Meaning of lexeme | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A lexical item corresponding to the set of all words (or of all multi-word expressions) that are semantically related through inflection of a particular shared basic form.
2. The abstract minimum unit of language or meaning that underlies such a set.
3. The set itself; a lexemic family.
   broadly, metonymically
4. The wordform chosen to represent such a set or family.
   broadly, metonymically
5. An individual instance of a continuous character sequence without spaces, used in lexical analysis.

Equivalents

Examples

“A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may have⟳ or the number⟳ of words it may contain⟳. Thus, fibrillate, rain⟳ cats and dogs, and come⟳ in are all lexemes, as are elephant, jog, cholesterol, happiness, put⟳ up with, face⟳ the music, and hundreds of thousands of other meaningful items in English.”

“In a typical lexicalist approach⟳ (e.g. Koontz-Garboden 2006), the unmarked lexeme is taken as lexically listed, even if its meaning (as it often does) includes templatic entailments, and the derivational morphology is taken to operate⟳ on the underived form⟳ to yield⟳ the derived form⟳. This is the case not only morphologically, but also semantically.”

“For the second sense⟳, where “word” means “item that should have⟳ its own⟳ dictionary entry,” lexicographers sometimes use⟳ the term “lemma,” but that has other meanings too, so among linguists the term lexeme is now standard, and I’ll use⟳ it. For the different forms or shapes that belong⟳ to a lexeme we can use⟳ the term word-form. ¶ And as a typographical convention, from now on I’ll always put⟳ lexeme names in bold italics with a capital letter. So I’ll say⟳ there is a lexeme called Pamper [emphasis in original]. It’s the name⟳ of a small collection of word-forms with particular spellings – four of them: pamper, pampered, pampering, and pampers. I will always put⟳ word-forms (and all the phrases and clauses I mention⟳ as examples) in italics.”

“Near-synonym: token”

CEFR level