[Lexicog] Criteria for example sentences

[Benjamin Barrett]

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Maxwell [mailto:maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu] 
Sent: Friday, 12 March 2004 6:41 AM


> Given that Korean adjectives are used in one basic form when acting as
> predicates and another basic form when modifying, I was thinking that
> I should come up with at least a sample phrase, though not
> necessarily a sample sentence for each.

Maybe, but an alternative would seem to be just to talk about this in your
grammar.  (Obviously ICO Korean, there are a bazillion grammars "out there",
and they probably already talk about this.  But for many of the readers of
this list, the grammar they write will be the onliest grammar of the
language.  Even if not, it is not uncommon to include a sketch grammar in
the dictionary, perhaps emphasizing the morphology.)  Again, while a couple
three example sentences would be appropriate in the grammar, I don't see the
need to have example sentences (or even example phrases) in the dictionary.
 
As an aside comment, the brief grammars in dictionaries often seem faulty to
me. I was using or trying to use my New College Latin & English Dictionary
the other day to trace some nouns. Even though it has lots of noun tables,
there are no explanations on how to figure out which declension a noun
belongs to.
 
> I like the suggestion of using a sample sentence such as "the dog
> barks at X", "the telephone rang/I answered the telephone" to inform
> the user of commonly used verbs, though the danger of falling into
> cliches seems real.

My off-the-top reaction to this is that the example sentences here belong
with the verb, not the noun.  Seals bark, too, as do children with the croup
(and sometimes bosses).  (I'm talking here about printed dictionaries;
electronic dictionaries are an entirely different thing, since you can
basically stick a concordance tool in them.)

What do you think about a noun like spell (as in witchcraft). For a
beginner's dictionary, it seems like including "cast a spell" might be
appropriate in the noun entry. BB

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