This paper pursues two objectives, one linguistic and one methodological in nature. First, it is concerned with a corpus-based analysis of the degree to which pairs of -ic/-ical adjectives (e.g. classic/classical) are synonymous. Second, it investigates whether Church et al.'s (1994) sub-test can be fruitfully applied to this phenomenon. As to the first issue, I conclude that individual -ic/-ical adjectives can be located on a continuum of semantic similarity, with some being virtually completely synonymous and others being strongly differentiated; several semantic and distributional distinctions between members of adjective pairs are pointed out on the basis of distinctive collocates. As to the second question, I demonstrate on the basis of a simulation that the sub-test is conceptually adequate, but suffers from its asymptotic approach, which is why Fisher-exact is argued to be a more adequate diagnostic.
2015. Conversation, Construction Grammar, and cognition. Language and Cognition 7:4 ► pp. 563 ff.
Girard, Isabelle
2013. Mark Kaunisto, Variation and change in the lexicon. A corpus-based analysis of adjectives in English ending in -ic and -ical. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2007. i–ix + 364pp. ISBN: 978–90-420–223-1 (hardback).. Word Structure 6:1 ► pp. 123 ff.
Gries, Stefan Th.
2005. Syntactic Priming: A Corpus-based Approach. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 34:4 ► pp. 365 ff.
2021. Measuring semantic distance across time. Journal of Research Design and Statistics in Linguistics and Communication Science 6:2
Pettersson-Traba, Daniela
2021. A diachronic perspective on near-synonymy: The concept of sweet-smelling in American English. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 17:2 ► pp. 319 ff.
2018. Ditransitives in Middle English: on semantic specialisation and the rise of the dative alternation. English Language and Linguistics 22:01 ► pp. 149 ff.
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