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<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
think we are right to reject introspection as a sufficient basis for
lexicography and to look at documented usage. But I have also been struck by the
usefulness of looking at the real world, 'exospection' if you will. There are
aspects of the real world that limit and define a domain. I would argue that
culture and perspective are sometimes a bit overrated. Fires exist in the real
world and we can identify real world aspects of them. They need fuel. So it is
no surprise that cultures and languages talk about 'fuel' and sometimes
incorporate a particular fuel into a lexical item in the domain 'Fire'. What
will be culturally determined is what fuels are available/used for intentional
fires. Cow dung can be used as fuel, but some cultures may find this abhorrent.
Here is my list (partial and tentative) of real world features of the domain
'Fire':</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>1.
Fires occur in the physical world and have a location: campfire
(camp)<BR>2. Fires require fuel: wood fire (wood)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>3.
Fires require oxygen: smother (cover a fire to extinguish it)<SPAN
class=932413422-05022004><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=3> </FONT>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004>4. Except in rare conditions, fires do not
start by themselves. So we can talk about their cause:</SPAN><SPAN
class=932413422-05022004> arson (person), electrical fire
(electricity)</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><SPAN class=932413422-05022004>5. Some fires
are started by people and some are not. So we can talk about intentional or
accidental fires: bonfire (intentional), blaze
(accidental)</SPAN><BR></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class=932413422-05022004>6</SPAN>.
Fires extend over time and go through stages: light a fire, flare up, die down,
die</FONT></SPAN></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=932413422-05022004>7. </SPAN>Fires become larger, so we can talk about
their size: flicker (small), inferno (very big)<BR><SPAN
class=932413422-05022004>8. </SPAN>Fires produce resulting
states that all cultures have learned to exploit. So we can talk
about their purpose: arson (criminal intent), cook fire (cook), bonfire
(burn rubbish)<BR><SPAN class=932413422-05022004>9. </SPAN>Because the
resulting states can hurt people or help people, we can talk about
good and bad fires: wood fire (nice, cozy), arson (bad), forest fire
(destructive, dangerous)</FONT></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>10. If
we combine the ideas that people use fires and that fires grow, we get the idea
that people need to control the growth of fires. So we talk
about controlling a fire: controlled fire (controlled), forest fire
(uncontrolled), tend a fire (control it)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>With
this list I am attempting to identify the universals of fire. My claim is that
none of them is culturally determined. What is culturally determined is the
details and what is lexicalized. For instance different cultures will
employ different means to start a fire (match, flint and steel, rubbing two
sticks together). Languages pick and choose what to lexicalize. English has
a word 'forest fire', other languages do not. We say, 'set a match to', but not
'*matchify'. Another language may use their equivalent of 'match' as both a
noun and verb. Cultures can also ascribe features to a domain that are peculiar
to their world view. For instance fire may be seen as a living thing. (We talk
about fires 'growing' and 'dying', although we would claim that this is
metaphorical.) However we would not expect such features to be universal.
So there are both universal and culturally determined features of a
domain.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>If we
did a corpus analysis of all of the words in the domain 'Fire', we would find
each of these features in the context. However when we look at a particular
word, we will find that, for any given feature, the options may be
limited. Patrick Hanks pointed out that in the BNC 'wood fire' is limited
to three locations (out of all possible locations): house/hearth, outdoor camp,
locomotive. Or a specification of a feature may be included in
the meaning of the word. *It was a small inferno. *It was an accidental
bonfire. We determine the meaning of a word by looking at what features
(and specification of features) occur and which do not. It is easy to determine
what does occur. It may take introspection to determine what cannot. But in
either case it helps to know what features to look for.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>When I
do corpus work, I look in the context for clues as to what domain(s) the word
belongs to. Once I identify the domain, I can assume that certain features will
be present. I look for these features and list the specific values (collocates)
that occur. Then I analyze these for patterns.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Ron
Moe</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=932413422-05022004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>SIL,
Uganda</FONT></SPAN></DIV><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->
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