Timeline for "Four plus two equals six" (or "is equal to six" or "is six")
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 26, 2012 at 12:09 | history | bounty ended | think_meaning_buildß | ||
| Sep 26, 2012 at 12:08 | vote | accept | think_meaning_buildß | ||
| Sep 24, 2012 at 17:01 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Crystal claims that 'face the music' is a single lexeme when it is used idiomatically. He would also say that 'music', for instance, is a single lexeme in other usages - ie most of the time. With more complicated examples, as here, I personally am not suggesting that either the 'single lexeme' approach or the 'totally analysable' approach is the right view. | |
| Sep 20, 2012 at 21:26 | comment | added | Jason Orendorff | equal to X can also be modified by all the things that can usually modify an adjective phrase: more or less equal to, precisely equal to, only technically equal to. And you can coordinate equal to with some other adjective: is either negative or equal to zero. All this is evidence that be equal to has grammatical structure. | |
| Sep 20, 2012 at 21:06 | comment | added | Jason Orendorff | There is always some room for quibbling on things like this, but if be equal to were a single lexeme, I wouldn’t expect that be would combine with equal to in exactly the same way that it combines with oodles of other adjective phrases (be adjacent to, be reminiscent of). And I wouldn’t expect equal to to work in all the other places where an adjective phrase works (something equal to four, a candidate equal to the challenge). | |
| Sep 20, 2012 at 18:14 | comment | added | think_meaning_buildß | Thank you for clarifying and explaining the idea of a "lexeme" as a "single unit of lexical meaning," it is very helpful. | |
| Sep 20, 2012 at 9:51 | history | edited | Edwin Ashworth | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 266 characters in body
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| Sep 20, 2012 at 9:42 | history | answered | Edwin Ashworth | CC BY-SA 3.0 |