Lexicon
A
lexicon is usually a list of words together with additional word-specific information, i.e., a
dictionary.
Lexicon is a word of
Greek origin (
λεξικόν) meaning
vocabulary. When linguists study the lexicon, they study such things as what words are, how the vocabulary in a language is structured, how people use and store words, how they learn words, the history and evolution of words, types of relationships between words as well as how words were created.
The term is also sometimes used in the title of an
encyclopedic dictionary or an
encyclopedia, especially for
19th century works and those written in German (
lexikon).
In
linguistics,
lexicon has a slightly more specialized definition, as it includes the
lexemes used to actualize words. Lexemes are formed according to
morpho-syntactic rules and express
sememes. In this sense, a lexicon organizes the
mental vocabulary in a speaker's mind: First, it organizes the vocabulary of a language according to certain principles (for instance, all verbs of motion may be linked in a lexical network) and second, it contains a generative device producing (new) simple and complex words according to certain lexical rules. For example, the
suffix '-able' can be added to
transitive verbs only such that we get 'read-able' but not '*cry-able'. (Though exceptions exist to this rule: one can certainly imagine a 'sleepable mattress' or the expression, 'Sure, that's workable.')
Furthermore an individual's
lexical knowledge (or
lexical concept) is that person's knowledge of
vocabulary.
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Glossary*
Lexeme*
Lexical word*
Morphology (linguistics)*
Aitchison, Jean.
Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2003.
*
Ynet News Jewish Israeli Lexicon, Defines various terms and people relating to the Jewish Israeli culture.
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Lexicon of Linguistics
