[Lexicog] Re: lexical phrase

[David Frank]

Ron --

Okay, I think I've figured out by now that when you said "on the other hand" is a lexeme, you were saying that you take it to be an idiom. I wasn't real clear on how you were using the terms "lexeme" and "lexical phrase."

I don't necessarily have a different interpretation of "on the other hand" than you have. I don't really care that much whether you want to call it an idiom or not. Except to say that I do see it somewhat as a live metaphor. Someone giving a lecture might use gestures, holding out one hand when saying "On the one hand..." and holding out the other hand when saying "But on the other hand...." It would be interesting to see how he would gesture when saying "On the third hand...." But when making a dictionary, the simplest thing would be just to include "on the other hand" as a subentry under "hand" and not bother the reader with the question of whether it is a metaphor or an idiom or a lexeme or an extended meaning, or just an interesting collocation, or whatever else it might be called, technically.

If "on the other hand" has become a dead metaphor, then you might also call it an idiom. But another analysis might be that the word "hand" has taken on a new sense from the dead metaphor. Maybe the definition could be something like "a platform on which half of a two-pronged argument rests." (I might have said "a container for half of a two-pronged argument," but then you would expect to use "in" instead of "on.")

-- David
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