Date:    Sun, 28 Jun 1998 02:16:28 -0500
<br>From:    "Donald M. Lance" <engdl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SHOWME.MISSOURI.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: more on 'grow'
<br>
<br>Not an abbiguity.  A polysemy.  People have recently started using the verb
<br>'grow' in a new sense -- "to cause growth, or an increase in growth rate,
<br>to occur."  The extension of the agricultural term (planting seeds and
<br>nurturing plants) to business would be in the use of "seed money" to grow a
<br>completely new business.
<br>
<br>DMLance
<br>
<br>>Apparently, some native speakers of AmEng do not think there is any
<br>>semantic ambiguity in the tr. v. 'grow' when it is used with non-agri
<br>>objects. I continue to think that there is. Consider a sentence I read in
<br>>today's Knoxville News-Sentinel:
<br>>
<br>>> It plans to add some technical employees in the Knoxville office, but
<br>>> the firm is not interested in growing a large employee base.
<br>>
<br>>The sense appears to be that the co. is not interested in increasing its
<br>>number of employees. And the sentence seems to emphasize the lack of
<br>>interest in a new entity -- "a large amployee base" -- not a lack of
<br>>interest in increasing the size of its present employee base.
<br>>
<br>>Am I making sense?
<br>>
<br>>In other words, when we "grow the economy," we seem to "increase the size
<br>>of" the economy or "improve the economy." There is no sense of "improve"
<br>>in the above example, I think.
<br>>
<br>>???
<br>>
<br>>Bethany
<br>