Week 9 - MWEs and Alternations Flashcards
Define multi word expression
Name
Date
A lexical item” that contains more than one lexeme and when combined they create a unified meaning
Moon 2015
What are the three criteria when analysing MWEs?
Name
Institutionalism
- how conventional is it? Is it considered a unit by the community? Does it reoccur?
Fixedness
- is the form frozen? Do the forms vary syntactically or lexically, eg. Can the words be changed?
Non-compositionality
- to what degree does the thing have unitary meaning over segmental?
Moon
Define compounds
- two words joined to make one
- hyphenisation increases institutionalisation
Eg. E-mail to email
Define phrasal verbs
A combination of verb + adverb or prep
Moon suggests they are highly institutionalised and fixed
May be compositional (work out meaning from words)
Or non-compositional (can’t be broken into components, must be a unit)
Eg. Black out, blow up
Define idioms
Multi word items that are not the sum of their parts.
They have holistic meaning that can’t be retrieved from individual components
Eg. Kick the bucket
What is suggested about idioms and by who?
Moon
- many idioms are etymologically metaphorical, some are obvious and others are less so
High non-compositionality is questioned to degree
Eg. Let the cat out of the bag (allow a secret to be made common knowledge)
Define fixed phrases
- High institutionalised and often strongly fixed, can’t be changed
Eg. of course, excuse me
- To what degree of paradigmatic and syntagmatic variation permissible? (Moon)
- There are counter examples
Idiomatic expressions are…
- Easy for native speakers, idioms are made by them
- Easy for children as they pick up phrases by default
- Easy for those with language loss as they remember routine triggered by situation
- Difficult for advanced second language learners as they must break down MWE’s and cannot fit them back together
Define norms
- Standard, normal, expected patterns of a word
Define alternations
Different versions/appearances of the normal patterns, without considerably changing the meaning of the word
Define exploitations
Non-standard patterns which employ a very different meaning of the word eg. metaphorical
Hanks: Phraseologies that are infrequent and don’t conform to the norm
What can we do with corpus lines/
- Classify them as realisations of particular patterns
- Within the patterns some are alternations and some are exploitations
What are the 3 types of alternation?
- Lexical
- Semantic-type
- Syntactic
Define lexical alternation
The verb slot can vary but they have to share some meaning and be similar
- High degree of semantic overlap
- Differences can be dialectal
eg. relax his guard, lower his guard
Define semantic-type alternation
A generalisation of the essential semantic property of a shared set of lexemes
- Can be further sub-typed eg. Animals includes birds
- Variation between two or more words that fit in a semantic slot
- Change of emphasis or focus, not meaning
eg. Obama said no, to The White House said no
