[Lexicog] lexical relation for boar - sow?

lengosi pcunger at MSN.COM
Sat Feb 25 19:11:59 UTC 2012


Thanks for the responses! I'm sorry, but I should have indicated that this is not an English dictionary. I'm trying to help a colleague with a dictionary of an Oceanic language. What I wrote here were glosses, so the hypernym probably isn't as crucial as it might otherwise be.

I can appreciate what you mean about lexical relations being a "messy field", Ron. Especially when one doesn't use a constrained database program (e.g., FieldWorks). My friend has used Toolbox and there are a host of instances of "Syn" being used on one side of a 'lexical relation' and "See" on the other... It's going to be a huge amount of work for him to tidy that up. :-( He also hasn't used semantic domains, so, unfortunately, your suggestion isn't going to work. I'll suggest 'gender pair' and see what he thinks.

Thanks again for your help!

Paul

--- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, "Ronald Moe" <ron_moe at ...> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure if there is a standard term. I would call them a "gender pair".
> The term "antonym" is overused. There are many types of antonyms. The
> prototypical antonym is a true positive:negative pair like fair:unfair. You
> also need to be cautious when dealing with complex sets of related words. In
> this case you have "pig, hog, swine, boar, sow, piglet, suckling (pig),
> barrow". For many of us "pig" is the hypernym. But technically (or
> archaically) "swine" is the hypernym and "pig" means the young of the
> species. Irrespective of which is the hypernym, all these words are tied
> together in a complex network of lexical relations. Good luck in trying to
> sort out all the relations and recording them in your dictionary. I would
> rather just assign them all to the semantic domain "Pig" and leave it at
> that.
> 
>  
> 
> I find lexical relations to be a very messy field, especially where pigs are
> concerned. (Pun intended.)
> 
>  
> 
> Ron Moe



------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    lexicographylist-digest at yahoogroups.com 
    lexicographylist-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/



More information about the Lexicography mailing list