[Lexicog] Criteria for example sentences

[Jonathan Amith]

Dear All,

I am working on a dictionary of Nahuatl (just back from the field) and
have run into various problems concerning example sentences and their
use in teaching.

Instead of "a dog barks" consider "a cow moos". Here the problem might
be: what sense of cow is intended. Certainly bovine cows moo, but do
female whales? So, when a term is used in an example sentence the user
is still left wondering what sense (if multiple senses are available)
of the term is meant?

I remember reading (the citations are now out of sight and mind) about
the difficulties of second language learners with users dictionaries
and, particularly, with example sentences. One problem is that example
sentences themselves might give a potential collocation or subject,
but without adequate knowledge a user does not know "why" the subject,
for instance, is appropriate. Thus in "a cow moos" is "cow"
appropriate because it is a bovine in general (use of cow for male and
female bovines), a female bovine, a female animal whose male partner
is a bull, etc.?

One solution I have tried is to create a field for "subjects of
predicates." Thus "itchy" might have "wool". "Moo" might have "cow,
bull." This too creates its own problems, but is useful to the extent
that it gives common collocations without the necessity of an example
sentence.

The other solution is simply an extended semantic discussion that
focuses on potential misunderstandings that readers might have.

Jonathan Amith





Quoting Ron Moe <ron_moe at sil.org>:

> Mike and Benjamin have been discussing example sentences such as "the
> dog
> barks" and "cast a spell"  (see below). In my list of domains I have
> a
> domain for 'Animal sounds'. I understand that some languages have few
> words
> in this domain. All animals 'cry' or something like that. English has
> a fair
> number of them, many of them restricted to a single species or at
> least a
> very limited set. Cows 'moo', but nothing else does. However I would
> not
> consider "the cow mooed" an idiom. Several very dissimilar animals
> 'bark'.
> So this would be even less likely to be an idiom. However I believe
> the real
> reason these are not idioms is that they belong to an extended set
> of
> phrases consisting of [animal + sound]. It is a very productive set
> and is
> realized by a variety of surface manifestations, "the mooing of the
> cow,"
> "the cow went, 'moo'" etc.
>
> On the other hand a phrase like "cast a spell" belongs to a very
> limited set
> of phrases consisting of [verb + spell] within the domain of
> witchcraft. We
> have "place a hex on," but I can't think of any others off the top of
> my
> head. Perhaps a perusal of the Harry Potter books would turn up more.
> In
> both these examples the verb is not carrying the semantics. One could
> argue
> that the spell travels through the air. At least the movies portray
> this
> happening visually. But a witch does not actually physically place a
> hex on
> the victim. So they would be classic idioms of the type [dummy verb +
> noun].
>
> So I would consider putting "the dog barks" as an example sentence
> under
> 'dog' and 'bark'. But I would make "cast a spell" a separate entry
> and put
> it as a subentry under 'spell'. If I was making an electronic
> dictionary I
> would also put it under 'cast' along with the idioms "cast a ballot"
> "cast
> in one's lot with" and "cast lots". But I think someone has already
> mentioned that listing all the [dummy verb + noun] idioms under the
> verbs
> would result in very long lists. So I've come to the conclusion that
> the
> best place for these idioms is under the noun that is carrying the
> semantics.
>
> Ron Moe
> SIL Uganda
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Maxwell [mailto:maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 5:34 PM
> To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Criteria for example sentences
>
>
> MessageBenjamin Barrett wrote:
> > 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.
>
> To which I had replied:
> > 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).
>
> To which Benjamin Barrett in turn replied:
> > 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.
>
> Yes, I think you're right that "cast a spell" would be an
> appropriate
> subentry under the noun "spell".  I'm not sure why I feel differently
> about
> this, unless it has something to do with subjects vs. objects.
> Intuitively,
> "cast a spell" seems like an idiom (or some other type of fixed
> expression),
> in a way that "the dog barks" does not.
>
> Of course, appeals to my native speaker/ linguist intuition is little
> help
> for those compiling dictionaries in languages of which they are not
> native
> speakers!
>
>     Mike Maxwell
>
>
>
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Jonathan D. Amith
Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
Gettysburg College
300 N. Washington St.
Campus Box 412
Gettysburg, PA  17325
Tel. 717/338-1255



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