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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>John & Peter -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes indeed. I stand corrected. The BNC is
full of thieves abandoning stolen cars, so of course "ownership" is not the
right word. "Possession" might be a better shot than
"responsibility", though. Or, better still, some broader semantic value
that cannot be fully and correctly represented by any single </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>English word. Computationally, such values might be
represented as open-ended clusters of prototypical words, e.g.: {possession
| responsibility | ownership | ....}</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Anyway, my point remains that the semantics of
the lexical sets around a lexicographic target word -- the lexical sets by
which some of us try to do disambiguation of polysemous words -- merge
gradually into one another, so the sort of decision procedures that Bob Amsler
wants, though fine in theory, are reliant on idealizations that don't
map very well onto actual usage. (But maybe better than nothing, if we can
only get the theory right).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>BTW, Peter - surely intent is a
property of the abandoner, not the abandonee. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Patrick</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dr_john_roberts@sil.org href="mailto:dr_john_roberts@sil.org">John
Roberts</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com">lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, April 17, 2004 10:55
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Lexicog] lexical polysemy:
reply to Amsler</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Patrick Hanks wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV>But then you have to have had some sort of ownership relationship with
something before you can abandon it, don't you? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>-----------</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The key sense of 'abandon' is "relinquish responsibility for" not
"relinquish ownership of" isn't it? If you abandon your car on the motorway
you don't cease to own it (technically) but you do cease to be responsible for
it. The leader of a group of people could abandon them on the trail but he
doesn't own them. On the other hand, it seems odd to say "He abandoned his
book (i.e. the book that he owned) in the library."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>John Roberts</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
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