(toc) #title= (Table of Content)
What is Lexis?
The lexis could be defined as all the items in a language which a dictionary attempts to list, giving their meanings in alphabetical order. We could go on to say that all the operational words or items in a language are the lexes of that language. For example, the item ‘school’ is a lexis in English. The dictionary defines a ‘school’ as a ‘place where children are taught’. Hence, this question is appropriate, ‘which school do you go to’? The meaning of the above is that what we erroneously refer to as words are not words in the real sense, but lexes. This is because any item that can be found listed in the dictionary with its meaning, pronunciation, origin, word-class, usage; etc is referred to as lexis (singular and lexes plural). It also carries semantic meaning. For instance, the item ‘charlatan’ is defined as ‘someone who pretends to have special skills or knowledge’. It is pronounced as / ∫a:lÓ™tÓ™n /. The usage is ‘The man is a complete charlatan, only in it for the money.’ It is a noun. All the above are the dictionary entry for the item ‘charlatan’, thus, the item ‘charlatan’ is a lexis in the English language.
A distinction is made between lexical words and functional words. Lexical words are also called content words, and they have meaning in isolation, whereas functional words, which are also called grammatical words, only become meaningful when they are attached to or used with content words in discourse. In the lexes of the English language, Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, and Adjectives are classified as content or lexical words because they carry meanings. Examples of such lexical or content word are drawn from content or lexical categories as follows:-
1. run / r^ n /, (verb) past tense; ran / ræn/, past participle run /r^ n/ means to move quickly on foot by moving your legs more quickly than when you are walking.
2. story /st> ri/, (noun; means a description of how something happened, that is intended to entertain people, and may be true or imaginary.
3. room / ru:m /, (noun); means a part of the inside of a building that has its own walls, floor, and ceiling.
4. rest /rest/, (verb); means to stop working or doing an activity for a time and sit down or lie down to relax.
5. rest /rest /, (noun); means a period of time when you are not doing anything tiring and you can relax or sleep.
Characteristics of the English Lexes:
1. It usually has a pronounceable or graphic form. This means that every lexis has a way it is pronounced as supplied in the English dictionary. For example, the following lexes have the following pronunciation and graphic forms:
(a) come /k^ m/
(b) brother / br^ ðə(r)/
(c) bank / bæŋk /
(d) mat / mæt /
(e) go /gəν/
2. It fulfills a grammatical role in a sentence All English lexis have a grammatical role to play in a sentence and even in isolation. For instance, the underlined lexes are members, verbs, nouns, articles, adjectives, adverbs in the following examples:
(a) He comes to school regularly
(b) Jide is a good friend of mine
(c) The National Open University of Nigeria has many campuses
(d) It is interesting to be a lecturer
(e) The lady sings beautifully
3. It carries semantic meaning The English lexis especially content or lexical ones have meaning. Their meanings are always listed in the dictionary. For examples, the following lexes have their dictionary meanings written by their sides.
(a) Chamber – an enclosed space, especially in one’s body or inside a machine; a room used for a special purpose especially an unpleasant one.
(b) Glad pleased and happy about something.
(c) Obscure to make something difficult to know or understand
(d) Pen an instrument for writing or drawing with ink
(e) penchant a liking for something, especially something that is slightly disapproved of by other people.
Why is Lexis Different from Grammar?
It is important to note that lexical studies are different from grammatical studies. We would be making a mistake if we continue to erroneously believe that they are the same thing. There could be an overlap though, but they are a distinct subfield. For example, where the units of grammar are morpheme, word, group, clause, and sentence (in ascending order), the units of lexis are collocation, phrasal items, complex items, compound items, and simple items (in descending order). The grammar of the English language is a distinct field in linguistics which can be adequately described using the grammatical units. Also, the lexes of the English language that are listed in the dictionary are describable on their own merits. However, they can co-extend. For example, lexical items could relate to items identified as morpheme in these examples teach(er), brother (hood) e.t.c. where the first items in the combination are lexes in the language. Co-extension can also take place in even larger units like ‘the exception that proves the rule’, ‘be a shadow of your former self’. While in some cases, there is no correlation.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Explain the term ‘lexis’. Discuss some characteristics of the English lexis.
Why is Lexis Different from Morpheme?
The English lexis is different from morphemes in a number of ways. While the morpheme is defined as the smallest in the grammatical units of English, lexis stands as a subfield that has its language. The morpheme of English is divided into two: Free and bound, the lexes of English have distinct units like; collocation, phrasal items, complex items, compound items, and simple items. From the above, it, therefore, becomes impossible for morpheme and lexis to be the same. Lexis, because of its describable components, can be studied and this is what the field, lexical studies in English, is about. Morphology deals with the structure or shape of words, lexicology is said to be the branch of linguistics that studies and analyzes the vocabulary items of a language. It also takes care of their meanings and origin.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2 State two major differences between morpheme and lexis?
Lexical Units in English
Having identified lexicology (lexical studies) as a branch of linguistics, it is important to identify lexical units. Lexical units could be simple, compound, complex, phrasal, or clausal (which is also called collocation span by Halliday (1996). They are explained as following from the smallest (simple lexical items) to the largest (clausal or collocational span).
1. Simple lexical items: They are made up of one free morpheme, and meaning does not have to be dependent on any other morphemes. Examples of simple lexical items are rat, table, school, etc.
