strong deliberation

[imchongjun]

Hello, teachers.
I encountered the following sentence and am not sure what "a strong deliberation" means.

There was a strong deliberation in the lines of her long, thin sensitive face...

I understand such expressions as "much deliberation" or "careful deliberation" or "calm deliberation", but what is "strong deliberation"? Does this mean something like "strong will"?

[BobK]

I agree with you that 'strong deliberation' sounds odd. Here is what the BNC records (no "strong" anywhere in the 45 cases):

1 CAREFUL DELIBERATION 11
2 GREAT DELIBERATION 9
3 THE DELIBERATION 8
4 SLOW DELIBERATION 5
5 CALM DELIBERATION 4
6 HUMAN DELIBERATION 4
7 QUIET DELIBERATION 3
8 LONG DELIBERATION 3
9 A DELIBERATION 3
10 COOL DELIBERATION 2
11 CONSIDERABLE DELIBERATION 2
12 CONSCIOUS DELIBERATION 2
13 COLLECTIVE DELIBERATION 2
14 CAUTIOUS DELIBERATION 2
15 MORAL DELIBERATION 2
16 PARTICULAR DELIBERATION 2
17 SHORT DELIBERATION 2
18 TERRIBLE DELIBERATION 1
19 STATELY DELIBERATION 1
20 SPECIAL DELIBERATION 1
21 SOUNDLESS DELIBERATION 1
22 RIPE DELIBERATION 1
23 RHYTHMIC DELIBERATION 1
24 REMARKABLE DELIBERATION 1
25 RATIONAL DELIBERATION 1
26 PROFOUND DELIBERATION 1
27 PRESENT DELIBERATION 1
28 PRACTICAL DELIBERATION 1
29 OVER-EXAGGERATED DELIBERATION 1
30 NO LONGER DELIBERATION 1
31 METICULOUS DELIBERATION 1
32 MATURE DELIBERATION 1
33 LENGTHY DELIBERATION 1
34 LEGAL DELIBERATION 1
35 INDEPENDENT DELIBERATION 1
36 11-HOUR DELIBERATION 1
37 GRAVE DELIBERATION 1
38 FULLEST DELIBERATION 1
39 FRESH DELIBERATION 1
40 ETHICAL DELIBERATION 1
41 DUE DELIBERATION 1
42 COLD DELIBERATION 1
43 CLOSE-QUARTER DELIBERATION 1
44 CALCULATED DELIBERATION 1
45 BLUNT DELIBERATION 1

read more here: [Davies/BYU] BYU-BNC: British National Corpus

Deliberation, in all these cases, means 'the process of deliberating'. The idea of doing something 'deliberately' is secondary; something is deliberate if it's done after deliberation.

But I think the writer (is it a native speaker? - not all great writers were [at least, not of English!]: Josef Conrad, for example) means there were signs of deliberateness or determination in her face.

b

PS BNC gave no hits for 'much deliberation' because of my query: [a*] deliberation. If I'd searched for * deliberation, that collocation would have beaten all my adjective ones 'hands down' [=easily] - it's very strong.

[imchongjun]

Thank you for your detailed explanation, BobK!! The quote is from Kate Chopin's short story "Her Letter". I didn't know there is such a site as this "British National Corpus". This is going to be my favarite site, I am sure. Thanks again.