11 - A preliminary lexical and conceptual analysis of BREAK: A computational perspective

Summary

“We want the ring. Without the ring there can be no wedding. May we break the finger?”

“Old age,” said Sir Benjamin, breathing deeply and slowly, “is a time when deafness brings its blessings. I didn't hear what you said then. You have another chance.”

“May we break the finger?” asked Ambrose again. “We could do it with a hammer.”

“I thought, sir,” said Sir Benjamin, “that those were the words. The world is all before you. By God, my hiccoughs have gone, and no wonder. As for ‘break’, ‘break’ is a trull of a word, it will take in everything. Waves, dawns, news, wind, hearts, banks, maidenheads. But never dream of tucking into the same predicate my statues as object and that loose-favoured verb. That would be a most reprehensible solecism.”

The Eve of Saint Venus, Anthony Burgess

Introduction

We are interested in how a verb's description changes as it evolves into different usages. In order to examine this issue we are attempting to combine a LEXICAL ANALYSIS of a particular verb with a CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS. LEXICAL ANALYSIS is aimed at producing a LEXICAL DEFINITION which functions as a linguistic paraphrase. This should ideally be a lexical decomposition composed of terms with simpler, “more primitive” meanings than the term being defined (Mel'čuk 1988; Wierzbicka 1984). In contrast, a conceptual analysis produces a CONCEPTUAL DESCRIPTION of the lexical item.

Criteria for building a conceptual description are linked to arguments borrowed from “real-world” considerations or expressed in terms of denotations.