Corpus-driven Lexical Analysis: Norms and Exploitations in Word Use

It is a truism that meaning depends on context. Corpus evidence now shows us that normal contexts can be summarised and indeed quantified, while the creative exploitations of normal contexts by ordinary language users far exceed anything dreamed up in speculative linguistic theory. Human linguistic behaviour is indeed rule-governed, but in recent years, corpus analysis (e.g. Hanks 2013) has shown that there is not just a single monolithic system of rules: instead, language use is governed by two interlinked systems: one set of rules governing normal, idiomatic uses of words and another set of rules governing how we exploit those norms creatively. Types of creative exploitation include (among others):