Lexical Semantics An Introduction Boris Iomdin Russian Language
Lexical Semantics. An Introduction Boris Iomdin Russian Language Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences iomdin@ruslang. ru
Lecture 13. Plan Clothing lexicon Dictionaries Official standards Problems Clothing: an experiment Word. Net Glasses Purses Dominant Dictionary project
Describe in 20 seconds
Check yourself: Sweater Jumper Pullover Sweatshirt Jersey … Glass Wineglass Goblet Flute …
Sweater
Jumper
Pullover
Webster SWEATER a knitted or crocheted jacket or pullover JACKET a garment for the upper body usually having a front opening, collar, lapels, sleeves, and pockets PULLOVER a pullover garment (as a sweater)
Webster • SWEATSHIRT: a loose collarless pullover or jacket usually of heavy cotton jersey • JERSEY: any of various close-fitting usually circular -knitted garments especially for the upper body
State Standards
Official use Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office British Embassy RE: Knitted Wool Cardigan This is in reference to your letter of November 15, 1988, on behalf of Donna Karan Co. , requesting classification of a women's knit cardigan under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated, (HTSUSA). We also reply to your letter of October 3, 1988, in which you requested a review of the category number assigned to the merchandise in issue. A sample was submitted for inspection.
Official use FACTS: Style no. 214 is a woman's knit cardigan that consists of 60 percent rayon and 40 percent wool fibers. The sample has long sleeves that are hemmed at the ends; a full-front opening with a four button closure and a V-neckline. Other features include a one inch wide placket that extends from the waist towards and around the neck, which acts as a capping to finish the body fabric. There are two hidden-edge pockets at the front waist area. The garment extends from the neck and shoulders to the hips, and is worn over a shirt or blouse for warmth.
Official use ISSUE: 1. Whether the cardigan is properly classifiable as a wool overcoat under Heading 6102, HTSUSA, or as a wool sweater under Heading 6110, HTSUSA? 2. Whether the sample garment, if "knitted in fine gauge" is subject to quota category number 435 (for wool coats), or category number 446 (for wool sweaters)?
Official use LAW AND ANALYSIS: Classification of merchandise under the HTSUSA is in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRI), taken in order. <…> Heading 6110 provides for sweaters, pullovers, sweatshirts, waistcoats (vests) and similar articles, knitted or crocheted. <…> Since the garment at issue is a cardigan-style sweater such as described above, and has all the horizontal and vertical elasticity normally associated with sweaters, it is classified as a sweater under this heading.
Problems Outdated or obsolete material No systematic descriptions Obscure explications Synonyms and periphrases used in the explications Mismatch of dictionaries, standard documents and current usage
Vicious circles Sepulka, pl. sepulki, an important element of the civilization of Ardrites (see) from Enteropia planet (see). See sepulkaria. Sepulkaria, sg. sepulkarium, an object for sepulation (see). Sepulation, an occupation of Ardrites (see) from Enteropia planet (see). See sepulka. (Stanisław Lem, Dzienniki gwiazdowe)
Webster • GARMENT: an article of clothing • CLOTHING: garments in general
Dictionaries vs. Standards DZHEMPER: No zipper according to dictionaries, but an upper zipper according to standards KOFTA: Included into all dictionaries, but forbidden by the standards KOFTOCHKA: Garment for children according to the standards, but not in dictionaries
Dictionaries and usage According to all dictionaries: Sviter has no zipper and a high collar Web search: sviter na molnii ‘sweater with a zipper’ 25 000 sviter s vorotom ‘sweater with a collar’– 3 000
Dzhemper
Clothing. An experiment 70 participants, average of 27 years Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities 26 images of people found on the using keywords like sviter ‘sweater’, kofta ‘jacket’, dzhemper ‘jumper’, pulover ‘pullover’, vodolazka ‘turtleneck’, mixed with some other distracting images Task: describe the images, following a sample All results can be found at izjumis. livejournal. com
Results. Frequencies (Only 2 out of 26 images matched the standard descriptions of sviter ‘sweater’)
Results. Sviter For 25 out of 26 images, sviter was used at least once For 13 out of 26 images, sviter is the most frequent For the rest, sviter is the second (even for the dog!) 72% of participants use sviter for most images (18% use kofta, 2% use jumper) Only sviter is included into the recent Russian frequency dictionary [Lyashevskaya & Sharoff 2008]
Results. Differences Vodolazka ‘turtleneck’ has the most distinct meaning For each of the images, vodolazka (or its regional variants) was used either very frequently (>75%), or very rarely (<2%). All objects called so: have a collar have no clasp (fastener) are pull-on
Results. Differences All other words are inside a diffuse (fuzzy) zone, and no clear distinctions could be found A mathematical regression revealed the following dependencies: Sviter is thick and pull-on Dzhemper has no collar Pulover has no neckline, is pull-on and is seldom worn by males Kofta is not pull-on All other features (including those mentioned in dictionaries) are irrelevant
Male kofta Kofta was used 178 times to describe a male, although in all dictionaries kofta is for females only
Rubashka and sorochka Rubashka was used 158 times, sorochka was used 2 times In official use (including shops, etc. ), it is almost always sorochka
Results of an experiment at Summer School of Linguistics Average number of different items males 16 females 29 110 different words
Most frequent words dzhinsy ‘jeans’ (98%) kurtka ‘jacket’ (98%) sviter ‘sweater’ (91%) futbolka ‘T-shirt’(91%) rubashka ‘shirt’ (83%) shorty ‘shorts’ (83%) Every girl and no boy has: jubka ‘skirt’
“Sweaters” sviter (91%) kofta (74%) vodolazka (43%) dzhemper (30%) kardigan (26%) tolstovka (26%) koftochka (22%) fliska (13%) pulover (9%)
Results of a small experiment: course participants in Prague sweater 7 jumper 1 sweatshirt 1 cardigan 1 svetr 5 mikina 5 rolák 2 mikina equivalents: sweater jacket sweatshirt thick T-shirt
Glasses
Differential features Used for RJUMKA strong alcohol BOKAL wine FUZHER Champagne Size small middle or large Stem not obligatory
Word. Net A computerized database of English developed in Princeton since 1985 More than 200 000 words, organized into synsets http: //wordnet. princeton. edu/
Sweaters in Word. Net S: (n) sweater, jumper (a crocheted or knitted garment covering the upper part of the body) S: (n) sweatshirt (cotton knit pullover with long sleeves worn during athletic activity) S: (n) pullover, slipover (a sweater that is put on by pulling it over the head).
