A central question for computational lexicography is whether word meanings can be identified empirically. Corpus analysis encourages the view that norms of usage can be identified for each word, and that these norms of usage can be associated with norms of word meaning and belief. But this is an over-simplified account. One problem is that no generally accepted criteria exist (yet) for distinguishing norms of usage from exploitations, such as metaphors and uses with negatives. Another problem is that norms themselves change over time. Comparison of a modern corpus with a historical corpus will show how norms of meaning and use have changed, deepening our understanding of texts of the past The paper contains a case study of the noun enthusiasm and the adjective condescending.
Session
PART 2 - Computational Lexicology and Lexicography
Keywords
BibTex
@InProceedings{ELX98_1-020, author = {Patrick Hanks}, title = {Enthusiasm and Condescension}, pages = {151-166}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 8th EURALEX International Congress}, year = {1998}, month = {aug}, date = {4-8}, address = {Liège, Belgium}, editor = {Thierry Fontenelle, Philippe Hiligsmann, Archibald Michiels, André Moulin, Siegfried Theissen}, publisher = {Euralex}, isbn = {2-87233-091-7}, }
