at the expense of

[mgeorgescu]

There is a bit of disagreement on how to approach "at the expense of" (with the sacrifice of, with the loss of, at the cost of, at the price of).

Some alternatives:

• prep-at:

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said terrorists must not be stopped at the expense of democratic principles. :prep-at (e / expense :poss (p / principle :mod (d / democracy))))

• expend-01: something at someone else 's expense .

(s2 / something :ARG2-of (e / expend-01 :ARG0 (s / someone :mod (e2 / else))))

• cost-01 Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said terrorists must not be stopped at the expense of democratic principles.

(s / say-01 :ARG0 (m / minister :name (n2 / name :op1 "Hassan" :op2 "Wirajuda") :mod (f / foreign) :poss (c / country :name (n / name :op1 "Indonesia"))) :ARG1 (o / obligate-01 :polarity - :ARG2 (s2 / stop-01 :ARG1 (t / terrorist) :ARG2-of (c2 / cost-01 :ARG1 (p / principle :mod (d / democracy))))))

Should try to go to "cost-01" or another equivalent sense or stick to :prep-at?

[uhermjakob]

Tricky. At the expense of has a somewhat special meaning, apart from expend-01. I think that compromise-02 would capture the meaning quite well and it provides a nice argument structure.

• Original: Terrorists must not be stopped at the expense of democratic principles.
• Paraphrase: Terrorists must not be stopped by compromising democratic principles.

Partial AMR:

(s / stop-01
  :manner (c / compromise-02
            :ARG1 (p / principle
                    :mod (d / democracy))))

[uhermjakob]

Different sense: at one's own expense

He had his house repaired at his own expense.

(h / have-04
  :ARG0 (h2 / he)
  :ARG1 (r / repair-01
          :ARG1 (h3 / house
                   :poss h2)
          :ARG3-of (p / pay-01
                     :ARG0 h2)))

[nschneid]

How about "I made a joke at his expense" (i.e. made fun of someone, perhaps taking a toll on his reputation)? I think this is the same sense of the idiom as "at the expense of democratic principles," but I would not paraphrase with "compromise".

Maybe hurt-01 or injure-01 would be more general?