[Corpora-List] Moving Lexical Semantics from Alchemy to Science

[Dominic Widdows]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:36 AM,  <amsler at cs.utexas.edu> wrote:
> Technically, yes; but what I think makes a truly interesting combination is
> when the alternate meaning arises accidentally to serve a necessary purpose.

Technically yes, but in practice, no - compounds have a well-known
property of (usually) only taking on some of the available meanings.

There's some good literature on this, but being a parent of small
children my favourite by a long way is the song "When I see and
elephant fly."

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/w/wheniseeanelephantfly.shtml

Best wishes,
Dominic

> The reason 'solar system' is interesting is that I don't think the people
> who coined it were intentionally trying to be funny. Their domain used
> 'solar' in a whole array (sorry) of compounds consistent with only one
> meaning until they accidentally coined one compound that collided with the
> other meaning.
>
> I suppose one could distinguish between 'the solar system' and 'a solar
> system' (at least until recently, when astronomers started looking for
> extra-solar planets), but what I'm trying to say is that the ambiguous ones
> I'm most interested in are those that came about via evolutionary processes
> and somehow managed to both get established thus demonstrating two
> decompositional principles that are sustainable within the language.
>
> The fragility of these combinations is obvious as they violate a fundamental
> principle of discourse, i.e., being clear as to what one means. The BBC
> examples are excellent because they are 'real'. One should force the other
> out of existence once the perception of the ambiguity dawns on most people.
> Either that or force the addition of words for clarification, as in
> 'astronomical solar system' vs. 'solar energy system'.
>
> Quoting "Krishnamurthy, Ramesh" <r.krishnamurthy at aston.ac.uk>:
>
>> Hi all
>>
>> a) Surely any multi-word item involving at least one polysemous  element
>> would be a candidate?
>> e.g. civil service [service = an act or an organization]
>>
>> b) Or indeed, any pair of words, as they have the potential to  engage in
>> a variety of case relationships?
>> e.g. walking stick
>>
>>
>>
>> c) Then there's the problem of segmentation/sequence, i.e. "(a+b) +  c" or
>> "a + (b+c)"?
>>
>> e.g. hot water tap
>>
>> Best
>> Ramesh Krishnamurthy
>> Lecturer in English Studies, School of Languages and Social Sciences,
>> Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
>> Tel: +44 (0)121-204-3812 ; Fax: +44 (0)121-204-3766 [Room NX08, 10th
>> Floor, North Wing of Main Building]
>> http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lss/staff/krishnamurthyr/
>> Director, ACORN (Aston Corpus Network project): http://acorn.aston.ac.uk/
>>
>>
>>
>> Message: 6
>>
>> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:43:45 +0000
>>
>> From: Justin Washtell <lec3jrw at leeds.ac.uk<mailto:lec3jrw at leeds.ac.uk>>
>>
>> Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] Moving Lexical Semantics from Alchemy to
>>
>>      Science
>>
>> To: David Wible <wible at stringnet.org<mailto:wible at stringnet.org>>,  John
>> Williams
>>
>>      <j0hnwh0ever.corpora at gmail.com<mailto:j0hnwh0ever.corpora at gmail.com>>
>>
>> Cc: "Corpora at uib.no<mailto:Corpora at uib.no>"
>>  <Corpora at uib.no<mailto:Corpora at uib.no>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ancient history teachers.
>>
>> Or, a little tenuously, comprehensive ancient history teachers.
>>
>>
>>
>> Justin Washtell
>>
>> University of Leeds
>>
>> ________________________________________
>>
>> From: corpora-bounces at uib.no<mailto:corpora-bounces at uib.no>
>>  [corpora-bounces at uib.no] On Behalf Of David Wible  [wible at stringnet.org]
>>
>> Sent: 28 January 2011 09:17
>>
>> To: John Williams
>>
>> Cc: Corpora at uib.no<mailto:Corpora at uib.no>
>>
>> Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] Moving Lexical Semantics from Alchemy to
>> Science
>>
>>
>>
>> How about 'heavy metal fans'?
>>
>>
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 7:57 PM, John Williams
>>  <j0hnwh0ever.corpora at gmail.com<mailto:j0hnwh0ever.corpora at gmail.com<mailto:j0hnwh0ever.corpora at gmail.com%3cmailto:j0hnwh0ever.corpora at gmail.com>>>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ... P.S. Anyone have some other ambiguous open compounds they are
>>  familiar with, besides 'solar system'?
>>
>>
>>
>> 'golf club' springs to mind
>>
>>
>>
>> j0hn
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----------
>>
>>
>>
>> John Williams
>>
>> Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics
>>
>> School of Languages and Area Studies
>>
>> PK 2.18, University of Portsmouth
>>
>> Portsmouth PO1 2DZ
>>
>> Tel: (0239 284) 2162
>>
>> Email:
>>  john.x.williams at port.ac.uk<mailto:john.x.williams at port.ac.uk<mailto:john.x.williams at port.ac.uk%3cmailto:john.x.williams at port.ac.uk>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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