View source for Social:Lexeme

{{Short description|Unit of lexical meaning}}

A '''lexeme''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-lexeme.ogg|ˈ|l|ɛ|k|s|iː|m}}) is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through [[Social:Inflection|inflection]]. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning,<ref>''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language''. David Crystal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. p.&nbsp;118. {{ISBN|0521401798}}.</ref> a unit of [[Social:Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] [[Social:Semantic analysis (linguistics)|analysis]] in [[Social:Linguistics|linguistics]] that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single root word. For example, in [[Social:English language|English]], ''run'', ''runs'', ''ran'' and ''running'' are forms of the same lexeme, which can be represented as <span style="font-variant:small-caps; text-transform:lowercase;">RUN</span>.{{NoteTag |1 = <span style="font-variant:small-caps; text-transform:lowercase;">RUN</span> is here intended to display in small caps. Software limitations may result in its display either in full-sized capitals (RUN) or in full-sized capitals of a smaller font. Either is regarded as an acceptable substitute for genuine small caps.}}

One form, the [[Social:Lemma (morphology)|lemma]] (or citation form), is chosen by convention as the canonical form of a lexeme. The lemma is the form used in dictionaries as an entry's headword. Other forms of a lexeme are often listed later in the entry if they are uncommon or irregularly inflected.

== Description ==
The notion of the lexeme is central to [[Social:Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]],<ref name="bonamietal">{{Cite book
| veditors =  Bonami O, Boyé G, Dal G, Giraudo H, Namer F
| title = The lexeme in descriptive and theoretical morphology 
| location = Berlin
| publisher = Language Science Press
| year = 2018
| format = pdf
| url = http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/165
| doi = 10.5281/zenodo.1402520 
| doi-access=free
| isbn = 978-3-96110-110-8 
| last1 = Bonami 
| first1 = Olivier 
| last2 = Boyé 
| first2 = Gilles 
| last3 = Dal 
| first3 = Georgette 
| last4 = Giraudo 
| first4 = Hélène 
| last5 = Namer 
| first5 = Fiammetta 
}}
</ref> the basis for defining other concepts in that field. For example, the difference between [[Social:Inflection|inflection]] and [[Social:Morphological derivation|derivation]] can be stated in terms of lexemes:
* Inflectional rules relate a lexeme to its forms.
* Derivational rules relate a lexeme to another lexeme.

A lexeme belongs to a particular [[Social:Syntactic category|syntactic category]], has a certain meaning ([[Philosophy:Semantics|semantic value]]), and in inflecting languages, has a corresponding [[Social:Inflection|inflectional paradigm]]. That is, a lexeme in many languages will have many different forms. For example, the lexeme <span style="font-variant:small-caps; text-transform:lowercase;">RUN</span> has a present third person singular form ''runs'', a present non-third-person singular form ''run'' (which also functions as the past participle and non-finite form), a past form ''ran'', and a present participle ''running''. (It does not include ''runner, runners, runnable'' etc.) The use of the forms of a lexeme is governed by rules of [[Social:Grammar|grammar]]. In the case of English verbs such as <span style="font-variant:small-caps; text-transform:lowercase;">RUN</span>, they include subject–verb agreement and compound [[Social:Grammatical tense|tense]] rules, which determine the form of a verb that can be used in a given sentence.

In many [[Social:Theoretical linguistics|formal]] theories of [[Social:Language|language]], lexemes have subcategorization frames to account for the number and types of complements. They occur within sentences and other [[Philosophy:Syntax|syntactic structures]].

== Decomposition ==
A language's lexemes are often composed of smaller units with individual meaning called [[Social:Morpheme|morpheme]]s, according to [[Social:Root (linguistics)|root morpheme]] + [[Social:Morphological derivation|derivational morphemes]] + [[Social:Suffix|suffix]] (not necessarily in that order), where:
* The root morpheme is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced to smaller constituents.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://glossary.sil.org/term/root |title = SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: What is a Root? |website = Sil.org |date = 3 December 2015 |access-date=2021-05-14}}</ref>
* The derivational morphemes carry only [[Social:Morphological derivation|derivational]] information.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://glossary.sil.org/term/derivational-affix |title = SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: What is a Derivational Affix? |website = Sil.org |date = 3 December 2015 |access-date=2021-05-14}}</ref>
* The [[Social:Suffix|suffix]] is composed of all inflectional morphemes, and carries only [[Social:Inflection|inflection]]al information.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://glossary.sil.org/term/inflectional-affix |title = SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: What is an Inflectional Affix? |website = Sil.org |date = 3 December 2015 |access-date=2021-05-14}}</ref>

The compound root morpheme + derivational morphemes is often called the stem.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://glossary.sil.org/term/stem |title = SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: What is a Stem? |website = Sil.org |date = 3 December 2015 |access-date=2021-05-14}}</ref> The decomposition stem + desinence can then be used to study inflection.

== See also ==
* Ending (linguistics)
* [[Social:Inflection|Inflection]]
* [[Social:Lemma (morphology)|Lemma]]
* Lexical word vs. grammatical word
* [[Social:Marker (linguistics)|Marker (linguistics)]]
* Multiword expression
* Null morpheme
* [[Social:Root (linguistics)|Root (linguistics)]]
* Stem
* [[Social:Syntagma (linguistics)|Syntagma (linguistics)]]
* Word family

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

{{-}}


[[Category:Linguistics terminology]]

{{Sourceattribution|Lexeme}}