[Lexicog] Criteria for example sentences

[Ron Moe]

Again, the prototypical use of 'bark' is of a dog uttering a short loud cry
because something is wrong, prototypically because a stranger (or animal) is
near. Dogs make other sounds. They growl when they are warning someone that
they are about to attack. They whine when they are unhappy. They whimper
when they are hurt. They howl at the moon. When we say "He is barking up the
wrong tree," we mean he is talking about a problem, but is wrong about where
the problem lies. Dogs chase cats up trees and bark up at them. But the cat
may jump into another tree. The dog may be too stupid to notice and continue
barking up the wrong tree. When a policeman barks an order, he gives a short
loud command to someone in order to deal with a problem. When we say of
someone, "His bark is worse than his bite," we mean he may talk like he is
angry, but he is unlikely to do anything to hurt you, so you shouldn't be
frightened of him. Some dogs bark but don't bite. But we are often
frightened when they bark. I have no idea what dogs really think when they
bark, but I imagine my dog is saying, "Hey, something's wrong. There's a
stranger at the door. You'd better come do something about it." All of these
reflect our cultural perception of dogs and why they bark.

These examples not only illustrate prototypical usage, but also metaphorical
extension, and the creation of secondary meanings. The way we order our
senses and write our definitions should reflect this type of analysis.

We've got lots of other nice expressions based on the behavior of dogs: "He
bristled." "He pricked up his ears." "My tongue was hanging out." "I'm
drooling at the thought." "Chasing your tail." "The tail wagging the dog."
"Go at it tooth and nail." "Puppy love." "I'm in the dog house." "It's a
dog's life." "Hot on the scent." "Sniffing around." Although these are all
idioms, they are not so frozen that they have lost their doggish flavor.
They still conjure up images of dogs. So should they all be made subentries
under 'dog'? How do we link related metaphors?

Ron Moe
SIL, Uganda

-----Original Message-----
From: Translation MALI [mailto:translation_mali at sil.org]
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 3:58 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Lexicog] Criteria for example sentences


What kind of picture is conjured up if you say in English:
1) He barked up the wrong tree.
2) The policeman barked an order.
3) His bark is worse than his bite.

How do these "barks" differ?

Fritz Goerling


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 Mike Maxwell 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).











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