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<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>We may
be trying to be a bit more specific with the meaning of 'drain' than we should
be. As with many words, 'drain' activates a prototypical scenario. Various
aspects of the scenario can be commented on:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>1. The
bathroom sink is draining slowly.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>2. I
think I've got the sink fixed. At least the water is draining
now.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>3. You
forgot to drain the water in the sink.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>4.
This is the pipe that drains the sink.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>In (1)
the sink is draining, in (2) the water is draining, in (3) you are draining, and
in (4) the pipe is draining. But all four refer to water running out of a sink
under the influence of gravity, which my intuition tells me is the prototypical
scenario. (Or maybe it is just that I had to fix a sink yesterday.) We
understand each of the sentences, in spite of their apparent contradictions,
because we have activated the scenario. Notice also that you can (3) drain water
or (4) drain the sink.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>This
raises some very difficult issues for lexicography. Do we need four definitions
to handle the four example sentences? Up until recently I would have said yes.
But my understanding of schemas, scenarios, and scenes has grown to the point
where I think we need to be defining each schema, scenario, and scene. In the
'drain' scenario there are several concepts that are lexicalized, including the
event 'drain.v', the 'hole' 'drain.n' or 'drainhole', the 'pipe' or 'drainpipe',
the 'plug', the nominalized form of the event 'drainage', the system of pipes
'drainage' or 'drains', what is drained 'drainage', a basket or bowl with holes
used to drain liquid from objects 'drainer', and so on. Once we have defined the
prototypical scenario and its range of variations, we can much more easily
define the lexical items that are used to refer to various aspects of
it.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I'm
coming to the conclusion that many words can only be understood within the
context of a larger scenario. I read many definitions that would be baffling
without an understanding of the scenario to which they belong. It would be
rather difficult to define 'peace' without some reference to 'conflict', or to
define 'knife' without reference to 'cut'.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>It is
curious that none of my dictionaries define (1), (2), or (4). The default
conceptualization, if we are to go by the definitions, is 'someone drains liquid
out of something'. But we can express the scenario from other perspectives, "I
drove over a rock, punched a hole in my transmission pan, and all the
transmission fluid drained out onto the ground." (This actually happened to me.)
The extended sentence contains elements of the scenario that aren't in the
'drain' clause and that don't fit the default conceptualization. For one thing
the drainage was not deliberate, but the result of an accident. So the American
Heritage Dictionary definition, "To cause liquid substance to go out from,"
doesn't fit. You can go back to the first two clauses and look for a cause, but
what we really have to do is to mentally reconstruct the event on the basis of
what we know about the 'drain' scenario. In this case we are dealing with a
variation of the scenario in which a container has a hole in it and the liquid
contents drain out through the hole. The sub-sub-scenario here is that the
container developed a hole through which the liquid drained. In another
sub-sub-scenario the container is designed with a hole and the container is
upended so that the liquid drains out. In another the plug develops a leak,
allowing the liquid to drain out. My point is that there is incredible
complexity in words and their scenarios. The mind goes to great lengths to make
sense out of a variety of expressions.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=725180721-19102004><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000
size=3> </FONT>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>The
variations in the examples above are by no means unusual. Fauconnier and Turner,
in their book "The Way We Think," give the example of 'safe': "The child is
safe," "The beach is safe," "The shovel is safe." The word 'safe' activates the
scenario of 'danger' along with the features of 'savior' 'save' 'victim'
'dangerous person/instrument/time/place' 'safety'. It isn't that 'safe' has
several meanings, or is modifying a person, place, or instrument respectively,
but that it activates the scenario.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
class=725180721-19102004></SPAN> </DIV></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2>Identifying the prototypical scenario is just the start. We have to
determine the possible variations in the scenario and decide how to indicate
them. How we indicate the range of possible expressions is also a challenge. I
don't know if we need to develop a better theory of semantics or if we need to
write definitions that can handle all the possible expressions. I suspect that
there are general rules that would at least partially govern the types of
expressions that are possible, such as what we see in (1-4) and in the 'safe'
examples. But I don't have a theory, let alone rules, that enable me to avoid
having to write at least four definitions for 'drain'. I don't think we need to,
but I don't know where in the 'grammar' this sort of rule should be captured.
Anybody have any ideas?</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Ron
Moe</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=725180721-19102004><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Wayne Leman
[mailto:wayne_leman@sil.org]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, October 19, 2004 9:42
AM<BR><B>To:</B> lexicographylist@yahoogroups.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re:
[Lexicog] Draining corpora<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello, Patrick. I was referring to the shorter
English verb, "drain". Obviously, I need to fieldtest it, but I *think*
English speakers conceptualize "drain" as when liquid flows from, rather than
into. Of course, if we add the word "into", then we change the
conceptualization to be the same as Cheyenne -estovaotse which would be
glossed in English as 'drain.'</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for your comments,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Wayne</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>-----<BR>Wayne Leman<BR>Cheyenne website: <A
href="http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language">http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=hanks@bbaw.de href="mailto:hanks@bbaw.de">Patrick Hanks</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>Cc:</B> <A title=vkarzi@PATAKIS.GR
href="mailto:vkarzi@PATAKIS.GR">Varvara Karzi</A> ; <A
title=arum@brandeis.edu
href="mailto:arum@brandeis.edu">arum@brandeis.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, October 19, 2004 9:21
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Lexicog] Draining
corpora</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello Wayne, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>How reliable are our intuitions? There's
nothing odd about English "drain into".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>How reliable is corpus data?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I work with two corpora -- the British
National Corpus (100 million words)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>and Associated Press 1991-92 (150 million
words). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are 1651 occurrences of the verb <FONT
color=#0000ff><STRONG>drain</STRONG></FONT> in BNC, </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>which include:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>47 "drain into".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>11 "drain out". (</FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>Surprisingly, no occurrences of "drain out
of".)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>161 "drain from".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In AP there are 1318 occurrences of the verb
<FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>drain</STRONG></FONT>, which
include:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>53 "drain into".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>43 "drain out (of)".</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The meaning seems to be affected by the choice
of preposition -- </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>tributaries
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>draining into the Colorado River" --
but "the blood drained </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>from his face". (Where did </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>it drain into - his boots? Wrong question!)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>FrameNet has this verb in the Removing and
<FONT face=Arial size=2>Emptying frames.</FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2> Both </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial
size=2>frames </FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial
size=2>specify frame elements </FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Source - Path - Goal. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>It </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>may be more accurate to say that in draining we
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>conceptualize the </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>flow </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>from </FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT
face=Arial size=2>source to goal </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>and that either source or goal or both may be
</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>thematized </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>explicitly.</FONT></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><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| --></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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