Thesaurus Of English Research Articles

Evolution of the Moral Lexicon.

Morality is central to social well-being and cognition, and moral lexicon is a key device for human communication of moral concepts and experiences. How was the moral lexicon formed? We explore this open question and hypothesize that words evolved to take on abstract moral meanings from concrete and grounded experiences. We test this hypothesis by analyzing semantic change and formation of over 800 words from the English Moral Foundations Dictionary and the Historical Thesaurus of English over the past hundreds of years. Across historical text corpora and dictionaries, we discover concrete-to-abstract shifts as words acquire moral meaning, in contrast with the broad observation that words become more concrete over time. Furthermore, we find that compound moral words tend to be derived from a concrete-to-abstract shift from their constituents, and this derivational property is more prominent in moral words compared to alternative compound words when word frequency is controlled for. We suggest that evolution of the moral lexicon depends on systematic metaphorical mappings from concrete domains to the moral domain. Our results provide large-scale evidence for the role of metaphor in shaping the historical development of the English moral lexicon.

Trends in the development of vocabulary for emotion and cognition in English: A millennial perspective

Existing research has shown that there is much variation in diachronic development and borrowability rates across different semantic fields in English, but most work up to now has focused on specialized or technical vocabulary, rather than fields associated with how people express and conceptualize their feelings and thoughts. While some studies have explored the historical evolution of the emotion lexicon (e.g., Diller [2014]) and, to a lesser extent, the cognition lexicon (e.g., Kiricsi [2010]), the contrastive study of these semantic categories has yet to be a focus in the research landscape. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the development of the cognition and emotion lexicon over a period of thousand years, from Old to Present-Day English. We compare the emergence of words in these two semantic fields across three key dimensions: semantic subfields, source languages of roots and morphological structure. For this purpose, we created a sample of approx. 1400 nouns on the basis of the Historical Thesaurus of English (HTE; categories: 02.01 mental capacity and 02.04 emotion) and analysed their etymology with the help of the Oxford English Dictionary. To annotate the lexical items in our sample, we used the methods of formal-morphological analysis (e.g., Tyschenko [2003]; Krykoniuk [2022]) and semantic analysis (e.g., Pons-Sanz [2022]; HTE [2023]). We analyse our sample with clustering techniques (i.e., Principal Component Analysis and Correspondence Analysis) to determine general trends across the two lexicons (e.g. a greater involvement of Latin roots and compounding in the formation of the cognition lexicon, and Norse-derived roots and conversion in coinage of nouns referring to emotion), as well as specific features of each period of the English language (e.g. the significant impact that the Middle English period had on the lexicalization of memory, fear, compassion, pleasure and suffering, and the early integration of French-derived terms, as suggested by word-formation processes).

A Human-Scale Set of Categories for the Historical Thesaurus of English

ABSTRACT: The Historical Thesaurus of English ( HT ) categorizes the English vocabulary into meaning-based categories containing synonymous or near-synonymous lexical items. Its extensive hierarchical categorization scheme (c. 235,000 categories) is, however, unwieldy for new and more casual users. Additionally, it can be too fine-grained for implementation in natural language processing tools, leading them to produce over-specified results where humans recognize ambiguity. This article outlines the reasoning and methodology behind the creation of a truncated semantic hierarchy, known by the HT editors as the thematic category set. Development of the category set was guided by evaluation of which concepts are too technical or too general to be relevant to the average user, with cut-offs imposed on the hierarchy at an intermediate human-scale level. The result is a hybrid category set which combines organisation by synonymy at higher levels of abstraction, and organisation by something approaching a conceptual field at lower, less abstract levels.

Exploring Lexical Errors of Indonesian EFL Students in Writing Recount Texts

<p><em>The study aimed to examine the EFL students’ lexical errors in writing recount texts. This study employed a descriptive qualitative method involving 31 students and uses the taxonomy of James’ lexical errors in analyzing the texts. The findings revealed that there was a total of 161 lexical errors in the students’ recount writings. Likewise, it was claimed that misselection became the most frequent lexical error, with 73 errors. The next was suffix type with 35 errors and calque with 10 errors. Furthermore, the results showed that most students felt difficult to select the appropriate lexical types in writing recount texts and most of the formal errors resulted from the intralingual error. Thus, the study recommends that the teachers teach vocabulary in contexts rather than words and use English thesaurus or monolingual dictionaries to find the grammatical content, definitions, examples, spelling, or other structures. The study also recommends online lexical analyzers, drillling, and remedy as the other alternative methods of reducing lexical errors in writing.</em></p>

