Verbum Search through Tip of the Day #24

MJ. Smith
MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 54,599
edited November 2024 in English Forum

Tip 24: Factbook Biblical Person: Bible Sense Lexicon

Please be generous with your additional details, corrections, suggestions, and other feedback. This is being built in a .docx file for a PBB which will be shared periodically.

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As an introduction to this section, here is a portion of an old Logos Academic Blog Training reading list:

Sense of the Day: Using the Bible Sense Lexicon

For understanding the Bible Sense Lexicon, the last sense in the Senses section of the Bible Word Study used in the previous tip is clicked.

This brings up the Bible Sense Lexicon Tool for the Bible sense grandfather.

The header line (1) contains:

  • An input box which provides a selection box for the sense/word under consideration. On mouse over, the provides a gloss on the word so one can verify one has the intended sense.
  • Two options for the size of the display – full size or fit into pane.
  • Carets for previous/next navigation
  • A kebab icon (2) for the panel menu which is expanded in this screen shot.
  • The Help card with a video link for this feature. It shows here because it was requested on the panel menu “Show help card”. This feature is available only in Logos; it is suppressed in Verbum.

The panel heading (1) discussed above uses an input selection book to determine the word/sense under consideration.

The sense section (2) shows:

  • The sense
  • The part of speech
    from Wikipedia:
    In traditional grammar, a part of speech is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are assigned to the same part of speech generally display similar syntactic behavior—they play similar roles within the grammatical structure of sentences—and sometimes similar morphology in that they undergo inflection for similar properties.
  • A definition of the word/sense
  • A sparkline chart of the distribution of the use of the sense, independent of lemma or translation, in the Bible.
  • The option to run a search for the sense. The search is run against the top priority Bible through a reverse interlinear.

The lemma section (3) shows:

  • The lemma in the script of the original language
    • On mouse-over an information card is displayed
    • On right-click a Context Menu is opened
    • The lemmas transliterated
    • A gloss on the lemma
    • Count of the number of times the lemma appears with this sense in the Bible. This count is easily verified by a familiar search – except for Exodus 10:6 which is selected by the Search but not by the Bible Sense Lexicon This is explained by Jeremy Thompson of Faithlife as “In the left panel of the BSL, multi-word items are broken down into their individual parts because we do not have multi-word representations elsewhere in the software, but sense search does not use the surface text in this case.
      For results show up because the sense does intersect that lemma four times. It just happens that one of the times that the sense intersects with the lemma it is a part of a multi-word item. The Hebrew lemma אָב can mean grandfather on its own or the phrase אֲב֣וֹת אֲבֹתֶ֔י "father's father" can mean grandfather, but this is essentially just a phrase duplicating the Hebrew lemma אָב”
    • Bible reference for the three occurrences. On mouse-over, a preview of the text is displayed.

      On right-click, the Context Menu is displayed

According to the dataset documentation, the following relationships should be visible for the appropriate entry:

[quote]Noun and Verb relationships:

•          “Kind of” (Hypernym/Hyponym): The “kind of” relationship is between a more general and more specific sense or concept based on the formula “an x (more specific term) is a kind of y (more general term)”; for example, “a bald locust (hyponym) is a kind of locust (hypernym).”

Verb relationships:

•          Causative: The causative relation is between two verb senses with one causing the other; for example, “to kill is causative of to die.”

•          Passive: The passive relation is between two verb senses with the passive sense, generally, profiling the entity being acted upon as opposed to an entity performing an action; for example, “to be killed is passive of to kill.”

•          Result: The result relation is between two verb senses with one being the result of the other; for example, “to be embittered is a result of to embitter.”

Adjective relationships:

•          “Similar to”: The “similar to” relation is between two or more adjective senses that cluster closely together; for example, “righteous is similar to good (moral).”

•          Antonym: The antonym relation is one of opposition, generally, between two adjective senses, though it can apply to other parts of speech; for example, “righteous as opposed to unrighteous.”