2. Compound lexical items: They are lexes that are derived by joining two free morphemes together. For example, free morphemes from different word classes may be joined to have a compound lexical item. Hence, we could have a combination of (i) a verb and a noun, that is, verb + noun as in:
- play + boy = playboy
- call + girl = call girl,
- woman + doctor = woman doctor
(ii) an adjective and a noun, that is, adjective + noun as in:
- hot + dog = hotdog
- hot + pants = hot pants
It is important to note that the meaning of the derived word may not be deduced from the component parts. For example, the compound lexis "hotdog" has no reference to a dog or the state of being hot. It refers to a cooked sausage in a long round piece of bread.
3. Complex lexical items: They are made up of more than two free morphemes which are either written together or hyphenated to connote an idea. In some cases, they could be a single lexis as a synonym. Examples include the complex items ‘newspaperman’ which also means a newspaper ‘vendor’. Other examples include ‘down-to-earth’ serious or important; ‘an eye for an eye’ which is revenge; ‘housemanship’ training, ‘house of prayer’ or ‘house of worship’ church, etc.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
Discuss, with examples, 4 lexical units you know.
What is Vocabulary?
Technically, vocabulary is said to be all the lexical items used by a particular person or all the items that exist in a subject. This can also be referred to as lexicon. Thus, lexicon and vocabulary are synonyms. Language is not only dynamic but equally enriches itself by borrowing. The assumption, therefore, is that it is difficult if not impossible for a speaker of a given language to know all lexes in any given language. In that instance, we say the number of all the lexes he knows constitute his vocabulary. Thus speaker A may have a richer and distinct vocabulary when compared to another speaker B. With given disciplines, however, vocabulary refers to all the specialized words found in the register. The vocabulary found in medicine for example certainly differs from those found in the legal register. With a list of lexical items, therefore, one could identify what lexical items of the list will collocate in each of the registers. Vocabulary could also be words used in a particular subject or the list of words with an explanation of their meanings in a book for learning foreign languages.
How is Vocabulary Organized in English
The content of the English lexis is words. In other words, the term lexis is used to refer to all the words in any given language. This discussion takes us back to WORDS. Words have been adequately discussed in unit 1 of this module. You may have to go back to unit 1 to read up on words. However, we need to emphasize here that the meaning field of a particular thing, concept, notion, or activity is constituted by all the words that relate or can relate specifically to the thing, concept, notion, or activity. Hence, the lexicon of fields consists of word classes which have been discussed extensively in unit 1.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4
State clearly your understanding of vocabulary and how it is organized in English.
Definition of Lexeme
Ajulo (1994:104) defines a lexeme as “A name given by some linguists to a basic unit of the vocabulary of a language, as opposed to a grammatical unit such as the morpheme and a semantic unit such as the sememe. From this definition, the word, basically implies that different “grammatical lexes” (i.e. lexes which have taken up some grammatical properties in discourse thus becoming words) will be considered different forms of the same lexeme, their different shapes notwithstanding. Thus, the underlined words in the sentences below constitute several forms of the lexeme, WORK:
1. I work very hard.
2. She works with the leading insurance company.
3. Bola is working.
4. Mrs. Aina has worked for 26 years.
Thus, ‘work’, ‘works’, ‘working’, and ‘worked’ are forms of the lexeme ‘work’. Lexeme therefore, is a new term suggested for the basic unit from which several words having different shapes but the same referents are derived. It is a term introduced by Whorf (1939 cited in Ajulo 1994:51). Fundamentally, lexeme could be likened to other units identified at different levels of linguistic analysis (i.e. the phoneme, morpheme, and sememe). The term ‘bank’, from our examples will have as many distinct lexemes as there are its different meanings.
Examples of Lexemes Copious examples of lexemes are given below:
Lexeme ‘Write’ ---------------------- write, writes, writing, wrote, written
- I will write a letter tomorrow.
- She writes a letter daily.
- He is writing a note.
- The teacher wrote on the board.
- My father would have written a memo by this afternoon.
Lexeme ‘Sing’------------------------- sing, sings, singing, sang, sung.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 5
1. Mention two features of the English lexis.
2. What do you understand by collocation span or clausal lexical items?
3. Mention two units each in the grammatical and lexical units or levels in English in their ascending order.
4. Do you agree that lexical studies is a distinct branch in linguistics? Give reasons for your answer.
5. What do you understand by vocabulary?
6. Mention three examples of lexemes and give examples of other forms.
Conclusion:
In this unit, we have looked at the meaning of the technical term lexis, and we said that it is a distinct branch of linguistics which has to be studied on its own merit. We also looked at the characteristics of the English lexis. Among other things, we said that the English lexis has a pronounceable or graphic form; that it fulfills a grammatical role in a sentence since it belongs to a particular word-class; and that it carries semantic meaning. We demonstrated that every lexis in English has a dictionary meaning, origin, and other valuable features. We have also studied vocabulary; how it is organized in English, vocabulary and meaning relations; vocabulary and sense relations, and some registers in English. Some of these were done with diagrams where necessary so as to paint a vivid picture of the topic of discussion. We also looked at the lexeme with examples.
Summary:
In this unit, you have studied:
- What lexes are in English
- The characteristics of the English lexis
- The difference(s) between the lexis and grammar
- The difference(s) between the lexis and the morpheme
- Lexical units or levels in English with copious examples.
- What vocabulary is
- How vocabulary is organized
- The relationship between vocabulary and lexemes
- What a lexeme is; and
- Examples of lexemes in the English language.