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

Thu Jan 26 08:59:48 UTC 2012

Dear Karen and Linda,

I found one of Linda’s references “Semantic
Interpretation and the Resolution of Ambiguity” at

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam034/850189
78.pdf 

It’s the outline and a part of the Introduction
that lists words, and ways in which words can be
ambiguous.  It also gets into the mix of syntax
and semantics that Hirst (the author) thinks is
appropriate.  A total of 19 pages are shown, then
the rest is kept until you buy a copy, but you may
get some useful overview in those 19 pages.  

HTH,

-Rich

Sincerely,

Rich Cooper

EnglishLogicKernel.com

Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com

9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2

  _____  

From: corpora-bounces at uib.no
[mailto:corpora-bounces at uib.no] On Behalf Of Linda
Bawcom
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 8:07 PM
To: corpora at uib.no
Subject: [Corpora-List] Ambiguous words in English
and their frequency

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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