Hi Ruth, Thank your very much for this. You are absolutely correct. Would you care to comment on the other part of that repeated formulation, that each lexeme has a single "unique" meaning? That seems to me to be nonsense as well. Or it at least needs to be explained as to the level of uniqueness.
This was a valuable contribution. Don't fall back into lurking mode! Blessings, Jerry Shepherd Taylor Seminary Edmonton, Alberta Jerry Shepherd Taylor Seminary Edmonton, Alberta [email protected] On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 5:37 PM, Ruth Mathys <[email protected]> wrote: > I've seen it claimed here repeatedly that a single lexeme necessarily has a > single meaning in all the contexts it is used in. I think that is > nonsense. > I won't attempt to prove it from Hebrew, but it is easy to demonstrate from > English. > > Take the word 'draw'. A horse can draw a cart, or I can draw the curtains > -- that means that some agent is pulling an object. For 'draw', I can > substitute words like 'pull', 'tug', 'tow', etc. On the other hand, I can > draw a picture -- in this case the agent is creating a product. For > 'draw', > I can substitute words like 'create', 'paint', 'sketch', etc. There is > absolutely no overlap in meaning. And yet I think most English speakers > would say that it is the same word in both contexts, perhaps linked by a > now-lost stage of meaning where the implement is pulled across the page to > create the image. But the shift in the nature of the verb's object proves > that the two meanings are distinct. > > Another word that has been suggested for multiple meanings is 'strike'. I > can strike a ball, verb + object. Or I can strike for better work > conditions, intransitive verb with a goal. My native-speaker intuition > says > that it is the same word both times, but I can't see what the connection is > between the two meanings. I can't see any residual notion of 'hit' in the > 'refuse to work' meaning. And again, the two meanings have different > syntactic contexts. > > Third example: 'class'. Wool can be sorted into different classes. > Students can be sorted into different classes. In this case, the > substitute > words would be 'grade', 'category', 'level', etc. If I say I'm late for > class, that is obviously a development from the previous meaning, but the > substitute words are different -- 'school', 'seminar', 'session'. And if I > say that somebody's action shows class, it's a different area of meaning > again -- 'high quality', 'impressiveness'. Just because the meanings can > be > shown to derive historically from each other doesn't make them the same. > The syntactic context is really important too. > > Back to lurking. > > Ruth Mathys > > > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew >
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