To hele them of somme sekenesses and maladyes and all illness of the stomach. On the rivalry between illness, sickness and malady in Middle English

The present paper analyses the fates of the native nouns illness and sickness and those of the French borrowing malady in Middle English. Focusing on the regional and temporal dimensions of their rivalry, the study uses the evidence from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose (ICMEP, Markus 2008), a collection of 129 works of Middle English prose. The analysis also makes use of other databases such as Collins English Dictionary (CED), the Historical Thesaurus of English (HTE), Middle English Dictionary online (MED), Merriam-Webster Dictionary (MWD), and the Oxford English Dictionary online (OED). The degree of the adaptability of the terms in question is best reflected in their varied frequency in the ICMEP’s texts. The tentative research results place malady (107 attestations in total) far behind its Germanic equivalent sickness (701 attestations). A single instance of illness testifies to its low recognisability in the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose, probably due to its being often replaced by sickness, which leads to a considerable reduction in the use of the term.

Selected Middle English adjectives of happiness: their representation in the Innsbruck Corpus

The present paper analyses the fates of the Middle English synonyms of the adjective happy. The group of the examined words contains adjectives beneurous, benewred, felicious, gracious, seely and the key item happy. Focusing on their fates in the period under question, the study uses data from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English, a collection of 129 Middle English digitised texts, preserved in 159 files, to determine token frequency, text distribution and semantic changes of the examined adjectives. Other sources used in the study are Middle English Dictionary (MED), The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Historical Thesaurus of English (HTE) and AntConc, a freeware corpus analysis program. The evidence from the Innsbruck Corpus of Middle English Prose shows considerable discrepancies in the token frequency of the analysed terms and the number of attestations employed in the sense ‘happy’. Although the position of the adjective gracious was extraordinarily strong (354 attestations), the termyielded only 13 attestations used in the sense under study. The marginal status of benewred (2 attestations)and lack of beneurous in the Middle English texts examined announce their loss at the end of the period.

Semantic Shift in Middle English: Farming and Trade As Test Cases

AbstractThis paper presents a study undertaken as part of the Technical Language and Semantic Shift in Middle English project. Our dataset (totalling 4,628 words and 2,215 senses) is drawn from an expanded corpus of the Bilingual Thesaurus of Everyday Life in Medieval England. This lexis has been arranged into a semantic hierarchy, based on the categories devised for the Historical Thesaurus of English, in order to address a much discussed feature of language change that has not been investigated using a lexical corpus. The project aims to use this digitised hypernymic framework to track shift at various levels of technicality, collate data on borrowing and obsolescence, and examine the linguistic ecology of the Middle English period from a semantic‐hierarchic viewpoint.Autohyponyms from two domains (Farming and Trade) were collated and compared with the wider corpus for specificity, lexicalisation and language of origin. Our findings suggest that terms which narrow or broaden in meaning tend to start off at the more general levels of the hierarchy and shift from semantic spaces which have a higher than average number of co‐hyponyms. Autohyponyms appear more likely to be of French than of Old English origin, prompting further questions about borrowing and sense development.

“In barbarous times and in uncivilized countries”

AbstractThe ways in which politicians have discussed who, what, and where was considered “uncivilized’” across the past two centuries gives an insight into how speakers in a position of authority classified and constructed the world around them, and how those in power in Britain see the country and themselves. This article uses the Hansard Corpus 1803–2003 of speeches in the UK Parliament alongside data from theHistorical Thesaurus of Englishto analyse diachronic variation in usage of words for persons, places and practices considered uncivil. It proposes new methods and offers quantitative data to describe the period’s shift in political attitudes towards not just the so-called “uncivil” but also the country as a whole.

Discourse of Loyalty, Subjecthood and Citizenship: from Medieval to Modern Practices

