[Lexicog] Re: [FLEx]Re: How to make and change entries

[John Roberts]

Ron,

Re. a cross-linguistic study of singular/plural grammatical number and 
semantic count/mass distinctions, the only works I know of that come near 
this are:

Greville Corbett (2000) Number. Cambridge University Press.
James Hurford (1987) Language and Number: Emergence of a Cognitive System. 
Blackwell.

But I think the best account of how to handle the count/mass distinction 
semantically is in an article available on the internet:

THE LEXICAL SEMANTICS OF ENGLISH COUNT AND MASS NOUNS
BRENDAN S. GILLON
Department of Linguistics, McGill University
http://acl.ldc.upenn.edu/W/W96/W96-0307.pdf

The principles outlined here should have a universal application.

Re. how you handle homonyms in a dictionary, I believe we already discussed 
this at one time. I said there are four different criteria you can use for 
distinguishing homonyms and setting up dictionary entries. These are: 
orthographic, grammatical, semantic and etymological (see below). Most 
publishers of English dictionaries use the etymological criterion as the 
main criterion. Some use the orthographic criterion. The grammatical 
criterion is only usually used if there is also a difference in form. So 
walk (n) and walk (v) are placed under the same entry but walk out (v) and 
walker (n) would be under separate entries. Not many mainstream English 
dictionaries use the semantic criterion, as far as I know.

John Roberts

----------

Orthographic. The orthographic organisational criterion places all homonyms 
with the same written form under the same headword. Look up the word bow in 
Chambers COBUILD. You will see that the two homonyms written this way above 
are both included under the same headword as shown below, even though they 
are pronounced differently.
bow /bɑʊ/  v. to bend your body forwards while standing in front of 
someone. …
/boʊ/  n. a weapon for shooting arrows.

Grammatical. The grammatical organisational criterion places all homonyms of 
the same grammatical word class under the same headword. When this is 
applied to the English homonyms jump ‘to move quickly and suddenly up into 
the air’ and jump ‘the act of jumping’, then we would set up two dictionary 
entries of jump1 and jump2, because one is a verb and one is a noun. Even 
though they both have a closely related meaning semantically, the fact that 
they belong to different grammatical word classes means that they are 
entered under separate headword entries.

jump1 v. to move quickly and suddenly up into the air.
jump2 n. the act of jumping.

Semantic. The semantic organisational criterion places all homonyms with the 
same referential meaning under the same headword. When this is applied to 
the English homonyms ball ‘a round object’ and ball ‘a dance’, then we set 
up two dictionary entries of ball1 and ball2 because they have different 
unrelated meanings. Even though they are both nouns and belong to the same 
grammatical word class, the fact that they have different meanings means 
that they are entered under separate headword entries.

ball1 n. a round object.
ball2 n. a dance.

Etymological. The etymological organisational criterion places all homonyms 
with the same origin under the same headword. This is the criterion used in 
traditional English dictionaries, such as Chambers and Webster’s. For 
example, in the two entries below taken from Chambers it is not the fact 
that bar1 has different senses nor different parts of speech that decides 
the distinctiveness of bar4 as a separate entry but the distinction is made 
on the basis that this word has a Greek origin rather than an Old French 
origin.

bar1  n. a rod or strip of any solid substance …; a barrier, an 
obstruction …; a public house …; v.t. to fasten, …
[Old French barre]
bar4  n. a unit used in expressing atmospheric pressure, e.g. millibar.
[Greek baros ‘weight’]




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Moe" <ron_moe at sil.org>
To: "John Roberts" <dr_john_roberts at sil.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 10:54 PM
Subject: RE: [FLEx]Re: How to make and change entries


> The details of the English singular/plural and count/mass distinctions are
> interesting. Perhaps more interesting would be a cross-linguistic study on
> the subject. I don't a lot of details about Bantu nouns. I do know that
> there are mass nouns like the Swahili word maji (ma- 'Class 6, plural'; ji
> 'water'). So whereas English normally uses a singular form for mass nouns,
> Bantu languages normally use a plural form. I suspect that most of the
> behavior in English has parallels in other languages. (Or should I say,
> "Most of the behaviors in English have a parallel in other languages"? All
> this talk of plurality and agreement has messed up my intuition. :)
>
> There are a couple of issues that are lurking around the edges of our
> discussion. If a lexeme is a combination of a form and one of its 
> meanings,
> then "fruit mass-n. the edible part of a plant containing seeds... We are
> having fruit for lunch," and "fruit/fruits count-n. a type of fruit...
> Apples are a fruit, and tomatoes are classified with the fruits as well,"
> are two different lexemes. But I would combine both lexemes into a single
> dictionary entry, just as I would combine "walk vi. I walked to town" and
> "walk vt. I was out walking the dog" into a single entry. Dictionary 
> entries
> are convenient groupings of lexemes. They are joined by a common citation
> form, some shared semantic or etymological link, and often precious little
> else. Differences in affixation potential and syntactic behavior have 
> never
> prevented lexicographers from combining lexemes into a single entry,
> although some lexicographers prefer to set up separate entries for 
> different
> grammatical categories. My Merriam-Webster has separate entries for "walk
> vb." and "walk n.", but combines "walk-to move" and "walk-to cause to 
> move"
> into a single sense: "walk vb. 1 : to move or cause to move along on foot
> usu. at a natural unhurried gate <~ to town> <~ a horse>...." We surely 
> need
> a more principled way than this to set up homonymns and senses.
>
> Ron Moe
> 


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