Testing the sub-test

An analysis of English -ic and -ical adjectives

Bibliographic Data

ID12621237
AuthorsStefan Th Grie (0000-0002-6497-3958, University of Southern Denmark, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume8
Issue1
Pages31-61
Publication date2003-08-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Corpus Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1384-6655 • E-ISSN: 1569-9811
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/ijcl.8.1.02gri
OpenAlexW2016938997
LanguageEN
Citations received9

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

Adjective · Basis (linear algebra · Epistemology · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Phenomenon · Similarity (geometry · Test (biology · Authorship Attribution and Profiling · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Mathematics · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence

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