[Lexicog] Re: When Semantics Doesn't Matter

[Hayim Sheynin]

Dear John,

Thank you very much for this answer. This confirms my  understanding of
lexicography. I always did this in practice.

<<In the Longman Language Activator dictionary "kick the bucket" occurs under DIE.>>
This is similar to the approach of Roget's Thesaurus, where under a key word are listed all the synonyms and quasi-synonyms. 

Is the Longman Language Activator dictionary on the web?

Thank you again,

Hayim

John Roberts <dr_john_roberts at sil.org> wrote:                                  Dear Hayim,
 
 Sorry I misunderstood your query. As with most aspects of lexicography, 
 the choice is whether to go with form or with meaning. Traditionally, 
 the predominant approach to idioms has been to go by form. So you select 
 a key word in the idiomatic expression as the "lemma" to represent the 
 entry of that idiom in the dictionary. This is what the Longman 
 Dictionary of Idioms does, for example. It has the following English 
 idioms listed under the lemma or entry word CHANCE:
 
 as chance would have it
 chance it
 chance one's arm
 a dog's chance
 the ghost of a chance
 have an eye to the main chance
 not have a cat in hell's chance
 on the off-chance
 take one's chances.
 
 However, the Longman Language Activator dictionary takes a different 
 approach. It has a listing of some 1200 "key words" which are described 
 as key concepts. You can think of them as concept builders. For example, 
 "chance" is a key word. Under the main entry for "chance" they have 3 
 divisions of meaning to chose from and each directs you to a particular 
 place in the dictionary:
 
 - opportunity -> chance/opportunity
 - something happens by chance -> chance/by chance
 - lucky person -> lucky
 
 Then under Chance/By Chance for example, it has 5 divisions of meaning 
 with expressions that express those meanings:
 
 1. ways of saying that something happens by chance
     by chance
     by accident
     as luck would have it ...
 2. words for describing something happens by chance
     chance
     accidental
     fortuitous
 3. the way in which the result of something depends on chance
     luck
     chance
     fate
 4. something that happens by chance but seems to have been planned or 
 intended
     coincidence
     accident
 5. ways of saying that things are done, chosen etc simply by chance ...
     at random
     random
     aribitrary
 
 So the Longman Language Activator dictionary is organised according to 
 the meanings of key concept lexemes and gives the expressions of those 
 meanings in terms of words and idiomatic expressions. However, the key 
 concept word-form, e.g. "chance", does not have to occur in all of those 
 expressions. Whereas the Longman Dictionary of Idioms is organised 
 according to the word-form and idioms are arranged according to whether 
 a designated word-form, e.g. "chance", occurs in the expression.
 
 To illustrate the difference further: In the Longman Dictionary of 
 Idioms "kick the bucket" occurs under BUCKET. In the Longman Language 
 Activator dictionary "kick the bucket" occurs under DIE.
 
 However, there is another difference between these dictionaries. The 
 Longman Dictionary of Idioms is a finder dictionary. You read or hear an 
 idiomatic expression and you look its meaning up in the Longman 
 Dictionary of Idioms. To do this successfully you also need to know what 
 is the entry word that the idiom will be listed under. However, the 
 Longman Language Activator dictionary is a production dictionary 
 designed to help learners of English improve their vocabulary by finding 
 new and alternative ways of saying things in English or to refine their 
 usage. You wouldn't be able to find the meaning of "kick the bucket", 
 for example, from the Longman Language Activator dictionary. You would 
 have to go to the Longman Dictionary of Idioms (or equivalent) to do 
 that. You could then go to
 the Longman Language Activator dictionary and find out the contexts of 
 usage for "kick the bucket" and other ways of talking about dying. But 
 what the Longman Language Activator dictionary does is show how a 
 meaning-based dictionary might be organised.
 
 I hope this helps.
 
 John R
 
 -- 
 ********************
 John R Roberts
 SIL International Linguistics Consultant
 dr_john_roberts at sil.org
 ********************
 
     
                       

       
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