[Corpora-List] Ambiguous words in English and their frequency

Thu Jan 26 09:08:34 UTC 2012

I was not going to reply, but I shall.

He: My wife bought this jumper here last week. Now she wants another 
just like it."
Salewoman: Yes, sir. What bust?
He: Oh, nothing, she tore it on a nail

Punch 1933

What percentage of words are ambiguous? Shall we say 100%.

Words do not have meanings, meanings have words - Firth

Everything is played out in context, we understand through Grice's 
cooperative principle? We can deliberately cause misunderstanding for 
jokes, poetry etc. Everyword in the joke has some degree of ambiguity.

Geoffrey

Le 26/01/2012 05:06, Linda Bawcom a écrit :
> *Subject:* Re: [Corpora-List] Ambiguous words in English and their 
> frequency
> Dear Karen,
> (I had to send this to the corpora list because I get bounced mail for 
> you).
> I would like to help but am unsure what you mean by an ambiguous 
> word.  I can understand that a particular word in a sentence might be 
> ambiguous. For example,  "Mary's a funny person" could mean that she 
> is comical or that she is strange. However, words are used in some 
> kind of context. Therefore, in the example, 'funny' is only ambiguous 
> if I have insufficient context to help me decide the particular use of 
> that polysemous word. In short, I believe we do not think of words 
> themselves as being ambiguous. What may be ambiguous (e.g. in need of 
> clarification) is the way a word/phrase is used in a particular 
> context or context of situation.   Perhaps you can offer a few 
> examples. Apart from that, I can only offer the following  from my 
> small data base where ambiguity is discussed:
> Aspects of English (2nd) 	202,205,262,264,270 etc. 	Bolinger,D. 
> Harcourt 	1975
> Discourse Structure &Anaphora 	3,48,50-4,56-7,60,108,123,128,131 	Fox, 
> Barbara A. 	CUP 	1987
> Computational Analysis of English 	21,26,27,39,43,51, etc. 
> Garside,R.Leech.G.Sampson, G.. 	Longman 	1987
> Corpora in Applied Ling. 	44-5,145,149 	Hunston, Susan 	CUP 	2002
>
> 	
> 	
> 	
> 	
> Semantics (2nd edition) 	31,38,42-3,48-50,86,105-8etc 	Palmer, 
> F.R. 	CUP 	1981
> Corpus, Concordance,Col 	104-05 	Sinclair, John 	OUP 	1991
> Relational Models of the Lexicon 	114,117,227 	Walton Evens, M. 
> (ed) 	CUP 	1988
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	84 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	7-Sep 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Text and Corpus Analysis 	188-9 	Stubbs, Michael 	Blackwell 	1996
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	139.141 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	145 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 
> 5-6,86,92-4,143,149,157 	Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 
> 4-6,69,112,157,212-13 	Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	11 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	212 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Relational Models of the Lexicon 	291-92,316,319,33,328-29 	Walton 
> Evens, M. (ed) 	CUP 	1988
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	
> 	Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 
> 9-12,38,131-152,215 	Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	131-36 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	150-52 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
> Semantic Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity 	134-36 
> Hirst,Graeme 	CUP 	1987
>
> Kindest regards,
> Linda Bawcom
> Kindest regards,
> Linda Bawcom
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* "FORT, Karen" <Karen.FORT at inist.fr>
> *To:* "corpora at uib.no" <corpora at uib.no>
> *Sent:* Wed, January 25, 2012 1:33:02 PM
> *Subject:* [Corpora-List] Ambiguous words in English and their frequency
>
> Hi all,
>
> I need to find this information (the proportion of ambiguous words in 
> English and their frequency).
> For example, we know that in French 8% of the words represent 30% of 
> the ambiguity.
> Of course, it's very rough, but it's only to have a rough idea.
>
> Can somebody help me with this (of course, I searched for a ref but 
> could not find anything precise)?
>
> Thank you in advance,
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Karën FORT
> Ingénieure/Engineer et/and doctorante/PhD student
> INIST-CNRS / LIPN
> 2, allée de Brabois
> 54500 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy
> France
> Bureau/Office: H112
> +33 (0)3 83 50 46 36
>
> http://www-lipn.univ-paris13.fr/~fort/
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