[Lexicog] sit vs. sit

[Lou Hohulin]

In English, I think we differentiate between 'sit' and 'set'. 'Set' generally means to cause something (inanimate object) to 'sit'. Does that fit your data?

Lou

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 21:47:33 -0700
 "Wayne Leman" <wayne_leman at sil.org> wrote:
> I'm having a mental block right now as I am working on the Cheyenne lexicon.
> As I file entries I often include a semantic domain keyword. This keyword
> allows me to extract all lexical entries for a specific semantic domain,
> such as all words having to do with cutting, or horses, or weather.
>
> I already have a semantic domain keyword of 'sit.' It is used for all verbs
> which have stem morphology marked that the subject is an animate being that
> is sitting (or, more generally, being at a location, typically in some form
> of sitting). The English word 'sit' seems natural enough for me to be the
> semantic domain keyword for these verb stems.
>
> Now, in Cheyenne, as in its sister languages of the Algonquian language
> family, there are also verbs corresponding to the preceding class, but which
> have an inanimate entity being at a location. I've been checking my
> dictionaries and I *think* the English word 'sit' is also used for semantic
> states of inananimate entities "sitting." For me, the English word "sit"
> somehow does not sound as natural for this class of verbs which take
> inanimate subjects (and stem morphology which registers the fact that there
> is an inanimate subject).
>
> Regardless of my English intuitions on naturalness about 'sit' used with
> inanimate subjects, I need some other semantic domain keyword so I can
> differentiate the two verb classes and extract verbs of one or the other,
> when desired. I can, of course, use some dummy keyword such as "xyz", but I
> find it easier to remember my semantic domain keywords if they bear some
> resemblance to "reality."
>
> For the time being I am using an abbreviation "sit inan" for the second
> class of verbs, but I'm wondering if any of you who are not having a mental
> block while reading this message (or at least not when you started reading
> it!) might have a suggestion for another English word which sounds natural
> when used to describe inanimate objects which "are at", e.g.
>
> "The box is on the table." (Cheyenne uses a single verb for "is on".)
> "The house is in a nice location." (Cheyenne uses a single short verb for
> "be in a nice location.")
> "It's jello (a verb stem composed of two parts, literally, 'quiver-be.at')
> etc.
>
> If you need to sit (ahem!) on this for awhile, feel free, but any
> suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Wayne
> -----
> Wayne Leman
> Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>



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