Language and Linguistics

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English Further reading

LEXEME

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | | Copyright

LEXEME, also lexical item, lexical unit. In LINGUISTICS, a unit in the LEXICON or VOCABULARY of a language. Its form is governed by sound and writing or print, its content by meaning and use. Thus, penicillin is the realization in print of a single English lexeme, while the nouns crane and bank represent at least two lexemes each: crane (a particular bird and a particular machine), bank (the shore of a river and a particular kind of financial institution). Most English dictionaries treat crane n. as a single headword with two senses (a case of POLYSEMY) and bank n. as two headwords, each with at least one sense: a case of HOMONYMY. Conventionally, a lexeme's inflections (such as cranes, banks) are considered variant forms, whereas such derivatives as banker are considered separate lexemes. In English as in other languages, lexemes may be single words (crane, bank), parts of words (auto-, -logy), groups of words (the compound blackbird and the idiom kick the bucket), or shortened forms (flu for influenza, UK for United Kingdom). See LEXICOLOGY, MORPHEME.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

TOM McARTHUR. "LEXEME." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "LEXEME." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-LEXEME.html

TOM McARTHUR. "LEXEME." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-LEXEME.html

Learn more about citation styles

lexeme

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

lex·eme / ˈlekˌsēm/ • n. Linguistics a basic lexical unit of a language, consisting of one word or several words, considered as an abstract unit, and applied to a family of words related by form or meaning.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"lexeme." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"lexeme." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-lexeme.html

"lexeme." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-lexeme.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Questions de linguistique semitique: racine et lexeme: histoire de la... Magazine article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society; 1/1/2005
	The old Babylonian paronomastic infinitive in -am.(Report) Magazine article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society; 7/1/2006
	The Old Babylonian Paronomastic Infinitive in -am Magazine article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society; 7/1/2006