[Lexicog] sit vs. sit

[Wayne Leman]

You're right, Rich. 'Be_at' is, of course, more accurate for the Cheyenne
(and other Algonquian) final at issue. It's simply faster for me to type the
three letters "sit" than "be_at". Time is money, as your metaphor colleague
would remind us!  :-)

I just was hoping for some simple English word way to differentiate the
Inanimate Intransitive 'be_at' from Animate Intransitive 'be_at.'

And I do agree with you that metalanguage label choices are important in
lexicography. English simple glosses are often misleading. Cheyenne -hoe <
PA *apikwa (?) is far more than just 'sit.' But sometimes we have to
compromise when we have many thousand lexemes, very little funding to hire
anyone else for keyboarding, and other pressing work. I like the way it is
stated in the recent collection ed. by Fromley/Hill/Munro that there are
often compromises in dictionary making.

Have a good week,
we're sprouting lots of green grass here on the rez,
Wayne
-----
Wayne Leman
Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language

----- Original Message -----

Wayne,
You've gotten a lot of good suggestions, but ...

<snip>

What does this all mean for Cheyenne lexicography? Probably that
there should be a BE_IN_A_PLACE category as Ron suggests, or better,
BE_AT, since the relevant verbs are all relative roots and the
complement isn't included in the verb form. It just appears that it
is sometimes because null complements are possible.

This question brings up a good theoretical point. We have to be every
bit as sophisticated about the semantics of the glossing language as
we are about the semantics of the target language. English (or French
or Spanish) aren't truly metalanguages. We just tend to use them that
way. A point frequently missed.

Rich




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