[Lexicog] Slots and slot fillers (nee "Nouns")

[sr_shead]

> Sounds like a new sense of "a ferry" is being gradually
conventionalized 
> (at least for that speaker and those in his circle): "the cycle, and
the 
> associated period of time, from one ferry trip to the next."  And/or a 
> new (transitive?) sense of "wait" = "wait for/out Obj".

Is this really a new sense of "ferry", or is the significant factor
actually the meaning of the "Wait [for] length-of-time" construction
itself, which licenses length-of-time (including time-period)
construals of unusual fillers? (I have in mind research into the
"meanings" of resultative and ditransitive constructions by, for
example, Adele Goldberg and Hans Boas.)

Similarly, I'm not sure about that new sense of "wait" - is it "wait
for/out Obj", or simply "wait a certain time period" (in this case, on
defined by the ferry routine)?

Some possible support:
* I don't catch ferries, and to me "I waited a ferry" sounded very
strange. However, it didn't take much "searching" to work out what was
meant - though I think the process was probably based on (i) the
normal meaning of "wait length-of-time" constructions, and (ii) my
knowledge about ferries (i.e. that they tend to depart semi-regularly).

* On the other hand, I catch trains all the time - and to me, "I
waited a train [but you still hadn't come]" sounds perfectly normal.

* In neither case would I call it a conventionalised "meaning" of the
noun. At least, it may become a conventionalised collocation /
construction - but you wouldn't use "ferry" or "train" with such a
"sense" (if that makes sense!) in any other context than one related
to the ferry/train running schedule. So, if a friend turns up very
late for a dinner engagement, you wouldn't say "I've waited three
ferries/trains!"

* But I think it is possible to come up with novel constructions which
do make sense (even if they're slightly odd). So, at an amusement
park, waiting at the roller-coaster for a friend who was going to go
on it with you: "I've waited three rides!" (Too odd? Any better examples?)

- Stephen Shead
(newbie wet-behind-the-ears contributor)

--- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, David Tuggy <david_tuggy at ...>
wrote:
>
> Sounds like a new sense of "a ferry" is being gradually
conventionalized 
> (at least for that speaker and those in his circle): "the cycle, and
the 
> associated period of time, from one ferry trip to the next."  And/or a 
> new (transitive?) sense of "wait" = "wait for/out Obj".
> 
> Could this man say, with equal facility, "I waited an airplane"? or "I 
> slept a bus"? If not, that's evidence that "ferry" is being given 
> special treatment.
> 
> None of which contradicts, but rather fits in quite exactly, with your 
> observation that by the right placement you can  "use any phrase
that is 
> susceptible to being interpreted as an adverbial of the relevant sort." 
> It just adds that doing that a few times with the same lexical item 
> starts a new sense on its way.
> 
> I would take some issue with your comment:
> 
> If "a ferry" were the direct 
> object, then why can it be omitted and a PP or adverbial appear in its 
> place?  You don't see that kind of substitutability with ordinary 
> transitive verbs.
> 
> But you do, in fact, get time nouns there: wait an hour, sleep an
hour. And by your data, "ferry" appears to be metamorphosing into that
kind of noun (without of course losing its concrete object sense "boat
for carrying cars etc. across a relatively narrow body of water").
Many transitive verbs do in fact impose strong semantic restrictions
on the class of objects they allow, and objects grade into other kinds
of complements, including prepositional-phrase complements, in many
ways. If what you mean is that this is not a prototypical direct
object, OK, but if you mean it can't be assimilated to the class of
direct objects at all, I am much less sure. (Of course if your theory
demands a +/- judment on direct objecthood, perhaps by setting up
passivizability as the sole criterion, you might say this simply isn't
a direct object. But that has problems, for sure.)
> 
> Btw, is a ferry a boat that ferries things, or is ferrying things
doing the sort of thing a ferry does?
> 
> --David Tuggy






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