[Lexicog] Forest fires and wood fires

[Mike Maxwell]

Oooh, I lied, I'm going to say one more thing:

I had written:
> I'm not sure I see the sense (pardon the pun)
> in doing a dictionary of that (or if you do create such a work,
> calling it a dictionary).

To which Patrick Hanks replied:
> The sense (purpose) would be to explain the idiom of the language as
> it is naturally and normally used, for the benefit of learners and
> computer programs alike.

Now _here's_ an interesting point!  Who--or what--is the audience of your
lexicography?  If it's a computer, than all the kinds of fires we've
discussed, and more, need to be distinguished.  But if it's a human--even a
native speaker of Chinese or Tzeltal learning English (or possibly a
computer that has the benefit of the common sense knowledge database from
CyCorp)--I suspect you need do a lot less distinguishing among senses.  Just
how much less is, naturally, an empirical question.  (Maybe you would have
to explain more to a pre-contact Eskimo who had never seen a wooden house or
a forest, even after you explained to them what these things were.)

    Mike Maxwell




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