[Lexicog] mentee/mentoree

[Mike Maxwell]

I'm confused by a couple things here (and a lot of things elsewhere in 
the world).

John Roberts wrote:
<snip>
> However, according to Urdang (1982) its current usage has expanded 
> beyond these beginnings. Now it has (at least) the following senses:
> 
<snip>
> 2. 'A person or persons that are recipients of the result of an action': 
> /amputee/, /biographee/, /selectee/.
> 3. 'A person furnished with' the thing named by the combining root: 
> /custodee/, /patentee/, /mortgagee/.
> 
> Senses 1, 2 and 4 are based on the semantic properties of the verb from 
> which the /-ee/ form is derived and sense 3 is based on the thing named 
> by the combining root. 

Is 'biographee' incorrectly categorized?  I don't know of any verb 
related to 'biography'.  (One might question whether 'patentee' and 
'mortgagee' are correctly categorized, or whether they in fact relate to 
the verb, but these cases are less clear, and might have dual sources in 
some sense anyway.)

> But Chris Barker's semantic analysis (see below) 
> only seems to take into account the senses that can be related to verbs.
> 
> The formation of /-ee/ nouns systematically adheres to three essentially 
> semantic constraints:
> first, the referent of an /-ee/ noun must be sentient;
> second, the denotation of an /-ee/ noun must be episodically linked (as 
> defined below) to the denotation of its stem;
> and third, a use of an /-ee/ noun entails a relative lack of volitional 
> control on the part of its referent.
> 
> (39) A derived noun N is EPISODICALLY LINKED to its stem S iff for every 
> stage </x, e/> in the stage set of N, /e/ is a member of the set of 
> events that characterizes S.

I don't see anything in this semantic analysis that refers to verbs?? 
The defn in (39) refers to a stem of undefined category, and stages and 
events.  Can't nouns denote events that have stages?
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu


 
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