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

[Mike Maxwell]

On 1/29/2011 3:29 PM, Angus B. Grieve-Smith wrote:
> Actually, it strikes me that one thing that's missing from this
> discussion of compound noun formation is the role of analogy. "Rubber
> chicken circuit" clearly comes from other circuits like the lecture
> circuit and the Keith circuit. "Devil's food cake" makes a lot more
> sense if you contrast it with "angel food cake."

At one end of some kind of continuum, we have compounds that are 
probably one-offs; maybe 'rubberneck' (a verb).  At the other end, we 
have compounds that appear to be completely general, like 'X sensor': 
'quark sensor', 'country music sensor'* and 'guffaw sensor' being a few 
I just made up (except that google found seven examples of 'quark 
sensor', so I can't copyright that one).

It strikes me that this continuum of compounds might shed light on the 
relationship in language between analogy and rules.  By relationship, I 
mean that rules and analogy might be different things, both available 
but called on in different circumstances.  Or they might be the same 
thing, with a kind of cline of generalization between them.  And of 
course some would claim that everything is analogy, although it's not 
clear to me that this claim differs from saying analogies and rules are 
on a cline.

So are the completely general compound patterns analogies, or rules?

*Not to be confused with a 'country music censor'.
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu
         "A library is the best possible imitation, by human beings,
         of a divine mind, where the whole universe is viewed and
         understood at the same time... we have invented libraries
         because we know that we do not have divine powers, but we
         try to do our best to imitate them." --Umberto Eco

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