lexical item
nounEtymology From lexical + item.
1
Human sciences, Lexicography, Linguistics, Sciences, Semantics A term (that is, a word or sequence of words) that acts as a unit of meaning, including words, phrases, phrasal verbs, and proverbs.
- He also realized that by comparing different types of text you may be able to spot "a different density ( repetition rate ) of lexical items, and different degrees of cohesion, in the short story and in the novel.1993, Roman Kopytko, Polite Discourse in Shakespeare's English, page 396:
- It is not surprising that this is a very common structure in language, because it allows the flexibility that was identified earlier in this paper as essential for an adequate lexical item.1998, Edda Weigand, Contrastive Lexical Semantics, page 22:
3 more examples
- A lexical item, or lexeme, is a dictionary word, an item which you would expect to find having its own entry in a dictionary.1999, Robert Lawrence Trask, Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 228:
- The meaning of lexical items may be described in terms of combinations of semantic features.2007, Kristel Proost ·, Conceptual Structure in Lexical Items, page 114:
- Thus there are 3751 lexical items covered in total. Taking into account polysemy, there are 4315 separate senses.2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 490:
- Related terms
- lexeme, lexicalize, lexical unit, lexicon, lexis