Tag: (E) wrong

(1992-93) Theoretical lexicography

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992/93). What are the uses of theoretical lexicography? Dictionaries, 14, 44-78.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1992/93). Replies to discussants. Dictionaries, 14, 139-159.

DOI (main article): 10.1353/dic.1992.0014
DOI (replies): 10.1353/dic.1992.0016

A more recent publication building on the above is chapter 9 (pp. 258-286) of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Abstract:

There is more to practical lexicography than getting the meanings right, but trying to get the meanings right is vitally important. If theoretical lexicography couldn’t help in this respect, by providing ideas, principles, criteria, models, and guidelines, one could really doubt its raison d’être. However, theoretical lexicography can indeed offer all these things. Most importantly, it can offer a tool that can by itself remedy a large proportion of the ills of traditional lexicography: a NATURAL LEXICOGRAPHIC METALANGUAGE, derived from the NATURAL SEMANTIC METALANGUAGE, and based on universal semantic primes.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2000) Polysemy

Goddard, Cliff (2000). Polysemy: A problem of definition. In Yael Ravin & Claudia Leacock (Eds.), Polysemy: Theoretical and computational approaches (pp. 129-151). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This paper outlines Anna Wierzbicka’s ‘Natural Semantic Metalanguage’ (NSM) method of semantic analysis and seeks to show that this method enables the traditional ‘definitional’ concept of polysemy to be applied both to individual lexical items and to lexico-grammatical constructions. There is also a discussion of how aspects of figurative language can be handled within the same framework. Naturally, given the space available, the treatment must be incomplete in many respects. The underlying contention is that many of the difficulties experienced by current treatments of polysemy do not spring from the nature of polysemy itself, but from more general problems of semantic and lexicographic methodology, in particular the lack of a clear, practical and verifiable technique for framing lexical definitions.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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