#semantictransparency — Public Fediverse posts

Nice string of three "X house" compounds that are quite different from what one usually thinks of when hearing the word "house":
"They [restaurants]'ve set up in vacant filling stations, lumber mills, warehouses, halfway houses, firehouses, churches, chop shops, storefronts, studios, scrapyards, and school buses; [...]" (Estleman, Cutthroat dogs, Chapter 13)
In fact, if one applies whether any constitutent appears in the definition as a test of #semanticTransparency, Wikipedia's definition of "halfway house" renders it completely semantically opaque:
"A halfway house is a type of prison or institute intended to teach (or reteach) the necessary skills for people to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. " The entry also explains the motivation behind the term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway_house
#compoundWatch #English

Nice string of three "X house" compounds that are quite different from what one usually thinks of when hearing the word "house":
"They [restaurants]'ve set up in vacant filling stations, lumber mills, warehouses, halfway houses, firehouses, churches, chop shops, storefronts, studios, scrapyards, and school buses; [...]" (Estleman, Cutthroat dogs, Chapter 13)
In fact, if one applies whether any constitutent appears in the definition as a test of #semanticTransparency, Wikipedia's definition of "halfway house" renders it completely semantically opaque:
"A halfway house is a type of prison or institute intended to teach (or reteach) the necessary skills for people to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. " The entry also explains the motivation behind the term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway_house
#compoundWatch #English

Nice string of three "X house" compounds that are quite different from what one usually thinks of when hearing the word "house":
"They [restaurants]'ve set up in vacant filling stations, lumber mills, warehouses, halfway houses, firehouses, churches, chop shops, storefronts, studios, scrapyards, and school buses; [...]" (Estleman, Cutthroat dogs, Chapter 13)
In fact, if one applies whether any constitutent appears in the definition as a test of #semanticTransparency, Wikipedia's definition of "halfway house" renders it completely semantically opaque:
"A halfway house is a type of prison or institute intended to teach (or reteach) the necessary skills for people to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. " The entry also explains the motivation behind the term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway_house
#compoundWatch #English

Nice string of three "X house" compounds that are quite different from what one usually thinks of when hearing the word "house":
"They [restaurants]'ve set up in vacant filling stations, lumber mills, warehouses, halfway houses, firehouses, churches, chop shops, storefronts, studios, scrapyards, and school buses; [...]" (Estleman, Cutthroat dogs, Chapter 13)
In fact, if one applies whether any constitutent appears in the definition as a test of #semanticTransparency, Wikipedia's definition of "halfway house" renders it completely semantically opaque:
"A halfway house is a type of prison or institute intended to teach (or reteach) the necessary skills for people to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. " The entry also explains the motivation behind the term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway_house
#compoundWatch #English

Nice string of three "X house" compounds that are quite different from what one usually thinks of when hearing the word "house":
"They [restaurants]'ve set up in vacant filling stations, lumber mills, warehouses, halfway houses, firehouses, churches, chop shops, storefronts, studios, scrapyards, and school buses; [...]" (Estleman, Cutthroat dogs, Chapter 13)
In fact, if one applies whether any constitutent appears in the definition as a test of #semanticTransparency, Wikipedia's definition of "halfway house" renders it completely semantically opaque:
"A halfway house is a type of prison or institute intended to teach (or reteach) the necessary skills for people to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. " The entry also explains the motivation behind the term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfway_house
#compoundWatch #English

Learned a most excellent #English birdname today: "Goldeneye". As the picture illustrates, a well-motivated metonymic name for a duck. You ask, is the #German name not perhaps also a most excellent name. I would say: it is ok, "Schellente" Schelle/schellen 'bell/to ring'' + ente 'duck'. Apparently motivated by the characteristic sounds that they make when flying (unfortunately I have not heard them flying :().
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
Image credits: Hyla meridionalis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Learned a most excellent #English birdname today: "Goldeneye". As the picture illustrates, a well-motivated metonymic name for a duck. You ask, is the #German name not perhaps also a most excellent name. I would say: it is ok, "Schellente" Schelle/schellen 'bell/to ring'' + ente 'duck'. Apparently motivated by the characteristic sounds that they make when flying (unfortunately I have not heard them flying :().
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
Image credits: Hyla meridionalis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Learned a most excellent #English birdname today: "Goldeneye". As the picture illustrates, a well-motivated metonymic name for a duck. You ask, is the #German name not perhaps also a most excellent name. I would say: it is ok, "Schellente" Schelle/schellen 'bell/to ring'' + ente 'duck'. Apparently motivated by the characteristic sounds that they make when flying (unfortunately I have not heard them flying :().
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
Image credits: Hyla meridionalis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rather misleading short #German name for a proposed EU law: "Entwaldungsverordnung" deforestation + regulation. On first sight, implies a reading like 'a regulation to deforest'. It is, however, to be interpreted as `regulation regarding deforestation', and it specifically tries to combat it (see "entwaldungsfreie Lieferketten' deforestation-free supply chains).
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verordnung_(EU)_2023/1115_(entwaldungsfreie_Lieferketten)

