Lexical Meaning

A Lexical Meaning is a semantic meaning that is associated with lexical items in a language system.

• AKA: Word Meaning, Lexical Semantics, Lexical Content, Dictionary Meaning, Word Sense.
• Context:
  • It can typically encode Conceptual Content through lexical entrys in mental lexicons.
  • It can typically represent Word Sense through semantic features and meaning components.
  • It can typically convey Referential Content through denotative relations to external entities.
  • It can typically establish Semantic Fields through lexical relations between related words.
  • It can typically structure Conceptual Knowledge through lexicalized concepts in vocabulary systems.
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  • It can often undergo Semantic Change through historical evolution and meaning shifts.
  • It can often display Semantic Extension through metaphorical usage and analogical transfer.
  • It can often exhibit Polysemy through multiple related senses within single lexical items.
  • It can often facilitate Cross-Linguistic Variation through language-specific lexicalization of conceptual content.
  • It can often connect Cultural Understanding through culturally-bound terms and lexicalized concepts.
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  • It can range from being a Core Lexical Meaning to being a Peripheral Lexical Meaning, depending on its semantic centrality.
  • It can range from being a Denotative Lexical Meaning to being a Connotative Lexical Meaning, depending on its reference directness.
  • It can range from being a Universal Lexical Meaning to being a Culture-Specific Lexical Meaning, depending on its cultural boundedness.
  • It can range from being a Concrete Lexical Meaning to being an Abstract Lexical Meaning, depending on its abstraction level.
  • It can range from being a Simple Lexical Meaning to being a Complex Lexical Meaning, depending on its semantic composition.
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  • It can support Language Comprehension through meaning activation during lexical processing.
  • It can enable Translation Processes through semantic equivalence across language pairs.
  • It can facilitate Semantic Memory through conceptual organization of lexical knowledge.
  • It can provide Linguistic Reference through semantic content of vocabulary items.
  • It can organize Semantic Networks through lexical relations and sense connections.
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• Examples:
  • Content Word Meanings, such as:
    • Noun Meanings, such as:
      • Common Noun Meaning for object class reference.
      • Proper Noun Meaning for specific entity reference.
      • Abstract Noun Meaning for concept designation.
    • Verb Meanings, such as:
      • Action Verb Meaning for dynamic event reference.
      • Stative Verb Meaning for state reference.
      • Mental Verb Meaning for cognitive process reference.
    • Adjective Meanings, such as:
      • Descriptive Adjective Meaning for property attribution.
      • Relational Adjective Meaning for domain association.
  • Lexical Semantic Relations, such as:
    • Paradigmatic Relations, such as:
      • Synonymy for semantic similarity.
      • Antonymy for semantic opposition.
      • Hyponymy for semantic inclusion.
    • Syntagmatic Relations, such as:
      • Collocation for lexical co-occurrence.
      • Selectional Restriction for semantic compatibility.
  • Lexical Semantic Phenomenons, such as:
    • Semantic Extensions, such as:
      • Metaphorical Extension for cross-domain mapping.
      • Metonymic Extension for contiguity-based reference.
    • Semantic Variations, such as:
      • Dialectal Variation for regional meaning difference.
      • Historical Variation for diachronic meaning change.
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• Counter-Examples:
  • Grammatical Meaning, which indicates structural relations rather than conceptual content.
  • Pragmatic Meaning, which derives from context of use rather than lexical semantics.
  • Phonological Form, which concerns sound structure without semantic content.
  • Morphological Structure, which relates to word formation rather than word meaning.
  • Syntactic Function, which involves grammatical roles rather than semantic roles.
  • Discourse Meaning, which emerges at text level beyond individual lexical items.
• See: Semantic Meaning, Lexicon, Lexical Semantics, Lexical Field, Word Sense, Semantic Feature, Lexical Item, Polysemy, Semantic Change, Lexical Relation, Semantic Network, Content Word, Lexical Word, Meaning.

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References

2008

• (Crystal, 2008) ⇒ David Crystal. (2008). “A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th edition." Blackwell Publishing.
  • QUOTE: lexis (n.) A term used in LINGUISTIC to refer to the vocabulary of a LANGUAGE … A UNIT of vocabulary is generally referred to as a lexical item, or LEXEME. A complete inventory of the lexical items of a language constitutes that language's dictionary, or LEXICON … 'in the lexicon' as a set of lexical entries. … ... Lexis may be seen in contrast with GRAMMAR, as in the distinction between grammatical WORDS and lexical words: the former refers to words whose sole function is to signal grammatical relationships (a role which is claimed for such words as of, to and the in English); the latter refers to words which have lexical meaning, i.e. they have semantic CONTENT. Examples include lexical verbs (versus auxiliary verbs) and lexical noun phrases (versus non-lexical NPs, such as PRO). A similar contrast distinguishes lexical morphology from derivational MORPHOLOGY.

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