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

[amsler at cs.utexas.edu]

Analogy is indeed a powerful force in the creation of new compounds,  
but one needs etymological data to know what compounds came first and  
thus established the premise for the analogy or rule that followed  
their introduction. Lacking knowledge of 'case zero' one can't follow  
the spread forward.

The pieces of the puzzle are available. Etymological dictionaries such  
as the OED can tell us when some compounds first appeared, historical  
corpora can tell us how popular they were over time as well as what  
other compounds, nonce or permanent, came into existence over time  
(and when they died out) and analysis of the elements that took part  
in those compounds and others can give us clues as to underlying  
principles that unite them.

The corpus needs are evident, as when rules for creating new compounds  
become so well established that dictionaries decide there is no need  
to explicitly take note of all their members (e.g., such as the  
compounds having 'store' as their second term, 'toy store', 'shoe  
store', 'pet store', 'drug store', 'clothing store', 'cigar store',  
'fabric store', 'book store', etc.) I.e., we're denied the historical  
evidence as to when they each were first used as well as which words  
they pair with such as 'store' rather than 'shop' or 'superstore',  
'mart', 'seller', etc.

Lacking the prosaic knowledge of what components were selected we are  
denied the evidence necessary to unscramble the hidden attributes of  
each which made them prefer the compounds they formed; thus  
dictionaries, even historical dictionaries, only preserve some of the  
evidence of the compounds.


Oh, I was listening to the news about Egypt and the American news  
shows were having to scramble to find reporters actually over there.  
They managed to find a British reporter who reported on the people  
trying to get out of Egypt all staying at the airport with their  
'luggage trolleys' all full and waiting for flights out. (Of course,  
Americans use 'luggage carts' and not 'luggage trolleys'). 'Trolley'  
is certainly a persistent compound component. So, despite there being  
a rule as to what the definition of a 'luggage trolley' is,  speakers  
of American vs. British English would not identify the same object  
with the same term if they saw it. So, perhaps to define something you  
might also need to know the nationality of the speaker? Have a cookie  
or is that a biscuit? There are no square cookies! I don't know what  
fig newtons are? Wikipedia says they are a 'fig roll pastry' I guess  
they don't know either.
Well, OK, maybe coconut macaroons are square cookies.

Dr. Robert A. Amsler
Town of Vienna, Virginia, USA






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