Boris IomdinRussian Language Institute,

Russian Academy of Sciencesiomdin@ruslang.ru

Lecture 13. PlanClothing lexicon

DictionariesOfficial standards

ProblemsClothing: an experimentWordNet

GlassesPurses

DominantDictionary project

Describe in 20 seconds

Check yourself:

SweaterJumperPulloverSweatshirtJersey…

GlassWineglassGobletFlute…

Sweater

Jumper

Pullover

WebsterSWEATER a knitted or crocheted jacket or

pulloverJACKET a garment for the upper body usually

having a front opening, collar, lapels, sleeves, and pockets

PULLOVERa pullover garment (as a sweater)

Webster• SWEATSHIRT: a loose collarless pullover or jacket

usually of heavy cotton jersey• JERSEY: any of various close-fitting usually

circular-knitted garments especially for the upper body

State Standards

Official useHong Kong Economic and Trade OfficeBritish Embassy

RE: Knitted Wool Cardigan

This is in reference to your letter of November 15, 1988, on behalf of Donna Karan Co., requesting classification of a women's knit cardigan under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated, (HTSUSA). We also reply to your letter of October 3, 1988, in which you requested a review of the category number assigned to the merchandise in issue. A sample was submitted for inspection.

Official useFACTS:

Style no. 214 is a woman's knit cardigan that consists of 60 percent rayon and 40 percent wool fibers. The sample has long sleeves that are hemmed at the ends; a full-front opening with a four button closure and a V-neckline. Other features include a one inch wide placket that extends from the waist towards and around the neck, which acts as a capping to finish the body fabric. There are two hidden-edge pockets at the front waist area. The garment extends from the neck and shoulders to the hips, and is worn over a shirt or blouse for warmth.

Official useISSUE:

1. Whether the cardigan is properly classifiable as a wool overcoat under Heading 6102, HTSUSA, or as a wool sweater under Heading 6110, HTSUSA?

2. Whether the sample garment, if "knitted in fine gauge" is subject to quota category number 435 (for wool coats), or category number 446 (for wool sweaters)?

Official useLAW AND ANALYSIS:

Classification of merchandise under the HTSUSA is in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRI), taken in order. <…> Heading 6110 provides for sweaters, pullovers, sweatshirts, waistcoats (vests) and similar articles, knitted or crocheted. <…> Since the garment at issue is a cardigan-style sweater such as described above, and has all the horizontal and vertical elasticity normally associated with sweaters, it is classified as a sweater under this heading.

ProblemsOutdated or obsolete materialNo systematic descriptionsObscure explicationsSynonyms and periphrases used in

the explicationsMismatch of dictionaries, standard

documents and current usage

Vicious circlesSepulka, pl. sepulki, an important element of

the civilization of Ardrites (see) from Enteropia planet (see). See sepulkaria.

Sepulkaria, sg. sepulkarium, an object for sepulation (see).

Sepulation, an occupation of Ardrites (see) from Enteropia planet (see). See sepulka.

(Stanisław Lem, Dzienniki gwiazdowe)

Webster• GARMENT: an article of clothing• CLOTHING: garments in general

Dictionaries vs. StandardsDZHEMPER: No zipper according to

dictionaries, but an upper zipper according to standards

KOFTA: Included into all dictionaries, but forbidden by the standards

KOFTOCHKA: Garment for children according to the standards, but not in dictionaries

Dictionaries and usageAccording to all dictionaries:

Sviter has no zipper and a high collarWeb search:

sviter na molnii ‘sweater with a zipper’ 25 000sviter s vorotom ‘sweater with a collar’– 3 000

Dzhemper

Clothing. An experiment70 participants, average age of 27 yearsMoscow, St.Petersburg and other cities26 images of people found on the using

keywords like sviter ‘sweater’, kofta ‘jacket’, dzhemper ‘jumper’, pulover ‘pullover’, vodolazka ‘turtleneck’, mixed with some other distracting images

Task: describe the images, following a sampleAll results can be found at

izjumis.livejournal.com

Results. Frequencies

(Only 2 out of 26 images matched the standard descriptions of sviter ‘sweater’)

Results. SviterFor 25 out of 26 images, sviter was used at least

once For 13 out of 26 images, sviter is the most

frequentFor the rest, sviter is the second (even for the

dog!)72% of participants use sviter for most images

(18% use kofta, 2% use jumper)Only sviter is included into the recent Russian

frequency dictionary [Lyashevskaya & Sharoff 2008]

Results. DifferencesVodolazka ‘turtleneck’ has the most distinct

meaningFor each of the images, vodolazka (or its

regional variants) was used either very frequently (>75%), or very rarely (<2%).

All objects called so:have a collarhave no clasp (fastener)are pull-on

Results. DifferencesAll other words are inside a diffuse (fuzzy)

zone, and no clear distinctions could be found A mathematical regression revealed the

following dependencies:Sviter is thick and pull-onDzhemper has no collarPulover has no neckline, is pull-on and is seldom

worn by malesKofta is not pull-on

All other features (including those mentioned in dictionaries) are irrelevant

Male koftaKofta was used 178

times to describe a male, although in all dictionaries kofta is for females only

Rubashka and sorochkaRubashka was used 158

times, sorochka was used 2 times

In official use (including shops, etc.), it is almost always sorochka

Results of an experiment at Summer School of LinguisticsAverage number of different itemsmales 16females 29

110 different words

Most frequent wordsdzhinsy ‘jeans’ (98%)kurtka ‘jacket’ (98%)sviter ‘sweater’ (91%)futbolka ‘T-shirt’(91%)rubashka ‘shirt’ (83%)shorty ‘shorts’ (83%)Every girl and no boy has:jubka ‘skirt’

