Adjectives in -ic or -ical | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 |

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[Adjectives in -ic or -ical #1]
FOCUS: Similarities and differences between adjectives ending in -ic or -ical
Use the corpus to solve the following exercises:

1) Search for "ironic" and "ironical" in the corpus; which of the two is most commonly used in the corpus?
ironic
ironical
equally common (same number of occurrences)

2) Based on the corpus results, do you find that "ironic" and "ironical" differ in meaning?
Yes, only "ironic" has the meaning of "sarcastic".
No, they are very similar in meaning
Yes, only "ironical" is used to imply the opposite of what is normally meant.

3) Search for "classic" and "classical"; which of the two collocates with "music"? (Remember that you can sort the concordances by right word.)
classic
classical
both

4) Which of the two ("classic" or "classical") is typically used to refer to Greek and Roman culture?
classic
classical
neither

5) Search for "historic" and "historical"; which of the two typically has the meaning "pertaining to history"?
historic
historical
neither

6) Search for "historic" and "historical"; which of the two typically has the meaning "important/notable"?
historic
historical
neither

7) "Hierarchic" and "hierarchical" are said to have the same meaning, but which of the two is most commonly used?
hierarchic
hierarchical
equally common (same number of occurrences in the corpus)

8) Which of the two ("hierarchic" and "hierarchical") collocates with "structure"?
hierarchic
hierarchical
both


Last updated 4 October 2023, SOE
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