Abstract
This paper addresses the relation between meaning, lexical productivity, and frequency of use. Using density estimation as a visualization tool, we show that differences in semantic structure can be reflected in probability density functions estimated for word frequency distributions. We call attention to an example of a bimodal density, and suggest that bimodality arises when distributions of well-entrenched lexical items, which appear to be lognormal, are mixed with distributions of productively created nonce formations.
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Baayen, R.H., Lieber, R. Word frequency distributions and lexical semantics. Comput Hum 30, 281–291 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115137
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00115137