Abstract
In the context of five learners’ dictionaries, we examine the treatment of certain systematic relationships in the semantics and syntax of the English verb and find a lack of systematicity in this aspect of the lexicography. We present detailed evidence to support our criticism, including citations from a corpus of general English. We suggest that the discrepancies arise because of an inadequate representation of the native speaker’s knowledge of the English verb system. Drawing on linguistic research into the verbal classification scheme of English, we construct a ‘dictionary-neutral’ summary of the semantic-syntactic relationships pertinent to the verb bake, designed to enable the lexicographer to make principled decisions about the content and presentation for a specific dictionary. On the basis of this summary we offer a revision of an entry for bake, showing that a theoretically motivated analysis, if clearly presented, will ease the lexicographer’s task and improve the quality of the lexicography.
This paper is a slightly modified version of a paper with the same title that originally appeared in the International Journal of Lexicography 1:84–126 in the summer of 1988. It is reproduced here by kind permission of Oxford University Press.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Apresjan, Ju.D., I.A. Mel’cuk and A.K. Z.olkovskij. 1970. `Semantics and Lexicography: Towards a New Type of Unilingual Dictionary’ in F. Kiefer (ed.). Studies in Syntax and Semantics. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Apresjan, Ju.D., I.A. Mel’euk and A.K. Zolkovskij. 1973. `Materials for an Explanatory Combinatory Dictionary of Modern Russian’ in E. Kiefer (ed.). Trends in Soviet Theoretical Linguistics. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Atkins, B.T, A. Duval, R.M. Milne, et al. (eds.). 1987. Collins-Robert English-French Dictionary. London and Glasgow: Collins Publishers. Second Edition. (CREFD)
Atkins, B.T., J. Kegl, and B. Levin. 1986. `Explicit and Implicit Information in Dictionaries.’ Lexicon Project Working Papers 12. Center for Cognitive Science, MIT, Cambridge, MA. Also Cognitive Science Laboratory Report 5. Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
Fillmore, C.J. 1986. `Pragmatically Controlled Zero Anaphora.’ Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 12. Berkeley, CA, 95–107.
Green, G. 1973. `A Syntactic Syncretism in English and French’ in B. Kachru et al. (eds.). Issues in Linguistics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Hale, K.L. and S.J. Keyser. 1986. `Some Transitivity Alternations in English.’ Lexicon Project Working Papers 7. Center for Cognitive Science, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Hale, K.L. and S.J. Keyser. 1987. `A View from the Middle.’ Lexicon Project Working Papers 10. Center for Cognitive Science, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Hanks, P., et al. -(eds.). 1986. Collins English Dictionary. London and Glasgow: Collins Publishers. Second Edition.
Hornby, A.S. (ed.). 1974. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (OALD)
Konishi, T., et al. (eds.). 1980. Shogakukan Progressive English-Japanese Dictionary. Tokyo: Shogakukan. ( SPEJD )
Levin, B. 1985., `Lexical Semantics in Review: an Introduction’ in B. Levin (ed.). Lexical Semantics in Review. Lexicon Project Working Papers 1, Center for Cognitive Science, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Levin, B. In press. `Approaches to Lexical Semantic Representation’ in D. Walker, A. Zampolli, and N. Calzolari (eds.). Automating the Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Levin, B. 1993. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Massam, D. and Y. Roberge. 1987. `Recipe Context Null Objects in English.’ Linguistic Inquiry 20, 134–139.
Procter, P., et al. (eds.). 1978, revised 1987. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. London: Longman Group. (LDOCE)
Rappaport, M. and B. Levin. 1988. `What to Do with Theta-Roles,’ in W. Wilkins (ed.). Syntax and Semantics 21: Thematic Relations. New York: Academic Press, 7–36.
Rappaport, M., B. Levin, and M. Laughren. 1988. `•iveaux de Representation Lexicale.’ Lexique 7, 13–32. Appears in English as `Levels of Lexical Representation,’ in J. Pustejovsky (ed.). 1993. Semantics and the Lexicon. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 37–54.
Sinclair, J., P. Hanks, et al. (eds.). 1987. Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary. London and Glasgow: Collins. (COBUILD)
Talmy, L. 1985. `Lexicalization Patterns: Semantic Structure in Lexical Forms’ in T. Shopen (ed.). Language Typology and Syntactic Description 3. Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Atkins, B.T., Kegl, J., Levin, B. (1994). Anatomy of a Verb Entry: from Linguistic Theory to Lexicographic Practice. In: Zampolli, A., Calzolari, N., Palmer, M. (eds) Current Issues in Computational Linguistics: In Honour of Don Walker. Linguistica Computazionale, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35958-8_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35958-8_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-2998-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-585-35958-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive