Corpora: Calculation of Idiomaticity

Stefan Thomas Gries (StThGries@t-online.de)
Thu, 9 Sep 1999 12:38:30 +0200

I am looking for possibilities of calculating the degree of idiomaticity of
VPs with transitive phrasal verbs (TPVs; i.e. the extent to which the
meaning of a TPV construction is not a function of the phrasal verb and its
direct object complement) of the type exemplified in (1) as opposed to
literal ones given in (2).
(1) a. Her presence brought back memories.
b. Then he down the gauntlet to Pinochet.
(2) a. Yesterday, he gave the book back.
b. They need to get the coal out.
I am of course aware of Berry-Rogghe's (1973) calculation of the z-score and
its (1974) application to the automatic identification of prepositional
verbs of the type _to be interested in_ or _to be versed in_, but it seems
as if this z-score cannot fruitfully be applied to transitive phrasal verbs.
Does anybody know of any other way of measuring idiomaticity of
constructions in general and TPV constructions in particular?
Thanks a lot in advance

S t e f a n T h . G r i e s

Syddansk Universitet
Institut for Erhvervssproglig Informatik og Kommunikation
Grundtvigs Allé 150
6400 Sonderborg
Daenemark / Denmark

oder / or

Seminar fuer Englische Sprache und Kultur
Universitaet Hamburg
Von-Melle-Park 6
20146 Hamburg
Deutschland / Germany