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Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

6 4.8
A British writer who created the detective Sherlock Holmes
  • proper noun
: Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Arthur Conan Doyle published several novels and short stories during his lifetime.

Examples

  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for creating the detective character Sherlock Holmes.

  • Many readers enjoy the mysteries written by Arthur Conan Doyle.

  • Arthur Conan Doyle even believed in fairies.

    Fiction book (1996)

Synonyms

Conan Doyle
vsArthur Conan Doyle
10 3.8

A British writer who created the detective Sherlock Holmes

uses the full name rather than just the surname
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
vsArthur Conan Doyle
4 2.4

A British writer who created the detective Sherlock Holmes

is the neutral form without the honorific title
A. Conan Doyle
vsArthur Conan Doyle
1 6.1

A British author who created the detective Sherlock Holmes

uses the unabbreviated personal name and may omit the fictional label

Surface Forms

Morphology

Arthur + Conan + Doyle

This is a full personal name composed of proper nouns; the meanings of the constituent name-parts do not encode the information that the referent is a British author or creator of Sherlock Holmes. Proper names are arbitrary and non-compositional, so a B1 learner who only knows the individual words would not be able to derive the MWE's biographical meaning.

Etymology

Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish doctor who began writing stories about a very clever detective. He created 'Sherlock Holmes', so his name now stands for the writer of those famous 'detective' stories.