Semantic transparency: challenges for distributional semantics

Using data from Reddy et al. (2011), we present a series of regression models of semantic transparency in compound nouns. The results indicate that the frequencies of the compound constituents, the semantic relation between the constituents, and metaphorical shift of a constituent or of the compound as a whole, all contribute to the overall perceived level of transparency. While not proposing an actual distributional model of transparency, we hypothesise that incorporating this information into such a model would improve its success and we suggest some ways this might be possible.