or
more expressions come up at about the same time and compete, ‘brevity
(punch)’ is one factor IMO that makes the
winner.</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Brevity is
the soul of wit (Shakespeare, Hamlet 2, 86-92),</SPAN></FONT>
<DIV></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Fritz
Goerling</SPAN></FONT>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV id=ygrp-mlmsg>
<DIV id=ygrp-msg>
<DIV id=ygrp-text>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Law of Synonyms <BR>There must be a law of
synonyms somewhere (of phrasal synomyms <BR>in particular).
Dictionaries and thesauruses (thesauri) seem too <BR>arbitrary &
random too trust for this purpose. Of course, corpora <BR>listings are
easy for words. I've been wondering for years what the <BR>world would
gravitate toward -- "laptop" or "notebook" <BR>computer. "Portable
computer" seems quaint, but... The reason I'm <BR>fishing in this pond
is that I would hate wading through <BR>dissertations or theses
looking for synonym principles (must be lazy <BR>or something). The
only simple, quick source for finding phrasal <BR>frequency
comparisons seems to be google-counting. "Laptop" (computer<BR>(s))
wins on this one, generally by 22%-30%. But we're dealing with <BR>the
`phrase' "notebook computer" and "laptop computer." <BR>Googling
"notebook" alone skews the results. <BR>Has anyone done, or seen,
research about how one term (or <BR>phrase) tends to predominate over
others -- when two or more <BR>expressions begin at about the same
time? Is is there a phonetic <BR>(e.g. reduplicative, length,
ease-of-pronunciati on) influence? Is <BR>there a "great-man"
influence, according to coiner? First come, first <BR>served?
Regional? Or is it truly unpredicable? <BR>This is an open-ended
question.... Any ideas?<BR><BR>Scott Nelson</SPAN></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=white
size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: white"></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR><SPAN
style="COLOR: white" width="1"></SPAN> </BLOCKQUOTE>
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