The article discusses historical, linguistic, and discursive aspects of the nouns loyalty, subjecthood, and citizenship. Тhe focus is on the historical lexico-semantic changes of the three nouns, which demonstrate that denotations are modified in different historical contexts. The analysis starts with D. Sperber and D. Wilson’s assumption that the correspondence between concepts and words may be one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, or a combination of these since it is quite implausible that there is an exhaustive one-to-one mapping between mental concepts and public words. Words can be used in different contexts and discourses, and the synchronic semasiological approach may not always provide the full specification of word meaning, especially when the meaning of abstract nouns is analyzed. As argued by H.-J. Schmid, the formation of concrete concepts is different from the formation of abstract concepts, the latter being more complex as it can depend on many different experiences, which can make it difficult to form a single stable abstract concept. In the report on their experiments, S. J. Crutch and E. K. Warrington’s assertion would be that abstract concepts are represented in an associative neural network while concrete concepts have a categorical organization. This suggests that concrete words are more likely to be understood adequately, and, vice versa, abstract words — inadequately. Moreover, our understanding of words and the world can change over time because our experiences and historical circumstances can and do change. This article considers the issue of abstract concept-formation with regard to both synchronic and diachronic lexico-semantic aspects of the nouns loyalty, subjecthood, and citizenship. These aspects are analyzed in accordance with the lexico-semantic frameworks provided by the second editionof the University of Glasgow’s Historical Thesaurus of English. The aim is to demonstrate that the meanings of the three nouns can be understood more adequately if their lexico-semantic features are compared and contrasted not only synchronically but also diachronically. Another aim is to show that a better understanding of the nouns relies on both synchronically and diachronically contextualized knowledge.

Identifying, Categorising and Exploring ‘Ælfrician’ Vocabulary Using the Dictionary of Old English, A Thesaurus of Old English and Evoke

Abstract Ælfric of Eynsham (c.955×957–c.1010) is one of the most prominent authors of the Anglo-Saxon period. Despite this fact, there has not yet been an exhaustive study into his typical vocabulary. This article employs the Dictionary of Old English and prior scholarship in order to collect and categorise the lexis that is characteristic for his works. This vocabulary is then analysed using the web application Evoke together with A Thesaurus of Old English, which provides insights into the semantic domains that predominate in Ælfric’s vocabulary, as well as the degrees of ambiguity, synonymy and specificity of his typical lexis.

Linking the Dictionary of Old Dutch to A Thesaurus of Old English

Abstract At the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal (Dutch Language Institute), DiaMaNT, a diachronic semantic computational lexicon of Dutch, is being developed, based on the scholarly historical dictionaries of Dutch. The main purpose of this lexicon is to enhance text accessibility and foster research in the development of concepts. This article explores the feasibility of enriching DiaMaNT with an existing semantic classification by linking a subset of the vocabulary of the Dictionary of Old Dutch to A Thesaurus of Old English.

Evoke and A Thesaurus of Old English in the Old English Classroom

Abstract The use of Evoke and the Thesaurus of Old English (TOE) in the classroom at beginners’ level is not self-evident, since both are electronic tools designed to facilitate lexicological research for more advanced users. Nonetheless, there is an advantage in acquainting students with modern electronic tools allowing relevant, piecemeal investigations into the lexicon. This contribution focuses on the usage of Evoke in the classroom, suggesting the types of assignments that may be designed for this purpose and exploring further possibilities.

Mapping Conceptual Variation through A Thesaurus of Old English and Evoke

Abstract The topic of figurative language in Old English (OE) has recently become the focus of substantial research. In this article, the authors will describe work on the semantic description of the lexicon of shame words in OE and in particular the taxonomical organisation of this lexicon on the basis of different kinds of semantic mappings (metonymic, metaphorical). Next, they will explore the use of the Evoke platform as a means of visualising and navigating this lexicon and show how it can be used to enrich A Thesaurus of Old English (TOE). The authors also describe ongoing work on the modelling and publication of this data as a linked data resource consisting of a lexicon and a taxonomy in SKOS of different kinds of metaphoric/metonymic sense shifts.

A Thesaurus of Old English

Abstract The Thesaurus of Old English (TOE), first published in 1995, had its origins in a body of slips derived from standard dictionaries, principally the Clark Hall and Merritt Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary and the Bosworth-Toller volumes. These slips were made to supply the Glasgow Historical Thesaurus (HT) project (1965–2009) with a firmer idea of the range and totality of Old English vocabulary than available in the OED. In 1976 the decision was taken to deploy the Old English materials as a pilot thesaurus for the HT. With compilation of the slips completed in 1982, researchers were able to begin sorting the slips into groupings based on meaning and to see areas of the HT classification take shape in miniature. The TOE data, absorbed into the larger structure of its parent project, allow us to view English words that disappeared by 1150 alongside those that continued in use.

Onomasiological Profiles of Old English Texts

Abstract This article discusses proof-of-concept research into the structure of the vocabularies of three Old English texts, Beowulf, Andreas and the Old English Martyrology. With the help of the Web application Evoke, which makes A Thesaurus of Old English (TOE) available in Linguistic Linked Data form, the words that occur in these three texts have been tagged within the existing onomasiological structure of TOE. This tagging process has resulted in prototypes of ‘textual thesauri’ for each of the three texts; such thesauri allow researchers to analyse the ‘onomasiological profile’ of a text, using the statistical tools that are built into Evoke. Since the same overarching structure has been used for all three texts, these texts can now be compared on an onomasiological level. As the article demonstrates, this comparative approach gives rise to novel research questions, as new and distinctive patterns of vocabulary use come to the surface. The semantic fields discussed include “War” and “Animals”.

