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

Fri Jan 27 13:35:51 UTC 2012

I am a huge fan of Graeme Hirst but this book is 25 years old and a great amount of empirical/computational work has been done on Word Sense Disambiguation since then--although whether it helps with any practical problems is another matter.
Yorick Wilks

On 26 Jan 2012, at 08:59, Rich Cooper wrote:

> 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/cam034/85018978.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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