Rather misleading short #German name for a proposed EU law: "Entwaldungsverordnung" deforestation + regulation. On first sight, implies a reading like 'a regulation to deforest'. It is, however, to be interpreted as `regulation regarding deforestation', and it specifically tries to combat it (see "entwaldungsfreie Lieferketten' deforestation-free supply chains).
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verordnung_(EU)_2023/1115_(entwaldungsfreie_Lieferketten)

Rather misleading short #German name for a proposed EU law: "Entwaldungsverordnung" deforestation + regulation. On first sight, implies a reading like 'a regulation to deforest'. It is, however, to be interpreted as `regulation regarding deforestation', and it specifically tries to combat it (see "entwaldungsfreie Lieferketten' deforestation-free supply chains).
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verordnung_(EU)_2023/1115_(entwaldungsfreie_Lieferketten)

Another good example for semantically motivated compounding that nevertheless is far away from any meaning predictability:
the Mandarin Chinese translation for German "Wurst" 'sausage' is 香腸 xiāngcháng, 'fragrant' + 'intestines'
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

Another good example for semantically motivated compounding that nevertheless is far away from any meaning predictability:
the Mandarin Chinese translation for German "Wurst" 'sausage' is 香腸 xiāngcháng, 'fragrant' + 'intestines'
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

Another good example for semantically motivated compounding that nevertheless is far away from any meaning predictability:
the Mandarin Chinese translation for German "Wurst" 'sausage' is 香腸 xiāngcháng, 'fragrant' + 'intestines'
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

Another good example for semantically motivated compounding that nevertheless is far away from any meaning predictability:
the Mandarin Chinese translation for German "Wurst" 'sausage' is 香腸 xiāngcháng, 'fragrant' + 'intestines'
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

Another good example for semantically motivated compounding that nevertheless is far away from any meaning predictability:
the Mandarin Chinese translation for German "Wurst" 'sausage' is 香腸 xiāngcháng, 'fragrant' + 'intestines'
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

First time I am really missing quote posts here on Mastodon ... anyways, fascinating discussion of two readings of "inktrap", either as referring to a problem or to its solution (see boosted post). From a #semanticTransparency perspective, it is all the more intriguing because both readings still more or less fit a standard compound paraphrase like "trap for ink", highlighting that most compound classification schemes are still way to coarse-grained.
#compoundWatch

First time I am really missing quote posts here on Mastodon ... anyways, fascinating discussion of two readings of "inktrap", either as referring to a problem or to its solution (see boosted post). From a #semanticTransparency perspective, it is all the more intriguing because both readings still more or less fit a standard compound paraphrase like "trap for ink", highlighting that most compound classification schemes are still way to coarse-grained.
#compoundWatch

Just thinking that #semanticTransparency in anything computational really is also quite interesting. For example, the awk man-page describes the inbuilt variable FNR as "The input record number in the current input file." This in itself is not the clearest of explanations, and FNR just really invites "file number" for me :)

Recently encountered usages of "Porn/Porno" as second part of German compounds to describe non-porn books:
"Politporno" (Boris Johnson's Unleashed), "Trauma-Porn" (Hanya Yanagihara's Ein wenig Leben/A Little Life)
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

Nice example for effective affix use: "a disproportionate amount of disapproval". Note the slight cline in #semanticTransparency from the first "dis" to the second.
Source: Jassy Mackenzie, Stolen Lives
#English #wordFormation

Recht traurige #compoundWatch Neuigkeiten an diesem Sonnabendmorgen: hat man gerade gelernt dass französisch "sommet du poumon" = 'Lungenspitze', dann ist es wohl eine berechtigte Hoffnung dass "sommet du nez" = 'Nasenspitze'. Leider bedeutet es aber genau das Gegenteil, 'Nasenwurzel'. Positiv und etwas versöhnlich immerhin dass wenn man sich diese Gegenteiligkeit im Nasenbereich gemerkt hat "bout du nez" = 'Nasenspitze' keine Überraschung mehr ist :)
#French #German #SemanticTransparency

Animal names are always a fun source for motivated compounds, TIL that there is the #English "Showshoe hare" (and if you do not like spaces in your compounds, there is #German: "Schneeschuhhase")
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowshoe_hare

