Seeing clearly: Frame Semantic, Psycholinguistic, and Cross ...

CHAPTER 5. WHAT THE DICTIONARIES SAY 185
consult is included within visit (201-f), which it inherits; our sense envision is found
with the label \imagine" (201-g).
The rst sense given (201-a), includes, but goes beyond, our sense eye; it seems
to include several otherwise unrelated senses all of which can be translated by Spanish ver.
Since the purpose of the dictionary is translation, this may not be an unreasonable practice.
However, it might be confusing to many users to nd very general uses such as (201-a-vi),
(201-a-vii), and (201-a-viii), all of them instances of our sense process mixed in with very
idiomatic uses such as (201-a-ix) and (201-a-iii). (201-a-ii) seems misplaced here; it belongs
in sense experience (201-h).
Like the monolingual English dictionaries, Collins distinguishes the transitive and
intransitive uses of the same sense in a way which wewould not nd necessary. The
examples in the rst sense in the intransitive section (202-a), like those in (201-a), seem
to have in common only that most of them are translated by the Spanish word ver. In
particular,(202-a-i), (202-a-iv), and (202-a-v) do not typically involve physical vision. The
metaphorical motion uses appear here ((202-a-vi) and (202-a-vii)) because they do not have
direct objects.
The two senses labeled \understand", ((201-c) and(202-b)), include examples of
our senses recognize(201-c-i) and classify (201-c-v) and the\conversation" senses related
to recognize ((202-b-iii)(202-b-i)). AsfarasIcan see mysteriously appears in both the
transitive and intransitive groups. The uses listed under (201-d) are our sense recognize
((201-d-i) and (201-d-iv)) and our sense news ((201-d-ii) and (201-d-iii)).
As noted above, a number of idiomatic uses appear in examples for the major
senses. The converse is also true; a number of the items listed as idioms belong with
the major senses such assee in(203-b-i) and see out (203-e-i) which belong under the
accompany sense and see toitwhich appears both as a separate collocation (203-i-iv) and
under the sense ensure (201-e) (where it belongs). At least one of the senses of see about
(203-a-i) belongs under ensure also, although the dictionary is probably right fromthe
translator's point of view to treat \consider" as a separate sense; note that the phrase I'll
see about it, without further context, is ambiguous between the two. The treatment of the
other senses of see out,aswell as see o , see through X and see X through is good.
In general then, the sense divisions of the Collins dictionary are reasonable, and
where they havechosen to combine uses that wehave regarded as separate senses, they have
generally followed the relations represented by inheritance in our description. In many cases