Re: distinguish tightness and constriction?

j.Maxwell Legg (income@ihug.co.nz)
Thu, 13 May 1999 13:07:34 +1200

"Malcolm C. Cross" wrote:
>
> Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:42:43 +1000
> From: Ann Lisa Bailey <alb01@psyc.uow.edu.au>
>
> I am wondering if anyone has a simple way to distinguish tightness and
> constriction. They seem to be highly related. It seems that people have
> measured these but they are using rep grids however I will only have
> constructs. I wondered what people thought about how you would go about
> measuring tightness and constriction if this is the case.
>

By using just the definitions below, one could easily imagine a contrast
between these words in terms of the fact that "tightness" relates more
at times to an entity being hard done by and "constriction" relates more
to the enforcer of those times.

You could then apply such a consideration into a straight triangular
distance grid that measures a list of constructs (rows) against the same
list of constructs (cols) in terms of an overall and/or undisclosed
feeling. More simply though you could make a square grid and into each
cell you could put a number which represented a match in the dictionary
terms for this coincidence (cell).

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>From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)

tightness n 1: a state occasioned by scarcity of money and a shortage of
credit [syn: {stringency}] 2: extreme stinginess [syn: {meanness},
{minginess}, {niggardliness}, {niggardness}, {parsimony},
{parsimoniousness}, {tightfistedness}, {closeness}] 3: lack of movement
or room for movement [syn: {tautness}] [ant:
{looseness}]

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>From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Constriction \Con*stric"tion\, n. [L. constrictio: cf. F. constriction.]
1. The act of constricting by means of some inherent power or by
movement or change in the thing itself, as distinguished from
compression. 2. The state of being constricted; the point where a thing
is constricted; a narrowing or binding.

A constriction of the parts inservient to speech. --Grew.

>From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)

constriction n 1: a narrowing that reduces the flow through a channel
[syn: {bottleneck}] 2: the action or process of constricting or
squeezing

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