[Lexicog] Re: When Semantics Doesn't Matter

[John Roberts]

Dear Hayim,

Sorry I misunderstood your query. As with most aspects of lexicography, 
the choice is whether to go with form or with meaning. Traditionally, 
the predominant approach to idioms has been to go by form. So you select 
a key word in the idiomatic expression as the "lemma" to represent the 
entry of that idiom in the dictionary. This is what the Longman 
Dictionary of Idioms does, for example. It has the following English 
idioms listed under the lemma or entry word CHANCE:

as chance would have it
chance it
chance one's arm
a dog's chance
the ghost of a chance
have an eye to the main chance
not have a cat in hell's chance
on the off-chance
take one's chances.

However, the Longman Language Activator dictionary takes a different 
approach. It has a listing of some 1200 "key words" which are described 
as key concepts. You can think of them as concept builders. For example, 
"chance" is a key word. Under the main entry for "chance" they have 3 
divisions of meaning to chose from and each directs you to a particular 
place in the dictionary:

- opportunity -> chance/opportunity
- something happens by chance -> chance/by chance
- lucky person -> lucky

Then under Chance/By Chance for example, it has 5 divisions of meaning 
with expressions that express those meanings:

1. ways of saying that something happens by chance
    by chance
    by accident
    as luck would have it ...
2. words for describing something happens by chance
    chance
    accidental
    fortuitous
3. the way in which the result of something depends on chance
    luck
    chance
    fate
4. something that happens by chance but seems to have been planned or 
intended
    coincidence
    accident
5. ways of saying that things are done, chosen etc simply by chance ...
    at random
    random
    aribitrary

So the Longman Language Activator dictionary is organised according to 
the meanings of key concept lexemes and gives the expressions of those 
meanings in terms of words and idiomatic expressions. However, the key 
concept word-form, e.g. "chance", does not have to occur in all of those 
expressions. Whereas the Longman Dictionary of Idioms is organised 
according to the word-form and idioms are arranged according to whether 
a designated word-form, e.g. "chance", occurs in the expression.

To illustrate the difference further: In the Longman Dictionary of 
Idioms "kick the bucket" occurs under BUCKET. In the Longman Language 
Activator dictionary "kick the bucket" occurs under DIE.

However, there is another difference between these dictionaries. The 
Longman Dictionary of Idioms is a finder dictionary. You read or hear an 
idiomatic expression and you look its meaning up in the Longman 
Dictionary of Idioms. To do this successfully you also need to know what 
is the entry word that the idiom will be listed under. However, the 
Longman Language Activator dictionary is a production dictionary 
designed to help learners of English improve their vocabulary by finding 
new and alternative ways of saying things in English or to refine their 
usage. You wouldn't be able to find the meaning of "kick the bucket", 
for example, from the Longman Language Activator dictionary. You would 
have to go to the Longman Dictionary of Idioms (or equivalent) to do 
that. You could then go to
the Longman Language Activator dictionary and find out the contexts of 
usage for "kick the bucket" and other ways of talking about dying. But 
what the Longman Language Activator dictionary does is show how a 
meaning-based dictionary might be organised.

I hope this helps.

John R




-- 
********************
John R Roberts
SIL International Linguistics Consultant
dr_john_roberts at sil.org
********************


 
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