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1. According to Roget's Thesaurus, crack has seven meanings as a noun. Are there any meanings that seem to be missing? 2. What are the five most frequent collocates of crack as a noun in the BYU Corpus of American English? (Word = crack.[n*]; use [CONTEXT] with [noun.ALL], Context = [5] [5], Sort By Frequency, No Frequency Limits). To make sure that you've done the query correctly, note that #6-7 should be crack (near another crack) and babies. 3. For each of the top three collocates of crack as a noun, state which of the seven meanings of crack (from Roget's Thesaurus) is probably the main meaning. For example, for collocate #8 -- wall -- the meaning is probably #4 from Roget's Thesaurus: "a usually narrow partial opening caused by splitting and rupture". (If it looks like there are two meanings related to a given collocate, you can list both of them). 4. Compare the collocates of crack in FICTION and NEWSPAPERS. Any real difference? If so, what would explain this? 5. The order of entries in a listing of synonyms sometimes relates to which meanings are seen to be the most "central". For example, meaning #1 in Roget's Thesaurus is "a trying to do or make something". According to the frequency of collocates in the BYU Corpus of American English, is there another of the seven meanings of crack as a noun that you think ought to be listed first? What are 2-3 of the frequent collocates from the corpus that relate to this meaning? |