On The Wordtree® by Henry G. Burger

Abstract

This is a review article of the work by Henry G. Burger The Wordtree®. The Wordtree is a dictionary-thesaurus published in 1984. It is an attempt at defining the lexicon of processes expressed by English transitive verbs. Burger provides information concerning different types of sense relations in each entry. The most challenging part refers to the conceptual analysis of lexical items. Burger applies the binary componential method and tries to define each verbal concept in terms of two sub-parts, one – indicating its cause, the other – its effect. Although the enterprise is unprecedented in its scale, it underrepresents the meaning of lexical items. Also while his binary selections seem convincing for the nodes higher in the hierarchy, they are more arbitrary for the lower ones.