“Sweaters”sviter (91%)kofta (74%)vodolazka (43%)dzhemper (30%)kardigan (26%)tolstovka (26%)koftochka (22%)fliska (13%)pulover (9%)

Results of a small experiment: course participants in Praguesweater 7jumper 1sweatshirt 1cardigan 1

svetr 5mikina 5rolák 2mikina equivalents:

sweaterjacketsweatshirtthick T-shirt

Glasses

Differential featuresUsed for Size Stem

RJUMKA strong alcohol small not obligatoryBOKAL wine middle or large obligatoryFUZHER Champagne middle or large obligatory

WordNetA computerized database of English

developed in Princeton since 1985More than 200 000 words,

organized into synsetshttp://wordnet.princeton.edu/

Sweaters in WordNetS: (n) sweater, jumper (a crocheted or

knitted garment covering the upper part of the body)

S: (n) sweatshirt (cotton knit pullover with long sleeves worn during athletic activity)

S: (n) pullover, slipover (a sweater that is put on by pulling it over the head).

Three jumpersS: (n) jumper (a coverall worn by children) S: (n) jumper (a loose jacket or blouse worn

by workmen) S: (n) jumper, pinafore, pinny (a sleeveless

dress resembling an apron; worn over other clothing)

JerseyS: (n) jersey, T-shirt, tee shirt (a close-fitting

pullover shirt)

The restS: (n) turtleneck, turtle, polo-neck (a

sweater or jersey with a high close-fitting collar)

S: (n) cardigan (knitted jacket that is fastened up the front with buttons or a zipper)

S: (n) jacket (a short coat) S: (n) coat (an outer garment that has

sleeves and covers the body from shoulder down; worn outdoors)

GlassesS: (n) glass, drinking glass (a container for

holding liquids while drinking)

GlassesS: (n) wineglass (a glass that has a stem and

in which wine is served) S: (n) shot glass, jigger, pony (a small glass

adequate to hold a single swallow of whiskey) S: (n) snifter, brandy snifter, brandy glass (a

globular glass with a small top; used for serving brandy)

S: (n) flute, flute glass, champagne flute (a tall narrow wineglass)

Two gobletsS: (n) goblet (a drinking glass with a base

and stem) S: (n) chalice, goblet (a bowl-shaped

drinking vessel; especially the Eucharistic cup)

Champagne flute

Brandy snifter glass

Water goblet

Goblet glass

Martini glass

Margarita glass

Cosmo glass

Bretagne Sherry glass

PursesS: (n) bag, handbag, pocketbook, purse (a

container used for carrying money and small personal items or accessories (especially by women)) "she reached into her bag and found a comb"

S: (n) purse (a small bag for carrying money) S: (n) wallet, billfold, notecase, pocketbook

(a pocket-size case for holding papers and paper money)

Not includedMoney clipFilofaxManbagMurse …

WordReference.com I have a question for native speakers

and fluent English-speakers.

Which is the difference between "wallet" and "billfold"?

WordReference.comA billfold is a kind of wallet carried by a man

that folds over. A billfold is something to put your dollar bills

into.I would say that all billfolds are wallets but not

all wallets are billfolds. I think that they are essentially the same thing. In an elegant store or a leather-goods boutique

the sales clerk would know the difference and ask which you prefer.

DifficultiesMeanings are fuzzyLife changes rapidly, so the words do, too

Different dialects and regional usage(sweaters substituted for jumpers in U.S. editions of the Harry Potter books!)

Top

Bodi

Kombidress

Shrag

Monetnica (old meaning)

Monetnica (new meaning)

Maniklip

What’s that?

Quest for the standarsSpeakers often have very different

opinionsProfessionals often use their own

jargon or instructions, which are not suitable for ordinary speakers

Who knows the truth?

ConclusionsImpossible to compose universally

accepted explicationsEach group has its dominantA dictionary of everyday terms

should be compiled

Dominant of a groupThe most frequent wordUsed in dictionary examplesPreferred in some contextsHas connotationsRicher co-occurrenceBest derivational potentialExperimentally proved

Dominant of a groupAlthough every nomenclature has to provide

different words for different reference, in the natural language groups of words denoting similar objects almost always have a dominant

In the three analyzed groups, it’s rjumka ‘wineglass’kosheljok ‘purse’sviter ‘sweater’

FrequenciesNational Russian Corpusrjumka 4684, bokal 3350, fuzher 431kosheljok 1909, bumazhnik 1425,

portmone 208sviter 1461, kofta 1182, dzhemper 118,

vodolazka 85, pulover 56

Examples in dictionariessviterkosheljok

Co-occurrencepjanet’ ot odnoj rjumki <?bokala, ??

fuzhera> ‘get drunk after a single wineglass’

voz’mi s soboj sviter poteplee <?

dzemper, ??pulover> ‘take a warm sweater with you’

tovary na ljuboj kosheljok <?

bumazhnik, ??portmone> ‘articles for each purse’

Derivation: diminutivesNational Russian Corpus:rjumochka 795, bokal’chik 49,

fuzherchik 9; sviterok 82, dzhemperok 2,

puloverok 0, puloverchik 0, vodolazochka 0

kosheljochek 38, bumazhnichek 0, portmoneshka 0

Meanings in a “simple mode”sviter ≈ ‘a knitted or similar object

of garment for the upper part of body’

rjumka ≈ ‘a container for drinking alcohol’

kosheljok ≈ ‘a portable object for money’

Dictionary: a project Group of words with close meanings Dominant Relevant differential features Official standards Usage preferences Regional differences Images Etymology

Thank you for your attention!