Frequency/Rate-entity: every once in a while, every now and then

[mgeorgescu]

Hello everyone,

For expressions like, we were not very sure how to render them. Below you can see some alternatives:

• every once in a while

:frequency (r / rate-entity-91 :ARG2 (w / while)

OR :frequency (e / every-once-in-a-while)

• every now and then

  :frequency (r / rate-entity-91 :ARG4 (a / and :op1(n / now)) :op2(t / then))
  OR

: frequency (e / every-now-and-then)

Any feedback is much appreciated.

Thank you, madalina

[nschneid]

This are generally synonymous with "occasionally" and "periodically." How are those handled?

[uhermjakob]

These expressions are very idiomatic and don't lend themselves well to decomposition. And they aren't really specific enough for rate-entity-91. So among your alternatives, I prefer every-once-in-a-while etc., but, a bit more boldly, I would even recommend to map them to occasionally. (On the other, we could of course always later on automatically map from every-once-in-a-while etc. to occasional.)

:frequency (o / occasional)

Idiomatic expressions synonymous with occasionally

* every now and then
* every once in a while
* every so often
* from time to time
* on occasion

Idioms expressions synonymous with rarely

* on rare occasions
* once in a blue moon

Idiomatic expressions synonymous with sometimes

* at times

[cf. Oxford American Dictionary, thesaurus.com]

[mgeorgescu]

So would you be ok for the time being to stick to the hyphenated approach in case of idiomatic time expressions (e.g. "every-once-in-a-while") and later decide what to map them to?

Your bold suggestion is ok as well, as long as this is documented (as a tool suggestion and checked by the checker).

Please let me know what you prefer and we will adopt the approach.

Thank you very much for your feedback, Madalina