[Lexicog] Lacunae

[Peter Kirk]

On 26/04/2004 13:20, Wayne Leman wrote:

> ... I think there is
> a difference between a lexicalized word that means "to forgive" and a
> circumlocation or metaphorical expression which communicates the concept.
> All ways of expressing a concept need to be recorded in a dictionary,
> in my
> opinion, but in this topic thread I have especially been interested in
> lacunae for actual words for a particular concept. Perhaps this is a
> non-issue, but it seems to me that there is something to the idea that not
> all language groups lexicalize the same concepts, nor have lexicalizations
> for all possible concepts.
>
Well, when does a metaphorical expression become a lexical entry? Would
one say that English has a lacuna for the concept usually expressed by
the word "member", because it has had to use metaphorically a word which
originally meant "body part"? I ask because in Azerbaijani many abstract
concepts are expressed in this kind of way, but the metaphors have
become frozen and perhaps lexicalised expressions.

--
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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