Support for text analysis beyond word by word

MJ. Smith · 2025-03-31T01:42:04+00:00

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Logos used to have resident scholars whose personal linguistic interests showed up as cutting edge features in Logos. However, we now have one linguistic feature that is woefully out of date. Any self-respecting lexical (vocabulary) study of a corpus e.g. the Bible now deals with lexical units larger than a single word e.g. bucket list, kick the bucket, … I had AI produce a list of whether the terms I knew had examples in Hebrew and Greek.

SUGGESTION: tag the text with labels for the multiword lexical units. It tells us when we have to look at a group of words rather than the individual words in order to translate the text correctly.

The AI presentation based on my list of elements - I assume Logos would use a cohesive, comprehensive list of items rather than my haphazard list:

Distinctive Features Table

Term	Compositionality	Flexibility	Meaning Type	Example(s)	Usage Context
Lexical Chunks	Variable	Semi-fixed	Functional	How do you do?, In short1 7	Conversational, formulaic
Fixed Phrases	Literal	Rigid	Transparent	Red Sea, Yours sincerely2 7	Technical, formal
Idioms	Non-compositional	Fixed	Figurative	Kick the bucket, Spill the beans1 3	Informal, cultural
Collocations	Compositional	Semi-flexible	Conventional	Make peace, Heavy rain4 7	General language
Phrasal Verbs	Variable	Separable	Contextual	Turn in, Look after5 7	Informal speech
Binomials	Compositional	Fixed order	Literal/Figurative	Black and white, Give and take6 7	Legal, idiomatic
Semi-Fixed Expressions	Variable	Partial variation	Pragmatic	See you later, Spill the beans1 7	Conversational
Technical Fixed Phrases	Literal	Rigid	Domain-specific	Natural selection, Solar nebula2 8	Scientific, academic
Correlative Coordinators	Compositional	Fixed pairs	Grammatical	Either...or, Neither...nor1 7	Formal writing
Compounds	Compositional	Fixed	Literal	Post office, Handwritten note2 7	General language
Complex Subordinators	Compositional	Fixed	Grammatical	As soon as, Even though1 7	Formal writing
Complex Prepositions	Compositional	Fixed	Grammatical	In spite of, According to1 7	Formal writing
Prepositional Verbs	Compositional	Fixed pairing	Literal	Rely on, Care for5 7	General language
Clichés	Variable	Fixed	Overused	Raining cats and dogs7	Informal, literary
Pragmatemes	Context-bound	Fixed	Functional	For what purpose?7	Context-specific interactions

Key Feature Definitions

Compositionality:
- Literal/Compositional: Meaning derived from individual words (e.g., post office).
- Non-compositional: Meaning not deducible from parts (e.g., kick the bucket).
Flexibility:
- Rigid: No substitution allowed (e.g., Red Sea).
- Semi-flexible: Limited variation (e.g., See you later/tomorrow).
Meaning Type:
- Functional: Used for social routines (e.g., How do you do?).
- Domain-specific: Specialized to fields like science (e.g., natural selection).

Summary of Differences

Idioms vs. Fixed Phrases: Idioms are figurative (spill the beans), while fixed phrases are literal (Red Sea).
Collocations vs. Compounds: Collocations are conventional pairings (make peace), while compounds merge into single units (post office).
Phrasal vs. Prepositional Verbs: Phrasal verbs use particles altering meaning (give up), while prepositional verbs require prepositions (rely on).
Technical Fixed Phrases: Domain-specific and rigid (solar nebula vs. general terms like good morning).

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Logos Data Sets

Status: Submitted

Comments

DMB

Your recommendation seems … well …. Faithlife'y safe. Therefore doable. Looking at a potential search, I wonder at the amount of use? Or maybe a first step, of many.

My treatment of Logos as only my research assistant, is in the 'safe' assignments. Only by virtue of books, does it stretch very far. This AM I was in my Greek Language/Linguistics Encyclopedia (yesterday checking on some claims). But I stumbled over 'Functional Grammar' which illustrates perfectly why I don't bother too much with Logos (ignore the bolding; leftover VFs).

" Its main characteristics can be summarized as follows (Dik 19972:4–15). First, language is an instrument of social interaction; therefore, language cannot be studied outside the strategies of communication. Second, as a consequence, Linguistics must analyze and describe two types of rules: those which govern the constitution of linguistic expressions (semantic, syntactic, morphological, and phonological rules), and those which govern the patterns of verbal interaction in which these linguistic expressions are used (pragmatic rules). Third, Linguistics should not only describe linguistic facts, but, as far as possible, also explain them; therefore, linguistic description should reflect what we know of human cognitive capacities, psychological attitudes and sociological patterns."

I'm thinking about this, in my own software. I'm not sure how subjective it might be. I already have alternative-selection (author word choicing), key word switching (author-listener agreement), and alternative author-styling (largely using your above features in neurally-language).

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