Three jumpers S: (n) jumper (a coverall worn by children) S: (n) jumper (a loose jacket or blouse worn by workmen) S: (n) jumper, pinafore, pinny (a sleeveless dress resembling an apron; worn over other clothing)
Jersey S: (n) jersey, T-shirt, tee shirt (a close-fitting pullover shirt)
The rest S: (n) turtleneck, turtle, polo-neck (a sweater or jersey with a high close-fitting collar) S: (n) cardigan (knitted jacket that is fastened up the front with buttons or a zipper) S: (n) jacket (a short coat) S: (n) coat (an outer garment that has sleeves and covers the body from shoulder down; worn outdoors)
Glasses S: (n) glass, drinking glass (a container for holding liquids while drinking)
Glasses S: (n) wineglass (a glass that has a stem and in which wine is served) S: (n) shot glass, jigger, pony (a small glass adequate to hold a single swallow of whiskey) S: (n) snifter, brandy glass (a globular glass with a small top; used for serving brandy) S: (n) flute, flute glass, champagne flute (a tall narrow wineglass)
Two goblets S: (n) goblet (a drinking glass with a base and stem) S: (n) chalice, goblet (a bowl-shaped drinking vessel; especially the Eucharistic cup)
Champagne flute
Brandy snifter glass
Water goblet
Goblet glass
Martini glass
Margarita glass
Cosmo glass
Bretagne Sherry glass
Purses S: (n) bag, handbag, pocketbook, purse (a container used for carrying money and small personal items or accessories (especially by women)) "she reached into her bag and found a comb" S: (n) purse (a small bag for carrying money) S: (n) wallet, billfold, notecase, pocketbook (a pocket -size case for holding papers and paper money)
Not included Money clip Filofax Manbag Murse …
Word. Reference. com I have a question for native speakers and fluent English-speakers. Which is the difference between "wallet" and "billfold"?
Word. Reference. com A billfold is a kind of wallet carried by a man that folds over. A billfold is something to put your dollar bills into. I would say that all billfolds are wallets but not all wallets are billfolds. I think that they are essentially the same thing. In an elegant store or a leather-goods boutique the sales clerk would know the difference and ask which you prefer.
Difficulties Meanings are fuzzy Life changes rapidly, so the words do, too Different dialects and regional usage (sweaters substituted for jumpers in U. S. editions of the Harry Potter books!)
Top
Bodi
Kombidress
Shrag
Monetnica (old meaning)
Monetnica (new meaning)
Maniklip
What’s that?
Quest for the standars Speakers often have very different opinions Professionals often use their own jargon or instructions, which are not suitable for ordinary speakers Who knows the truth?
Conclusions Impossible to compose universally accepted explications Each group has its dominant A dictionary of everyday terms should be compiled
Dominant of a group The most frequent word Used in dictionary examples Preferred in some contexts Has connotations Richer co-occurrence Best derivational potential Experimentally proved
Dominant of a group Although every nomenclature has to provide different words for different reference, in the natural language groups of words denoting similar objects almost always have a dominant In the three analyzed groups, it’s rjumka ‘wineglass’ kosheljok ‘purse’ sviter ‘sweater’
Frequencies National Russian Corpus rjumka 4684, bokal 3350, fuzher 431 kosheljok 1909, bumazhnik 1425, portmone 208 sviter 1461, kofta 1182, dzhemper 118, vodolazka 85, pulover 56
Examples in dictionaries sviter kosheljok
Co-occurrence pjanet’ ot odnoj rjumki <? bokala, ? ? fuzhera> ‘get drunk after a single wineglass’ voz’mi s soboj sviter poteplee <? dzemper, ? ? pulover> ‘take a warm sweater with you’ tovary na ljuboj kosheljok <? bumazhnik, ? ? portmone> ‘articles for each purse’
Derivation: diminutives National Russian Corpus: rjumochka 795, bokal’chik 49, fuzherchik 9; sviterok 82, dzhemperok 2, puloverok 0, puloverchik 0, vodolazochka 0 kosheljochek 38, bumazhnichek 0, portmoneshka 0
Meanings in a “simple mode” sviter ≈ ‘a knitted or similar object of garment for the upper part of body’ rjumka ≈ ‘a container for drinking alcohol’ kosheljok ≈ ‘a portable object for money’
Dictionary: a project Group of words with close meanings Dominant Relevant differential features Official standards Usage preferences Regional differences Images Etymology
Thank you for your attention!
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