someone/somebody, etc.

[Thomas Paikeday]

Since there has been no response to this, maybe someone/somebody
(probably a student) should create a source. My own pragmatic approach
to such questions, as a lexicographer specializing in the usage aspect
of words, has been to draw up a concordance of a pair in question (using
a good contemporary database, not something historical like what the OED
disk could generate) and note the semantic, syntactic, and other
differences between the members of the pair. This is just a pragmatic or
working solution to the problem, but Lynne wants something more
theoretical, I presume.
Tom

THOMAS M. PAIKEDAY, lexicographer since 1964
Latest work: "The User's (tm) Webster," Lexicography, Inc., 2000
ISBN 0-920865-03-8 from: utpbooks at utpress.utoronto.ca

Lynne Murphy wrote:
>
> Does anyone (or anybody) know of any source on semantic/pragmatic
> differences between the -body and -one words?  (somebody/someone,
> everybody/everyone, anybody/anyone, nobody/no one)
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Lynne
> --
> M. Lynne Murphy
> Lecturer in Linguistics
> School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 3AN    UK
> phone:  +44(0)1273-678844
> fax:    +44(0)1273-671320