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Language Log: A stick tower by any other name

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Today's xkcd: Mouseover title: "Stay warm, little flappers, and find lots of plant eggs!" An amusing reminder of a serious issue: most compounds and phrasal collocations are used in ways that are consistent with their compositional meaning, but not entirely predictable from it. "Solar cell" doesn't mean "tanning bed"; "drainage basin" doesn't mean "mop bucket"; "forest canopy" doesn't mean "camping tent"; etc. And for that matter, the range of individual words' usage is hard to predict, as everyone who has ever studied a new language knows.

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