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<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I
would agree with all Mike's points except the last. The recent
discussion of even such obvious nouns as 'bull' or 'dog' show a range of
applicability which is far from predictable. The metaphorical use of animal
terms indicates that our conception of an animal is far from trivial and goes
far beyond the scientific name. A dog is more than a member of the species canis
familiaris. We say, "He's as faithful as a dog," and "He's nothing but a dirty
dog." Or, "He's as strong as an ox," and "He's as dumb as an ox." In fact these
uses may be more common than literal references to oxen.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Even
'rock' needs to be carefully defined and illustrated. 'Rock' and 'stone' are not
exact synonyms and the difference needs to be made explicit. "We built our house
on a rock." *"We built our house on a stone." "I cut my hand on a sharp rock."
*"I cut my hand on a sharp stone."</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>English has lots of verbal nouns that are noun in part of speech but
whose semantics refer to events, processes, and states. Most of us would agree
that these need to be illustrated as much as a verb. But there are other nouns
that are on the borderline between semantic "verbs" and semantic "nouns" (if you
will). For instance 'growth' in one of its senses refers to a part of your body
which is not normal. "The doctor removed a growth on my back that proved to be
benign." It is as much a thing as your nose, but is called a 'growth' because it
grows abnormally. The example sentence illustrates several features of the
semantics and usage. 1) It is external to the skin or an internal organ (on
something). 2) It is abnormal. 3) It is feared to be cancerous. 4) Doctors often
deal with them. 5) The verb used to indicate surgically cutting it off is
'remove'.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>So I
would prefer the general rule: "Give an illustrative sentence for every word
unless you cannot find one that is non-trivial and informative. Of course we
have to be concerned about size restrictions, but I would prefer a
short illustrative phrase to nothing at all. I appreciate a fine tuned
definition, but I love a good illustration. When reading entries with multiple
senses in a monolingual English dictionary, I am sometimes unsure what sense a
definition is referring to until I read the example
sentence.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Ron
Moe</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=276540418-11032004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>SIL,
Uganda</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Mike Maxwell
[mailto:maxwell@ldc.upenn.edu]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, March 11, 2004 10:15
AM<BR><B>To:</B> lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Lexicog]
Criteria for example sentences<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What criteria do y'all suggest for determining
whether an entry (or sub-entry) should include example sentences?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I suspect the answer is the same for monolingual
and bilingual dictionaries, although I'm interested in the bilingual
case.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>When I've reviewed bilingual dictionaries for
publication, I have claimed that every 'adverb', verb and adposition needs (at
least one) example sentence. I have not pushed so hard for example
sentences for adjectives and nouns. My reasoning is as
follows:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(1) Adverb is a catch-all category. Even if
it's broken down into verbal adverbs vs. sentential adverbs, or locatives vs.
temporals vs. manners..., it's still going to be unclear to the user of the
dictionary just what the behavior of that word is (even if there is a good
grammar of the language). Same goes for minor POSs, like determiners,
'particles' etc., although most of these should be reasonably well documented
in the grammar.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(2) Verbs tend to have complex argument
structures, which vary across languages even for similar meanings. (Cf.
'talk', 'say', 'ask', 'wonder'... with their counterparts in any other
language you may know.) So again, without example sentences, the user
won't know how to use them. (And it may be necessary to have at least
one example for each subcategorization frame.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(3) Adpositions usually have a more
straightforward grammar, but their meaning may be unclear (no matter how well
you gloss them). So they should have several example sentences, to
(partially) illustrate their range of meaning. (BTW, there's a
fascinating article in the Sept. 2003 issue of Language on the semantics of
spatial adpositions across languages. Should be required reading for
lexicographers.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(4) Nouns, and to a lesser extent adjectives,
tend to have straightforward grammars and meanings. You don't need an
example sentence to know how to use 'dog' or 'rock'. (Abstract nouns
like the infamous 'destruction' are of course exceptions to
this.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is an easy test to make in a computerized
way, since it's easy to pull out all the words of a given grammatical category
which do not have at least one example sentence (or one for every sense of
those words).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Comments?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Mike
Maxwell<BR> Linguistic Data Consortium<BR>
<A href="mailto:maxwell@ldc.upenn.edu">maxwell@ldc.upenn.edu</A></FONT><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| --></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
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