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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
  • Cc: hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Contextual Semantic Domains
  • Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 16:16:58 -0800

On 18/11/2003 11:54, CS Bartholomew wrote:

Reinier de Blois following J.P.Louw** draws a distinction between lexical
and contextual semantic domains:

----Quote***
In an article written in 1991, Louw makes a distinction between lexical and
contextual meaning. According to him, the former deals with those aspects of
meaning that a word ³contributes in and of itself,² whereas the latter deals
with the information provided by the utterance in which that word occurs
³involving the circumstances of and the objects referred to in a specific
context in terms of its usage in such a context along with other words or
phrases contributing to the context.²
----end quote

Does anyone who has taken a serious look at this issue have any reservations
about developing a Hebrew dictionary which is structured around this
distinction?


Excellent question, Clay. I am involved in a project to develop just such a dictionary, restricted to "Key Terms" (this is not R de Blois' SDBH project). I consider this to be a helpful distinction, but it is also a confusing one. In fact the project leadership has just agreed to a change in the terminology: we will continue to refer to "lexical meaning", but no longer to "contextual meaning", rather to "contextual use".

Let me explain briefly what is happening here (see http://www.ubs-translations.org/sdbh/ for more details). Reinier de Blois criticises the Louw and Nida dictionary of NT Greek for confusing lexical meaning distinctions and the uses of words in different contexts. His approach makes these into two independent factors. In my opinion, things are not quite as tidy as de Blois would like them to be, but he does have a very good point. The distinctions he makes are rather subtle, but they are helpful.

To go back to the "strike" example, there may be separate lexical meanings here, but it would be possible to see this as one rather broad lexical meaning with a number of distinct contextual uses e.g. in music, baseball and labour relations. Not perhaps the best example, but it's too late at night here in England to think of a better one.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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