Evoke

Abstract This article provides an introduction to the web application Evoke. This application offers functionality to navigate, view, extend, and analyse thesaurus content. The thesauri that can be navigated in Evoke are expressed in Linguistic Linked Data, an interoperable data form that enables the extension of thesaurus content with custom labels and allows for the linking of thesaurus content to other digital resources. As such, Evoke is a powerful research tool that facilitates its users to perform novel cultural linguistic analyses over multiple sources. This article further demonstrates the potential of Evoke by discussing how A Thesaurus of Old English was made available in the application and how this has already been adopted in the field of Old English studies. Lastly, the author situates Evoke within a number of recent developments in the field of Digital Humanities and its applications for onomasiological research.

A Case of Kinship

Abstract This article describes onomasiological explorations of Old Frisian and Old English lexis in the semantic field of KINSHIP through a novel, digital approach. In connecting Old Frisian lexis, drawn from the Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch (AFWB), to the overarching structure of A Thesaurus of Old English (TOE), a dataset has been created that shares a semantic framework with the one existing for Old English lexis. The connected resources are shared and analysed using the web application Evoke. Statistical data provided by this tool, such as the degree of lexicalization for this field, facilitates comparative analyses of the two historical languages. As this article demonstrates, the reuse of the onomasiological macrostructure of TOE offers new insights into linguistic and cultural aspects of these two languages and their language communities.

Norse-derived vocabulary in La estorie del evangelie

Abstract While the study of Norse-derived terms in medieval English has benefitted from recent etymological advances (e.g. the Gersum project), the exploration of their process of integration lags behind. The latter requires the analysis of the dialectal and semantic distribution of the terms, as well as their interactions with other members of their lexico-semantic fields. This paper offers a case study of this approach by presenting the first comprehensive account of the Norse-derived terms included in La estorie del evangelie, an early Middle English poem from south Lincolnshire/north Norfolk. Besides identifying and classifying the Norse loans on the basis of the Gersum typology and the Historical thesaurus of English, the paper examines the different layers of scribal reworking in its seven fourteenth- and fifteenth-century manuscripts from various dialectal areas to separate the Norse-derived terms that can be attributed to the original composition from those that represent later lexical substitutions, thus tracing the terms’ fate into the late Middle English period. This work shows that this understudied text offers valuable information on the interaction between native, Norse and French terms both in the early Middle English period of the original Fenland author and the later period of the surviving copies. Given that the methodology showcased here should not be restricted only to the analysis of Norse-derived terms, the paper’s significance transcends its immediate focus, as it also contributes to our understanding of medieval English lexicology more broadly.

Polysemy, synonymy, and metaphor: The use of theHistorical Thesaurus of Englishin translation studies

AbstractThis article proposes that the consideration of translation equivalences for lexical items in English benefits from reference to the diachronic digital resources of Historical Thesaurus of English and its offshoot projects, Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, and the Semantic Annotation and Mark-Up for Enhancing Lexical Searches semantic tagger. These resources are the result of a long-term endeavour to code every sense of every headword in the lexicographical record of the English language. There has hitherto been little research into the relevance of these resources to the translation challenges raised by synonymy, polysemy, and the semantic radiation of lexical items. The relevance of these resources and their potential application to the study of equivalence in translation is illustrated with reference to a selection of semantic domains in a Portuguese and a Chinese translation of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild.

Terminology and the evolution of linguistic prejudice: the conceptual domain of ‘Irishness’ in the Historical Thesaurus of English and the Hansard Corpus of British Parliamentary Speeches

This article draws on the Historical Thesaurus of English and related resources, the Mapping Metaphor project and the semantically tagged Hansard Corpus of British Parliamentary Speeches, to consider how the Irish have been imagined and named in Anglophone culture, and how ‘Irishness’, alongside the attributes of other ‘races and nations’, in the terminology of the Mapping Metaphor project, has developed metaphorically over time, with a focus on the association between Irishness and anger and foolishness. The article concludes by illustrating how the names and metaphors of the Irish are contested discursively in a corpus of British Parliamentary speeches. The article serves as a practical introduction to the Historical Thesaurus of English and the Hansard Corpus and how they may be used, in conjunction with related online resources, to explore aspects of English language, discourse and culture.