Relationships ignoring part of speech:

•          “Pertains to”: The “pertains to” relation crosses part of speech boundaries to mark close connections between senses of different parts of speech, as opposed to “related senses,” which mark looser connections; for example, “righteous (adjective) pertains to rightly (adverb).”

•          “Related senses”: The “related senses” relation marks a looser connection between senses of any part of speech. It can occur with any sense, but it often occurs with rare senses that would otherwise have few or any other connections.[1]

The data shown in the relationships section is:

  • Relationship name
  • Senses involved in the relationship. Hovering over the sense display an information card:

    A right-click opens the Context Menu

    Click on the sense will change the contents to the new sense, as if you had entered it in the select box at the top.
  • Note using a different example will illustrate the relationships section more thoroughly – see to empty.

The see also section (5) has variable content dependent upon the entry. Common entries are:

  • A link to the Topic Guide for the sense
  • Louw Nida semantic domain numbers while give a preview on mouse-over and open on click. Louw Nida will be covered in the next tip.

The visual diagram (6) is built as a hierarchy with the following conventions:

  • An open circle indicates the end of the classification string for the sense
  • A solid circle indicates that the sense can be expanded to see further levels or contracted to hid levels.
  • The sense of the Bible Sense Lexicon is in bold – note grandfather
  • The hierarchy shown in the Relationships section default to expanded in the visualization.
  • All entries in the visualization show an information card on mouse-over:

Further considerations:

Wikipedia provides a reasonable set of definitions for the traditional grammatical parts of speech:

[quote]The classification below, or slight expansions of it, is still followed in most dictionaries:

Noun (names)

a word or lexical item denoting any abstract (abstract noun: e.g. home) or concrete entity (concrete noun: e.g. house); a person (police officer, Michael), place (coastline, London), thing (necktie, television), idea (happiness), or quality (bravery). Nouns can also be classified as count nouns or non-count nouns; some can belong to either category. The most common part of speech; they are called naming words.

Pronoun (replaces or places again)

a substitute for a noun or noun phrase (them, he). Pronouns make sentences shorter and clearer since they replace nouns.

Adjective (describes, limits)

a modifier of a noun or pronoun (big, brave). Adjectives make the meaning of another word (noun) more precise.

Verb (states action or being)

a word denoting an action (walk), occurrence (happen), or state of being (be). Without a verb a group of words cannot be a clause or sentence.

Adverb (describes, limits)

a modifier of an adjective, verb, or another adverb (very, quite). Adverbs make language more precise.

Preposition (relates)

a word that relates words to each other in a phrase or sentence and aids in syntactic context (in, of). Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun with another word in the sentence.

Conjunction (connects)

a syntactic connector; links words, phrases, or clauses (and, but). Conjunctions connect words or group of words

Interjection (expresses feelings and emotions)

an emotional greeting or exclamation (Huzzah, Alas). Interjections express strong feelings and emotions.

Article (describes, limits)

a grammatical marker of definiteness (the) or indefiniteness (a, an). The article is not always listed among the parts of speech. It is considered by some grammarians to be a type of adjective[13] or sometimes the term 'determiner' (a broader class) is used.

From the WordNet Reference Manual:

[quote]holonym

The name of the whole of which the meronym names a part. Y is a holonym of X if X is a part of Y .

hypernym

The generic term used to designate a whole class of specific instances. Y is a hypernym of X if X is a (kind of) Y .

hyponym

The specific term used to designate a member of a class. X is a hyponym of Y if X is a (kind of) Y .

meronym

The name of a constituent part of, the substance of, or a member of something. X is a meronym of Y if X is a part of Y .

synset

A synonym set; a set of words that are interchangeable in some context without changing the truth value of the preposition in which they are embedded.

troponym

A verb expressing a specific manner elaboration of another verb. X is a troponym of Y if to X is to Y in some manner.

 


[1] Jeremy Thompson, Bible Sense Lexicon: Dataset Documentation (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2015).

Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

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