Lexical item

Key takeaways

Lexical item belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lexical item to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lexical item from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In lexicography, a lexical item is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words (catena) that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are cat, traffic light, take care of, by the way, and it's raining cats and dogs. Lexical items can be generally understood to convey a single meaning, much as a lexeme, but are not limited to single words. Lexical items are like semes in that they are "natural units" translating between languages, or in learning a new language. In this last sense, it is sometimes said that language consists of grammaticalized lexis, and not lexicalized grammar. The entire store of lexical items in a language is called its lexis. Lexical items composed of more than one word are also sometimes called lexical chunks, gambits, lexical phrases, lexicalized stems, or speech formulae. The term polyword listemes is also sometimes used.

Types Common types of lexical items/chunks include:

Words, e.g. cat, tree Parts of words (see also affix), e.g. -s in trees, -er in worker, non- in nondescript, -est in loudest Phrasal verbs, e.g. put off or get out Multiword expressions, e.g. by the way, inside out Collocations, e.g. motor vehicle, absolutely convinced. Institutionalized utterances, e.g. I'll get it, We'll see, That'll do, If I were you, Would you like a cup of coffee? Idiom or phrasemes, e.g. break a leg, was one whale of a, a bitter pill to swallow Sayings, e.g. The early bird gets the worm, The devil is in the details Sentence frames and heads, e.g. That is not as...as you think, The problem was Text frames, e.g., In this paper we explore...; First...; Second...; Lastly.... An associated concept is that of noun-modifier semantic relations, wherein certain word pairings have a standard interpretation. For example, the phrase cold virus is generally understood to refer to the virus that causes a cold, rather than to a virus that is cold.

Form-meaning correspondence Many lexical items are either a whole word or part of a word, whereas many other lexical items consist of parts of one or more words or of multiple words in their entirety. A basic question in this area concerns the form-meaning correspondence. Many multi-word lexical items cannot be construed as constituents in syntax in any sense. But if they are not constituents, then how does one classify them? A relatively recent development in the field of syntax envisages lexical items stored in the lexicon as catenae, whereby a given catena may or may not be a constituent. In syntax, a catena is any element or combination of elements (words or parts of words) that are continuous in the vertical dimension, that is, in the hierarchy of words. The elements form a catena insofar as they are linked together by dependencies. Some dependency grammar trees containing multiple-word lexical items that are catenae but not constituents are now produced. The following trees illustrate phrasal verbs:

The verb and particle (in red) in each case constitute a particle verb construction, which is a single lexical item. The two words remain a catena even as shifting changes their order of appearance. The following trees illustrate polywords:

The component words of the polywords (in red) are continuous in the vertical dimension and are therefore catenae. They cannot, however, be construed as constituents since they do not form complete subtrees. The following trees illustrate idioms:

The fixed words constituting the idiom (in red) build a catena each time. Note that your is not part of the idiom in the first tree (tree a) because the possessor is variable, e.g. He is pulling my/her/his/someone's/etc. leg. An important caveat concerning idiom catenae is that they can be broken up in the syntax, e.g. Your leg is being pulled. The claim, however, is that these lexical items are stored as catenae in the lexicon; they do not always appear as catenae in the actual syntax.

See also Dependency grammar Lexical chain Outline of linguistics Set phrase

Notes

References Lewis, M. 1997. Implementing the Lexical Approach. Language Teaching Publications. Hove, England. O’Grady, W. 1998. "The syntax of idioms". Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16, 79–312. Osborne, T. and T. Groß 2012. "Constructions are catenae: Construction Grammar meets Dependency Grammar". Cognitive Linguistics 23(1), 163–214.

External links Media related to Lexical items at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of lexical item at Wiktionary

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lexical item

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lexical item claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lexical item before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lexical item ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lexical item

In research: Lexical item appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lexical item in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lexical item is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lexical semantics, Lexical units, Linguistics terminology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lexical item outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Lexical item in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lexical item means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lexical item out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lexical item in simple terms?

In lexicography, a lexical item is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words (catena) that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are cat, traffic light, take care of, by the way, and it's raining cats and dogs.

Why does Lexical item matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lexical item?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lexical item.