[Lexicog] Synonymy

[Ron Moe]

John Roberts wrote:
"But to get at what are the most common distinguishing domains of semantic
contrast in synonyms you would need to examine many sets of synonyms in many
languages."

This is precisely what I believe we as a lexicographic community need to do.
We reinvent the wheel every time we try to define a word or distinguish
between the members of a lexical set. If we would do cross linguistic
comparisons of lexical sets, we would begin to identify patterns. I propose
that we pick some representative languages that have a good classified
dictionary, and study the semantics of each domain. For instance English,
Koine Greek, Chinese and Japanese each have a thesaurus or classified
dictionary. I'm looking for others. I would like to find at least ten
classified dictionaries, one from ten different langauage families. Then we
could pick a domain and study that domain in each language. We could
identify those factors that distinguish the members of the domain and are
involved in their meaning.

For instance in the domain 'carry' I'm aware that many languages have words
that involved the method by which someone carries something--either on a
pole over the shoulder, or on the head, or cradled in the arms. So we could
determine how widespread this factor is. Do all languages have words like
this? What other factors can we identify? I suspect that we will find
patterns and identify universals of semantics. I suspect that many languages
will have words with meanings that are similar to words in other languages.
For instance I suspect that most languages will have a generic term for
'carry'. I suspect that many languages will have a word for carrying
something in a container like a basket or pack on the back. Once we have
done the research, we could write up the semantics of this domain. Other
lexicographers could use our research to facilitate their own. They would
still have to look for the idiosyncratic features that are involved in their
language, but they would have a tremendous head start.

Ron



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