Lexicon Information

In linguistics, the description of a language is split into two parts, the grammar consisting of rules describing correct sentence formation and the lexicon listing words and phrases that can be used in the sentences. The lexicon (or wordstock) of a language is its vocabulary. Statistically, most lexemes contain a single morpheme. Lexemes composed of multiple morpheme also known as compound words such as idiomatic expressions and colocations are also considered part of the lexicon. In practical applications, such as language learning the lexicon is represented by a dictionary, which lists words alphabetically and provides definition.

More formally, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek λεξικόν (lexicon), neuter of λεξικός (lexikos), "of or for words",^[1] from λέξις (lexis), "speech", "word",^[2] and that from λέγω (lego), "to say", "to speak".^[3]

Size and Organization Of The Lexicon

Items in the lexicon are called lexemes or word forms. Lexemes are not atomic elements but contain both phonological and morphological components. When describing the lexicon a reductionist approach is used trying to remain general while using a minimal description. To describe the size of a lexicon, lexemes are grouped into Lemmas. A lemma is a group of lexemes generated by inflectional morphology. Lemmas are represented in dictionaries by headwords which list the citation forms and any irregular forms, since these must be learned to use the words correctly. Lexemes derived from a word by derivation morphology are considered a new lemmas. The lexicon is also organized according to open and closed categories. Closed categories, such as determiners or pronouns, rarely get new lexemes and their function is primarily syntactic. Open categories such as nouns and verbs have highly active generation mechanisms and their lexemes are more semantic in nature.

Lexicalization and other Mechanisms in the Lexicon

A commonly overlooked fact is that the Lexicon serves to document lexical norms and conventions. New lexemes, called neologism are often produced by children and less commonly by adults. Lexicalization is the process where new words, having gained into widespread usage, enter in the lexicon. Most innovations to a lexicon are either loan words introduced by bilingual speakers during language contact or compound words created from existing morphemes. Once a neologism or a compound is introduced in one languages if successful it will often diffuse across geographical boundaries. Since lexicalization may modify lexemes phonologically and morphologically it is possible, that a single etymological source may be borrowed in two or more forms into a single lexicon. These pairs are called doublet are often close semantically. Some examples^[4]. are aptitude v.s. aptitude, employ v.s. imply. Another mechanism involves a generative device which combine morphemes according to a language's rules. For example, the suffix "-able" can be added to transitive verbs only, so that we get "read-able" but not "cry-able".

The mechanisms (not mutually exclusive) are^[5] -

• Innovation^[6] - the planned creation of new roots (often on a large-scale), e.g. slang, branding, .
• Borrowing - of foreign words.
• Compounding also called composition is the combination of lexemes into a single word. E.g. house-wife; város-háza "city hall" (Hungarian); rot-licht "red light" (German). The resulting compound words are not the semantically the sum of the meanings of its constituents. They can usually be interpreted through analogy, common sense and context^[7] .
• Abbreviation of compounds
• Acronyms - NASA, laser.
• Agglutination
• Lexicalizations^[7] - inflectional and derivational morphology at work. In complex words constituents may be dropped.

Besides word-formation there are also mechanism of change in an exiting lexeme.

• Lexical Replacement - replacement, either complete or in a word sense.
• Sound Change localised to specific words, phonotactics combination or systemic taking the form of a consonant or a vowel shift.
• obsolescence of vocabulary - slag typically have short lifespans.
• Blocking - existing lexical conventions block creation of new words.

Diachronic Mechanisms

Comparative historical linguistics studies the evolutions languages and takes a diachronic view of the lexicon. The evolution of lexicons in different languages occurs through parallel mechanisms. Over time historical forces work to ^[8] shape the lexicon, making it simpler to acquire and often creating an illusion of great regularity in language.

• Phonological Assimilation - modification of loan words to better fit a new language's sound structure. If a loan word is to foreign sounding inflection or derivation rules may not be able to transform it.
• Analogy - new words undergo inflection and derivation analogous to that of words with a similar sound structure.
• Emphasis - words are modified for effect of emphasis.
• Metaphor - a form of semantic extension.

Second Language Lexicon

The term lexicon is generally used in the context of single language. Therefore, multi-lingual speakers are generally thought to have multiple lexicons. Speakers of language variants (Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, for example) may be considered to possess a single lexicon. Thus a cash dispenser (British English) as well as and automatic teller machine or ATM in (American English) while belonging to speakers of different dialect would be understood by both American and British dialect speakers.

When linguists study the lexicon, they consider such things as what constitutes a word; the word-concept relationship; lexical access and lexical access failure; how a word's phonology, syntax, and meaning intersect; the morphology-word relationship; vocabulary structure within a given language; language use (that is, pragmatics); language acquisition; the history and evolution of words (i.e. etymology); and the relationships between words, often studied within philosophy of language.

In psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics, researchers have proposed various models of how the lexicon is organized and how words are retrieved.

See also

• Function word
• Glossary
• Idiolect
• Lexical markup framework
• Lexicography
• Lexicology
• Morphology
• Grammaticalization

Further reading

• Aitchison, Jean. Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003.

References

1. ^ λεξικός, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
2. ^ λέξις, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
3. ^ λέγω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
4. ^ Skeat, Walter (17-04-2010). A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Forgotten Books. p. 648. ISBN 9781440057229. http://books.google.com/books?id=wRGhnkZq3HQC.
5. ^ Ornan, Uzzi (2003) (in Hebrew). The Final Word — Mechanism For Hebrew Word Generation. Haifa: Haifa University Press. ISBN 965-311-054-4.
6. ^ Metcalf, Allan (2002). Predicting New Words — The Secrets of Their Success. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-13006-3.
7. ^ ^{a b} Geert, Booij (2005). The grammar of words : an introduction to linguistic morphology. Oxford textbooks in linguistics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-928042-3.
8. ^ Deutscher, Guy (May 19, 2005). The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention. Metropolitan Books.

Categories:

• Lexis (linguistics)
• Greek loanwords
• Vocabulary
• Linguistics

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