The Lexicon

Linguistics 222/322

 

 

The lexicon is a speaker's mental dictionary of his language. There are two views of the lexicon. Both must contain the following:

An example of a lexical entry for the transitive verb play in:

(1) John plays the piano.

is given in the following table:

Certain features are inherent. Though we listed [-Strong] and [-Weak] above, it turns out that all lexical items are both [-Strong] and [-Weak] in English.

Meaning is most difficult part to represent. Here, we simply list a synonymous form, bearing in mind that it is not the true meaning. A true semantic representation is too complex to list here and implies a reasonable knowledge of semantics. The conceptual form writtne in Caps is an abbreviation for a set of conceptual features that make up the word. In certain cases a few such featuares will be introduced, but most the features do not play a role directly in syntax.

The two views of the lexicon are the under-specified lexicon and the fully specified lexicon. In the under-specified lexicon, the least amount of information is provided--that which is not predictable. In the fully specified lexicon, all information is given. For example, play is both a word (verb) and a verb stem--the form from which the inflected from of the verb can be determined. The form plays is an example of a fully specified lexicon:

(2)
 plays  orthographic form
 PLAY  prelexical morpheme
 /ple/  phonemic form of default allomorph
 /plez/  phonemic form
 V  syntactic categorical class
 ____ NP  subcategorization
 word  morphological form
 "performs on an instrument [3rd P. Sg.]"  semantic synonym (meaning)

The two views of the lexicon are the under-specified lexicon and the fully specified lexicon. In the under-specified lexicon, the least amount of information is provided--that which is not predictable. In the fully specified lexicon, all information is given. For example, play is both a word (verb) and a verb stem--the form from which the inflected from of the verb can be determined. The form plays is an example of a fully specified lexicon. We wont give each inflected form, as most the information is redundant. However, there is one type of verb where the fully specified entry does become useful--irregular verbs. The base or present tense form of the verb spell is regular. The past tense of spell is spelled or spelt. The entry for spelt is the following (note in the following text and tables, capitol letters stand for tense vowels--this program does not permit special (phonetic) symbols):

(3)
spell  orthographic form
 /spEl/  phonemic form of default allomorph
 SPELL  morphemic form
 V (main) (or) +V, -N  syntactic Categorial class
  -Strong, -Bound  inherent features
 _____ NP  subcategorization
 {SPELL+T} = SPELL+[+Past], = SPELL+[PPP]  past tense morpheme
 root/stem  morphological form
agent, theme  theta role
human (agent), word (theme)  selectional restriction
 "cite the orthographic form of a word"  semantic synonym (meaning)

There are fair numbers in this class in which there is another vowel in the past tense/PPP form:

(5)     John dealt.

Although the two allomorphs of deal are spelled the same they are pronounced differently: /dil/, /dEl/. The default allomorph is /dil/. We indicate the default by '!': !/dil/. The default is chose unless there is a rule specifying a different allomorph. The lexical entry for deal is the following:

deal  orthographic form
 !/dIl/, /dEl/  phonemic form of allomorphs
 DEAL  morphemic form
 V (main) (or) +V, -N,  syntactic Categorial class
 -Strong, -Bound  inherent features
 _____ (NP)  subcategorization
 {DEAL}  default morpheme
 {DEAL+T} = DEAL+[+Past], = DEAL+[PPP]  past tense morpheme
 /dEl/ / _____ [+Past]  allomorph (irregular)
 /dIl/ (default)  allomorph (regular)
 root/stem  morphological form
agent, theme  theta role
human (agent), word (theme)  selectional restriction
 "cite the orthographic form of a word"  semantic synonym (meaning)

The so-called strong verbs have a past tense that is different from the PPP (non-progressive) form. The past tense is not marked by a specific affix. The PPP may or may not be marked by a specific affix. Let us look at:

(5)     John swam.

swim  orthographic form
 !/swIm/  phonemic form of default allomorph
 SWIM  morphemic form
 V (main) (or) +V, -N  syntactic Categorial class
 -Strong, -Bound  inherent features
 _____  subcategorization
 {SWIM}  morpheme
 /swæm/ = SWIM+[+Past], swam  irregular morpheme
 /swVm/ = SWIM+[PPP], swum  irregular morpheme
 root/stem  morphological form
 agent  theta role
 human (agent)  selectional restriction
"move in water"  semantic synonym (meaning)

Note in the above lexical entries, the phonemic form represents the basic allomorph. Irregular allomorphs are listed.

Contents: play | plays | spell | swim | deal |

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