Schöne Daten zu Farbadjektiven in Teeveranstaltung: "grüner weißer Tee", "echter schwarzer Tee" (da deutsch "schwarzer Tee" ja chinesischem rotem Tee entspricht), und noch der Hinweis das Roibusch Tee (also KEIN Tee :)) manchmal als "roter Tee" bezeichnet wird.
NB: bei den grünen weißen Tees interessanterweise beides mal die Herstellungsart gemeint, nicht die Farbe.
#adjectiveOrder #German #semanticTransparency

If you had asked me before today what the German compound "Weinpfarrer" wine + priest most likely means I would have went with "priest who drinks too much". TIL that this compound was used more like an honorary term for an Austrian priest who, so it seems, was a person very gifted in tasting wines, and apparently also in designing wine glasses.
More here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Denk
#compoundWatch #German #semanticTransparency

Compounds are fun, and one fun thing about them is that their lexical meanings can be overwritten by ad-hoc meanings. "Monkey business" below is an example where the ad-hoc meaning is actually one that follows an established pattern. While the lexicalized meaning for "monkey business" is 'mischievous, suspect, or dishonest behaviour or acts', below it means 'business involving monkeys', a pattern common enough in compounds ending in business ("fashion/publishing/music business" etc)
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency #English

Classifying compounds again (well, or would-be compounds) and interestingly my dictionary seems to think that "brown study" 'a state of deep thought' is quite transparent, adding the helpful explanation: BROWN gloomy + STUDY mental state
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

#compoundWatch time, or maybe we are nearing the end of me thinking about compounds, because the German specimen below is killing me: "Kapsel-System" 'capsule system', ok, fine, but it is a "Kapsel-System ohne Kapsel" 'a capsule system without capsule'. I know I know, everything is allowed in the language of advertising, but still, the relation WITHOUT strikes me as a bit too unallowed. Now waiting for more revolutions, a paper bag without paper for example #semanticTransparency

What compound noun results from combining 'tea' and 'egg'? It depends, Mandarin Chinese going for 茶叶蛋 cháyèdàn ['tea' + 'leaf'] + 'egg' = 'egg infused in tea', German for Tee-Ei 'tea' + 'egg' = 'tea-infuser in egg form'
Both semantically transparent in their very own ways :)
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

Another compound that should not be: German "Freßfabrik" 'to eat' + factory with the meaning "person who eats like a machine". Unexpected because there is actually the compound "Freßmaschine" 'to eat' + machine with exactly that meaning, and because in general the G Fabrik/Eng factory compounds typically lead to 'factory that produces X' interpretations, e.g. "Batteriefabrik"/'battery factory'.
Source: Hoffmans Hunger by Leon de Winter [Unfortunately I don't know what is used in the Dutch original here :(]
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

Beautiful #languageAquisition example for motivated compound creation in #English :

D(2;7.1, in the bath, after father said: "You're making a cake?")):
It's a water-cake.

Father: Why do you call it water-cake?

D: I made it in the water.

Source (secondary): Clark, Eva V. (2016). First Language Acquistion, Third Edition, Cambridge University Press, p. 292. (referenced original source: Clark 1993 The lexicon in acquisition, CUP: 40-41)
#compoundWatch #semanticTransparency

The Levenshtein distance is a measure for the difference between two sequences. For example, if you just have to change one character to get from one word to the other, their Levenshtein distance is 1. Conveniently, if two words have a Levenshtein distance of 1, e.g. German packen 'to pack' and kacken 'to shit', then this can also be exploited for compounds containing these words, resulting in the great #compoundWatch example below (maybe after the #BigBrotherAwards ?). German "Packstation" pack + station 'box where you can pick up your DHL packages' is also a good example for a complete lack of #semanticTransparency : whereas besides receiving parcels it apparently is also possible to send them from there, it is quite impossible to actually pack something into a parcel with the help of such a box.

When yes-means-no is so confusing that it needs to be spelled out explicitly: an example from German (#GermanAcademia, of course :))
#semantics #pragmatics #semanticTransparency

When yes-means-no is so confusing that it needs to be spelled out explicitly: an example from German (#GermanAcademia, of course :))
#semantics #pragmatics #semanticTransparency

When yes-means-no is so confusing that it needs to be spelled out explicitly: an example from German (#GermanAcademia, of course :))
#semantics #pragmatics #semanticTransparency

Saw the quiet and very moving 2022 movie "Return to Dust" on Friday. Even had a #compoundWatch moment:
The male lead had 熊猫血 xiong2mao1 + xue4 panda + blood --- turns out that this is a colloquial term for Rh-negative blood type. Why? Apparently because that blood type is so rare in Asian populations (according to Wikipedia 0.3% vs. 15% in European populations), and since Pandas are also rare, we get "panda blood", so a blood type as rare as Pandas. #semanticTransparency #morphology