Itemizing all the rules for interpreting MWEs is almost
as difficult as itemizing all the MWEs. And even if you
have itemized all the rules, it's often difficult for
educated native English speakers to predict which one
to use for any particular example.
A few examples that could be multiplied interminably:
A _steamer clam_ is a clam that is intended to be cooked
by steaming. But a _steamer duck_ is a duck that flaps
its wings like a paddle-wheel steamer when taking off.
A _light pen_ was first used in computers to *receive*
light from a computer screen, but as the technology
evolved, the older light pens were replaced by
joy sticks and mouses.
The current use for light pens is to *generate* light
with a laser and project it on a screen.
A _light pencil_ might seem to be similar to a light pen,
but it isn't. Some light pencils are just pencils that
create a light-colored mark.
But in optics, a light pencil is a thin pencil-like beam
of light.
Chinese has MWEs that are just as difficult to analyze as
English MWEs, if not more so. Some humorous combinations
occur in the character-by-character translations in the
menus of Chinese restaurants.
John Sowa
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