Tuesday 1 September 2015

Not Recognising The Stratification Of Content: Thesaurus

Martin (1992: 273, 275):
The relationship between words and ideas in a thesaurus is not a stratal one either.  Rather, words are classified notionally
Roget's system develops the idea of general motion up to the category sailing-ship and then lists some fifty lexical items under this heading; one of these is the lexical item yacht.  This strategy reinforces the notion/wording duality invoked by Roget in introducing his work; but all that is really going on is that his classification is being arrested at a certain point in delicacy.
Because it is organised according to meaning, a thesaurus provides a more appropriate model of lexical description than a dictionary does

Blogger Comments:

[1] By definition, in SFL theory, the relationship between words and ideas (mentally projected meanings) is a stratal one.  It is the relation between lexicogrammar and semantics.

[2] Classifying words notionally is classifying words according to the meanings they realise.  The relation between words and the meanings they realise is a stratal one: the relation between lexicogrammar and semantics.

[3] The relation between the idea of a sailing ship and the lexical items that realise it is a stratal one: the relation between semantics and lexicogrammar.

[4] What is actually going on is: a the semantic system is elaborated to 'a certain point in delicacy', and the words that realise semantic categories are listed.  The relation between a semantic category and the words that realise them is a stratal one: the relation between semantics and lexicogrammar.

[5] In being organised according to meaning, a thesaurus provides a semantic taxonomy in which the lexical items that realise each category are listed.  In being organised according to meaning, therefore, it does not provide a model of lexis at the level of wording.  In SFL theory, lexis is modelled as most delicate grammar.  What is appropriate, in SFL terms, is the use of hyponymy as an organising principle.