LINGUIST List 13.2209

Tue Sep 3 2002

Qs: Referring Expressions, "Corporate NP Reversal"

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>



We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have taken the trouble to respond to the query.

Directory

  • Klebanov Beata, Referring expressions: familiarity/accessibility
  • Dan Stowell, "Corporate Noun-Phrase Reversal"

    Message 1: Referring expressions: familiarity/accessibility

     Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 17:23:02 +0300 (IDT)
    From: Klebanov Beata <beatacs.huji.ac.il>
    Subject: Referring expressions: familiarity/accessibility


    Dear all,

    As far as I know, the classification of referring expressions according to the assumed familiarity/accessibility of the entity being referred to usually looks smth like: pronouns > demonstratives(+NP) > partial names > short DEFs > long DEFs > full names > short INDEFS > long INDEFS.

    However, below are some cases I came across where the expression is an RE, but it is not quite clear to me where it fits on the scale (all examples are from the Wall Street Journal):

    (1) comparatives:

    weaker results (Digital Equipment's profit fell 32% in the latest quarter, prompting forecasts of weaker results ahead.) higher commissions and revenue (The company said the improved performance from a year ago reflects higher commissions and revenue from marketing ....)

    => These assume that some benchmark results/revenue were mentioned before (the 32% fall; those one year ago), although entities referred to with the expressions themselves are new. It seems to me that "weaker results" has a higher degree of familiarity than "weak results", but just how much higher? The anchoring in previously mentioned entity reminds me of bridging, which is usually associated with short DEFs.

    (2) quantifiers: another round of horror any other major currency => seem to me somewhat similar to (1)

    (3) things that are (possibly) assumed to be singular entities:

    genocide (the reports of genocide taking place...) gold (In the Commodity Exchange in New York, gold dropped $1.60 to...; The dollar finished mixed, while gold declined.) literature (The Nobel prize in literature)

    => I think these are all REs, since they can be referred to later: the killing ... (genocide); it regained ... (gold), this category is considered the most competitive ... (literature). One possibility is to treat them as names - genocide standing for "the phenomenon of violence on ethnic basis", literature being "category of competition where writings of fiction by contemporary authors are presented", etc. Another one is to treat them as shortDEFs, as if every mention was a mention of the singular, one only entity (akin to "the sun"), where possibly not all of its aspects are relevant ("literature" in the example does not include "The Iliad", or articles on Computational Linguistics).



    I will appreciate any pointers to relevant literature (!), and/or comments on the examples. Would you know of any attempts to do automatic classification of REs?

    Thank you,

    Beata Klebanov ============== PhD student, Computer Science Department The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel www: http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~beata

    Message 2: "Corporate Noun-Phrase Reversal"

     Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 12:10:14 +0000
    From: Dan Stowell <danstowelloperamail.com>
    Subject: "Corporate Noun-Phrase Reversal"


    Dear Linguistlist,

    I've spotted a small trend in English which confuses me. I don't know if I've named it perfectly, but I'm calling it "Corporate Noun-Phrase Reversal", because it's a weird little tendency for some corporate language, in particular product-names, to put the adjective after the noun. My evidence:

    - The yoghurt product I know as "Fruit Corner" now seems to be called "Corner Fruit", judging by the container.

    - I saw an advert in a Sock Shop for "sock toes", which my best guess led me to expect them to be tiny little socks, one for each toe. ("I'd like a sock toe, please." "Certainly sir, for which toe?" "The little toe.") Closer inspection... they were actually advertising the things I refer to as "toe socks", socks which are shaped so that each toe has its own little section of sock.

    If there is an explanation for this I'd love to hear it. Is there some internationalisation effect ("je veux un corner fruit"...)? As a native British English speaker it retards my understanding, so I'm most perplexed by it.

    Dan Stowell University College London UK -