1,274
9
Article, 4 pages (900 words)

Summary

The paper ” Lexicon and Types of Lexical Item” is a wonderful example of an assignment on humanitarian. What is a word? The notion of the word can be given neither without stressing on the importance of its meaning nor on the word as the construction of minimum sounds with a meaning. Considering the role words play in a language is a good way to understand the full notion of the word.  Words are used in a language to pass ideas from one person to another by coding a concept one think of in a word for this concept which is previously settled with other language speakers. The process is called “ the encryption system”, it’s automatic, and goes in next steps: thinking of idea (made by one human) – coding – passing – decoding (made by another human) – thinking of idea too. The system doesn’t work without rules on combining words together, without syntax. Meanings united in a random way fail to transmit an idea. For example:
The dog is barking vs. Is dog the barking (Harley, 2004).
Coming back to a word, it’s a “ minimum meaningful unit” called “ listeme”, which includes next cases: (1) words made of two and more words, but conveying a single meaning like “ homeowner”, “ cannot” and etc. (2) words with indexes (like affixes and etc.) which may change words’ meanings. For example dog – dogs (Harley, 2004). (3) Unions of words or idioms, which only have a meaning within a particular construction. For example, “ spin and span” cannot always be used for “ clean” concept.
Considering all the above said, the word is:
a phonological word (how it pronounced),
meaning of a word (semantic),
category of a word (syntax),
and morphology (other forms of a word).

Chapter 10. The Lexicon
The lexicon is “ a set of basic units (words)” concentrated with meanings (Curse, 2008). “ Lexemes” are word forms with their related meanings (illustrative examples are words in dictionaries).
While graphic words have spaces, spoken language uses stresses or regular word positions and etc. to separate one word from another. Within sentences, words are recognized as the largest interpretable (respecting words boundaries and structure of a sentence) forms. When expressing ideas or concepts which have no single settled meanings, speaker builds semantic chains to express them. For example, to convey “ drink chilled wine” the chain would be “ chilled” with “ wine” in a single concept, then “ chilled wine” with “ drink” (Cruse, 2008).
Lexical structures (the meaning of words within linguistics). There’re debates on either word meaning’s in relation with other words (like “ dog” is a dog because it’s not a cat) and “ holists” believe that, or words are self-contained due to describable meanings (“ boy” is a human, male, and young) (Cruse, 2008). Some words are ambiguous, and their meanings are known from context.
Words can go in sense relations: inclusion, and exclusion and opposition. Inclusion may be (1) hyponymy (dog: animal), (2) meronymy (finger: hand), and (3) synonymy (marriage: wedding). Exclusion and opposition may be (1) an incompatibility and co-meronymy (cat: dog, man: woman) and (2) opposites. Among opposites are complementaries (dog: not a dog), antonyms (hot: cold), directional opposites, and converses (Bill: John in “ Bill sold a car to John”) (Cruse, 2008).
Meanings of words can be “ established readings”, or “ nonce readings” (when “ roses” means guests holding roses known from previous sentences in “ Will all roses proceed to Dining Room”), literal or not literal, metaphors and metonymy, specializations and generalization, amelioration and pejoration (Cruse, 2008). Within “ word fields” there’re branching groups (taxonomies) structured by hyponymy and incompatibility, and non-branching (meronomies) structured by meronomy and co-meronomy. Within “ word families” there’re word forms distinguishable by affixes. Specific word-groups form words with meanings related only for domestic speakers.

6. 2. Types of the lexical item
“ Lexical item” is any targeted simple words, abbreviations, partial words (these are single items), or multiword expressions from a dictionary with a lexicographic description (Atkin & Rundells, 2008). Single items include simple words (lexical and grammatical words), abbreviations and contradictions among which are “ alphabetisms” (pronounced letter after letter, like BBC), “ acronyms” (pronounced as a word, like NATO) and “ contractions” (don’t, wouldn’t etc.), and partial words among which are bound and productive affixes, and combining forms (one-legged, vinyl-covered etc.) which in dictionaries are placed according to a first component.
Multiword expressions (MWEs) include all types of phrases, often idioms. They have no clear criteria on their classification due to fluid meanings, and thus MWEs are challenging for dictionary planners. Meanwhile, MWEs are a great part of a language and cause problems for language learners. “ A very pragmatic lexicographers’-eye-view” on MWEs classification includes:
“ fixed and semi-fixed phrases” (including similes, catchphrases, proverbs, quotations, greetings).
“ other phrasal idioms” where meaning differs from a sum of its parts, but are less fixed, and their morpho-syntactic features are flexible (Atkin & Rundells, 2008).
idiomatic and non-idiomatic “ compounds” (including phrasal verbs). Rarely dictionaries distinguish three types of compounds: (1) figurative compounds where XY isn’t a Y that is X in (lame duck isn’t ducked that is lame), (2) semi-figurative compounds where a Y but not X (high school), and (3) functional compounds where a Y has to do with X, but general meaning is bigger (police dog).
A specific case of compounds is ones with verbs, because they may have “ literal” and “ metaphorical” meanings, stable or flexible syntax, and be in a transitive unit. They’re also could be a support verb constructions (to take a decision).

Thank's for Your Vote!
Summary. Page 1
Summary. Page 2
Summary. Page 3
Summary. Page 4
Summary. Page 5

This work, titled "Summary" was written and willingly shared by a fellow student. This sample can be utilized as a research and reference resource to aid in the writing of your own work. Any use of the work that does not include an appropriate citation is banned.

If you are the owner of this work and don’t want it to be published on AssignBuster, request its removal.

Request Removal
Cite this Article

References

AssignBuster. (2022) 'Summary'. 22 September.

Reference

AssignBuster. (2022, September 22). Summary. Retrieved from https://assignbuster.com/summary-article-samples-4/

References

AssignBuster. 2022. "Summary." September 22, 2022. https://assignbuster.com/summary-article-samples-4/.

1. AssignBuster. "Summary." September 22, 2022. https://assignbuster.com/summary-article-samples-4/.


Bibliography


AssignBuster. "Summary." September 22, 2022. https://assignbuster.com/summary-article-samples-4/.

Work Cited

"Summary." AssignBuster, 22 Sept. 2022, assignbuster.com/summary-article-samples-4/.

Get in Touch

Please, let us know if you have any ideas on improving Summary, or our service. We will be happy to hear what you think: [email protected]