Book contents
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Conventions and Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Basic Questions
- 2 Reflections on the Background to the Study of Word-Formation
- 3 Reflections on Why We Need Word-Formation
- 4 Reflections on the Recognition of Novelty in Words
- 5 Reflections on Blocking and Competition
- 6 Reflections on Potential and Norm
- 7 Reflections on Definition by Stipulation and on Word-Classes
- 8 Reflections on Analogical Word-Formation
- 9 Reflections on the Nature of the Lexeme
- Part II Semantic Questions
- Part III Syntactic Questions
- Part IV Interfaces
- Part V Patterns of Word-Formation in English
- Part VI Historical Questions
- Part VII Questions Involving Inflection
- Index of Topics
- Index of English Word-Forming Elements
- References
9 - Reflections on the Nature of the Lexeme
from Part I - Basic Questions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2025
Book contents
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Reflections on English Word-Formation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Conventions and Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Basic Questions
- 2 Reflections on the Background to the Study of Word-Formation
- 3 Reflections on Why We Need Word-Formation
- 4 Reflections on the Recognition of Novelty in Words
- 5 Reflections on Blocking and Competition
- 6 Reflections on Potential and Norm
- 7 Reflections on Definition by Stipulation and on Word-Classes
- 8 Reflections on Analogical Word-Formation
- 9 Reflections on the Nature of the Lexeme
- Part II Semantic Questions
- Part III Syntactic Questions
- Part IV Interfaces
- Part V Patterns of Word-Formation in English
- Part VI Historical Questions
- Part VII Questions Involving Inflection
- Index of Topics
- Index of English Word-Forming Elements
- References
Summary
Although the term ‘lexeme’ is of increasing importance in linguistics, the term is often not defined in a way which allows for firm decisions about where its boundaries lie. Various points of contention are illustrated, and it is shown that French and anglophone traditions on the nature of the lexeme differ.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Reflections on English Word-Formation , pp. 69 - 74Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Bauer, Laurie, Lieber, Rochelle & Plag, Ingo. (2013). The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergenholtz, Henning & Mugdan, Joachim. (1979). Einführung in die Morphologie. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.Google Scholar
Booij, Geert E. (2015). The structure of words. In John, R. Taylor (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 157–74.Google Scholar
Boyé, Gilles. (2018). Lexemes, categories and paradigms. In Bonami, Olivier, Boyé, Gilles, Dal, Georgette, Giraudo, Hélène & Namer, Fiammetta (eds.), The Lexeme in Descriptive and Theoretical Morphology. Berlin: Language Science Press, 19–41.Google Scholar
Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew. (2002). An Introduction to English Morphology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Sciullo, Di, Maria, Anna & Williams, Edwin. (1987). On the Definition of Word. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, R.M.W. & Alexandra, Y. Aikhenvald. (2002). Word: A typological framework. In Dixon, R.M.W. & Alexandra, Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–41.Google Scholar
Lyons, John. (1968). Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, John (1970). Introduction. In Lyons, John (ed.), New Horizons in Linguistics. Harmondsworth: Pelican, 7–28.Google Scholar
Matthews, P.H. (1970). Recent developments in morphology. In Lyons, John (ed.), New Horizons in Linguistics. Harmondsworth: Pelican, 96–114.Google Scholar
Matthews, P.H. (1972). Inflectional Morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Matthews, P.H. (1991). Morphology. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.