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

Fri Jan 28 17:17:55 UTC 2011

Hi Robert

I think we have shifted from 'ambiguity' to 'intentionality'? I presume the coiners of
'walking stick', 'civil service', 'hot water tap' etc did not intend to be funny? But
they can clearly be seen as ambiguous items, if analysed purely linguistically and in 
isolation?

" The fragility of these combinations is obvious as they violate a  
fundamental principle of discourse, i.e., being clear as to what one  
means."

I agree. Grice's conversational maxims etc. No ambiguity exists in most human discourse, 
because meanings arise out of context, not from individual items. In a seminar entitled 
'Uniguity', John Sinclair suggested that 'ambiguity usually arises because we are looking 
at insufficient context'.

Most ambiguity is imposed, not 'real'. I presume that if someone offered to install a solar 
system in your house, you would not come home expecting to find Jupiter in your kitchen? Only 
Disney might feature a real 'walking' stick (in fact wasn't there one in Beauty and the Beast?). :-) 
Most comedians' puns rely on our ability/skill in simultaneously entertaining two different 
'senses' of a word...

" 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'."

This is the part I don't agree with. I think we tolerate a lot of redundancy, overlap,
inaccuracy, etc in language. Grice talks many about the speaker's responsibilities,
but the hearer also has responsibilities? And if genuinely puzzled, we can always
negotiate/discuss meaning, as you and I are doing?

Best
Ramesh

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/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: amsler at cs.utexas.edu [mailto:amsler at cs.utexas.edu] 
Sent: 28 January 2011 15:37
To: Krishnamurthy, Ramesh
Cc: Corpora at uib.no
Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] Moving Lexical Semantics from Alchemy to Science

Technically, yes; but what I think makes a truly interesting  
combination is when the alternate meaning arises accidentally to serve  
a necessary purpose.

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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