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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>I have just
worked on one semantic domain of religious vocabulary in depth (God's
benevolence)</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>comparing
this semantic field in the Bible, the Qur'an, and in a West
African language with</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>a view of
translation and bridge-building. My best informant was a professor of
linguistics and</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>specialist of
the Qur'an, native speaker of the African language in
question.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>As the
language has borrowed almost all of its religious language from Arabic, it was
interesting</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>to see how
some of these terms have undergone semantic shifts and been thoroughly
africanized.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>I shared
already on this list that BARAKA (from Arabic barakat = blessing) has come to
mean</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>"power" in
this language so it had to be treated in the semantic domain of "power"
words,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>not in the
"God's benevolence" domain.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>Now when we
are talking about semantic domain dictionaries, how does they differ
from</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>"synonym
dictionaries"? According to Eugene Nida, co-author of the 2 volume
Greek-English</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>Lexicon of
the New Testament based on semantic </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>domains , "there are no synonyms."
I share that </SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>view
</SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>in
the sense that, connotatively speaking, there are in fact no synonyms. From the
point</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>of view of
denotation, or referentially speaking, there are synonyms.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>I think the
semantic field/domain approach represents one of the greatest advances
in</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>modern
lexicology. It works on the premise that the meanings of words are to be
understood</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>in terms of
their paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. Semantic fields do not have to
be</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>organized in
a fixed way using Aristotelian categorization of "necessary and sufficient
features".</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>Semantic
field theory can incorporate a prototype model of meaning which has the
advantage</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>of more
closely approximating reality than classification based on rigid
"pigeon-hole"</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>distinctions.
The advantage of the semantic domain approach is that it compares
and</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>contrasts all
the words for a concept, and so brings out more fully how each individual
word</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>differs,
from, or is simliar to, other words. It helps to determine precisely
distinctive</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>differences
between so-called "synonyms" by comparing their common and
contrastive</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>features and
by analyzing their sense relations.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>Here is a
challenge. What do "mercy" and "grace" have in common and how
do</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>they differ
in English? And what sense components do they share and how do they differ in
</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN
class=427453716-13052004>another language?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>Examples can
be given from religious or from secular use.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN
class=427453716-13052004></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN class=427453716-13052004>Fritz
Goerling</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><SPAN
class=427453716-13052004></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE><TT>Have you ever worked on a semantic domain dictionary of a
language? If so,<BR>would you please share with list subscribers how the
native speakers of the<BR>language responded to studying semantic domains? For
instance, did they seem<BR>to approach the lexicon of their language more
naturally by semantic domains<BR>than they would approach it
alphabetically?<BR><BR>I would appreciate comments from as many of you on the
list as possible. I<BR>would especially find interesting anecdotes about how
native speakers of the<BR>language took to researching natural semantic
groupings of terms within<BR>their
lexicon.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Wayne<BR>-----<BR>Wayne Leman<BR>Cheyenne website:
<A
href="http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language">http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language</A><BR><BR></TT><BR>
<br>
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