The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution
-
Mieko Ogura
Abstract
We present a quantitative study of the semantic network of the set of nouns and verbs of WordNet, which is a systematic representation of the Present-day English lexicon based on psycholinguistic considerations, and A Thesaurus of Old English to understand the evolution of the global organization of the English lexicon. We demonstrate that whereas the semantic network is dominated by the hypernymy tree, which works as the skeleton of the set of nouns and verbs, the inclusion of polysemy produces a drastic global reorganization of the semantic structure, that is, it is converted into a small world, where all meanings are closer to each other. We then show that the words with higher frequency and therefore with higher number of meanings construct the higher level of the hypernymy tree within each lexical category. This architecture is robust through the times, forming the basis of the smallworld network. We also suggest that the small-world topology of the brain has enhanced the small-world configuration of semantic structure.
Abstract
We present a quantitative study of the semantic network of the set of nouns and verbs of WordNet, which is a systematic representation of the Present-day English lexicon based on psycholinguistic considerations, and A Thesaurus of Old English to understand the evolution of the global organization of the English lexicon. We demonstrate that whereas the semantic network is dominated by the hypernymy tree, which works as the skeleton of the set of nouns and verbs, the inclusion of polysemy produces a drastic global reorganization of the semantic structure, that is, it is converted into a small world, where all meanings are closer to each other. We then show that the words with higher frequency and therefore with higher number of meanings construct the higher level of the hypernymy tree within each lexical category. This architecture is robust through the times, forming the basis of the smallworld network. We also suggest that the small-world topology of the brain has enhanced the small-world configuration of semantic structure.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
-
Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
-
Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
-
Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
-
Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Editors’ introduction xi
-
Part I. Etymology
- Etymology and the OED 3
- On the etymological relationships of wank , swank , and wonky 21
- Base etymology in the historical thesauri of deverbatives in English 29
-
Part II. Semantic fields
- The global organization of the English lexicon and its evolution 65
- Repayment and revenge 85
- Semantic change in the domain of the vocabulary of Christian clergy 99
-
Part III. Word-formation
- Abstract noun ‘suffixes’ and text type in Old English 119
- The lexicalisation of syncope 133
- Oriented - ingly adjuncts in Late Modern English 147
-
Part IV. Textlinguistics, text types, politeness
- Historical text linguistics 167
- Repetitive and therefore fixed? 189
- Politeness strategies in Late Middle English women’s mystical writing 209
- A diachronic discussion of extenders in English remedies found in the Corpus of Early English Recipes (1350–1850) 223
- “It is with a trembling hand I beg to intrude this letter” 237
- Genre analysis 255
- Index 267
