[Corpora-List] Quantitive Corpus Linguistics

[J Washtell]

Bill,

I wholeheartedly agree that consulting the philosophers is a good idea  
- up there with introspection :-) I further agree that the real test  
of the intuitions acquired thusly will be to look at the real-world  
evidence.

I find it a bit optimistic (given my own intuitions of course. But I  
should say that I do not find it beyond the realms of possibility)  
that the evidence necessary to solve all of our linguistic and  
(unavoidably?!) cognitive-linguistic ponderings is to be found in the  
text (not in the brain, say, or in the extra-corporal context). I find  
it even more optimistic that collocation (or co-anything) is the sole  
relevant dimensions of that text.

I expect I am misunderstanding you; probably because I am not very well read.

Perhaps you could explain what your attached concordances illustrate?  
It is not obvious to me.

Justin Washtell
University of Leeds



If this were the case, we wouldn't need to invoke human judgements in  
our evaluation.

Quoting "W. Louw" <louw at mango.zw>:

> Hello All
>
> The type of activity that Justin will find converting will be to put a
> hypothesis to the test.
>
> Collocation and co-selection will settle it all. Collocation settled the
> problems that Malinowski had with generic terms in Kiriwina in 1921. No
> computers then! In Kiriwina he found that things were named WOOD because they
> were made of wood. So fishing made no sense: boat was wood, oars were wood,
> rudder was wood, flails for chasing fish were wood. Firth had the solution:
> sail, row, steer, beat.
>
> Unless we involve the philosophers we will never reach science. I really
> appreciate Wolfgang's contributions because they are erudite. He reads. The
> philosopher we need to start with is Peter Helias around 1240AD. He gave us
> substance and accidents. What gives a stool its stoolness?? See how
> Wittgensteinian logical space dominates. Is it only in Zimbabwe that  
>  we do this?
>
> Read the collocates from this selection from the BNC.
>
> MicroConcord search SW: stool* CW: back*
> 80 characters per entry
> Sort : 1R/SW    shifted -9 characters.
>     1 jayi sat back in her little stool and stretched. She put her arms out
> from her s
>     2 one high-backed chair, some stools and a cupboard with a heavy oak
> frontal pushe
>     3 ltered Isabel. She sat on a stool beside the Queen's high-backed chair,
> her hand
>     4 FitzAlan was sitting on the stool by the bed, back propped against the
> wall, arm
>     5 Kiku was seated on an ebony stool, her back to the door. She   
> was combing
> her hai
>     6 er drop. He sat back on his stool, his brown, beringed hands gently
> folded in hi
>     7 ery straight-backed, on the stool. </p> <p> Handsome is as   
> handsome does,
> Hepzib
>     8 g up straight-backed on her stool, she could flatter two men   
> at once and
> still b
>     9  breath and sat back on the stool. She'd heard. She thought   
> Quiss had too
> but he
>    10 ghed, and rocked back on my stool. That's it! That's really   
> us! I laughed
> again
>    11 ollapsing backwards off his stool. The Perm got excited. After all, he
> did have
>    12 :> Right get up back on the stool then. </p> <PS0M4:> Yeah.   
> </p> <PS0M5:>
> If we
>    13 im until he was back on his stool. Too drunk for surprise, he   
> muttered an
> obscen
>    14 , she stood in front of the stool with her backside just   
> balanced on it;
> her lov
>
>    Data from the following files:
>
>    AR2            BMN            C8E            EFJ            FPX
>    FSE            H7F            H98            H9W            HH1
>    HWC            KDE
>
> _______________________________________________
> Corpora mailing list
> Corpora at uib.no
> http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora
>



_______________________________________________
Corpora mailing list
Corpora at uib.no
http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora