lexeme (words) Definition, Etymology and Examples

In linguistics, a lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon (or word stock) of a language. Also known
as a lexical unit,  lexical item,  or lexical word. In corpus linguistics, lexemes are commonly referred to as
lemmas.

A lexeme is often--but not always--an individual word (a simple lexeme or dictionary word, as
it's sometimes called). A single dictionary word (for example, talk) may have a number of
inflectional forms or grammatical variants (in this example, talks, talked, talking).

A multiword (or composite) lexeme is a lexeme made up of more than one orthographic word,
such as a phrasal verb (e.g., speak up; pull through), an open compound (fire engine; couch
potato), or an idiom (throw in the towel; give up the ghost).

The way in which a lexeme can be used in a sentence is determined by its word class or
grammatical category.

Etymology

From the Greek, "word, speech"

Examples and Observations

 "A lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may
have or the number of words it may contain. Thus, fibrillate, rain cats and dogs, and come in are
all lexemes, as are elephant, jog, cholesterol, happiness, put up with, face the music, and
hundreds of thousands of other meaningful items in English. The headwords in a dictionary are
all lexemes."
(David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge
University Press, 2003)

Specifications of Lexemes

"[A] lexeme is a linguistic item defined by the following specifications, which make up what is
called the lexical entry for this item:

 its sound form and its spelling (for languages with a written standard);
 the grammatical category of the lexeme (noun, intransitive verb, adjective, etc.);
 its inherent grammatical properties (for some languages, e.g. gender);
 the set of grammatical forms it may take, in particular, irregular forms;
 its lexical meaning.
 "These specifications apply to both simple and composite lexemes."
(Sebastian Löbner,  Understanding Semantics. Routledge, 2013)
The Meanings of Lexemes

"Definitions are an attempt to characterize the 'meaning' or sense of a lexeme and to distinguish

the meaning of the lexeme concerned from the meanings of other lexemes in the same semantic
field, for example, the 'elephant' from other large mammals. There is a sense in which a
definition characterizes the 'potential' meaning of a lexeme; the meaning only becomes precise as
it is actualized in a context. Since the division of the meaning of a lexeme into senses is based on
the variation of meaning perceived in different contexts, a tension exists in lexicography between
the recognition of separate senses and the potentiality of meaning found in definitions. This may
well account in large part for the divergence between similar-sized dictionaries in the number of
senses recorded and in consequent differences of definition."
(Howard Jackson and  Etienne Zé Amvela,  Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to
Modern English Lexicology, 2nd ed. Continuum, 2005)

Invariable and Variable Lexemes

"In many cases, it makes no difference whether we take a syntactic or a lexical perspective.
Lexemes such as the and and are invariable, i.e., there is only one word corresponding to each.
Also invariable are lexemes like efficiently: although more efficiently is in some respects like
harder, it is not a single word, but a sequence of two, and hence efficiently and more efficiently
are not forms of a single lexeme. Variable lexemes, by contrast, are those which have two or
more forms. Where we need to make clear that we are considering an item as a lexeme, not a
word, we will represent it in bold italics.

Hard, for example, represents the lexeme which has hard and harder--and also hardest--as its forms.
Similarly are and is, along with be, been, being, etc., are forms of the lexeme be. . . . A variable lexeme is
thus a word-sized lexical item considered in abstraction from grammatical properties that vary
depending on the syntactic construction in which it appears."
(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffroy Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge
University Press, 2002)

A lexeme is the smallest or minimal unit of lexicon in a language that bears some “meaning”. A
lexeme has a morphological form, semantic content (or meaning) and a syntactic category.
Lexeme is basically an abstract notion used in linguistic morphology, the concrete realisation of
which is a word.

One lexeme can take up more than one inflection to form a set of many words known as inflected
variants. For example, the lexeme PLAY can take up many forms like play,
playing, plays, and played. All of these word forms have the same basic meaning (which is
denoted by an action) and, hence, will be categorised under the same lexeme. The
word playing is the participle form of the verb that is used to denote the same action in
continuous aspect. Likewise, the word played is used to denote the past form of the action,
the word play when the subject of the verb is present first and second person or third person
plural,
Lexicon
A lexicon, word-hoard, wordbook, or word-stock is the vocabulary of a person, language, or
branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's
inventory of lexemes. The word "lexicon" derives from the Greek λεξικόν (lexicon), neuter of
λεξικός (lexikos) meaning "of or for words."[1]

Linguistic theories generally regard human languages as consisting of two parts: a lexicon,
essentially a catalogue of a language's words (its wordstock); and a grammar, a system of rules
which allow for the combination of those words into meaningful sentences. The lexicon is also
thought to include bound morphemes, which cannot stand alone as words (such as most affixes).
[2]
In some analyses, compound words and certain classes of idiomatic expressions and other
collocations are also considered to be part of the lexicon. Dictionaries represent attempts at
listing, in alphabetical order, the lexicon of a given language; usually, however, bound
morphemes are not included.

Size and organization

Items in the lexicon are called lexemes, or lexical items, or word forms. Lexemes are not atomic
elements but contain both phonological and morphological components. When describing the
lexicon, a reductionist approach is used, trying to remain general while using a minimal
description. To describe the size of a lexicon, lexemes are grouped into lemmas. A lemma is a
group of lexemes generated by inflectional morphology. Lemmas are represented in dictionaries
by headwords which list the citation forms and any irregular forms, since these must be learned
to use the words correctly. Lexemes derived from a word by derivational morphology are
considered new lemmas. The lexicon is also organized according to open and closed categories.
Closed categories, such as determiners or pronouns, are rarely given new lexemes; their function
is primarily syntactic. Open categories, such as nouns and verbs, have highly active generation
mechanisms and their lexemes are more semantic in nature.

Paraphrase
A paraphrase /ˈpærəfreɪz/ is a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other
words. The term itself is derived via Latin paraphrasis from Greek παράφρασις, meaning
"additional manner of expression". The act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis".

A paraphrase typically explains or clarifies the text that is being paraphrased. For example, "The
signal was red" might be paraphrased as "The train was not allowed to pass because the signal
was red". A paraphrase is usually introduced with verbum dicendi—a declaratory expression to
signal the transition to the paraphrase. For example, in "The signal was red, that is, the train was
not allowed to proceed," the that is signals the paraphrase that follows.
A paraphrase does not need to accompany a direct quotation. The paraphrase typically serves to
put the source's statement into perspective or to clarify the context in which it appeared. A
paraphrase is typically more detailed than a summary. One should add the source at the end of
the sentence, for example: When the light was red, trains could not go (Wikipedia).

Paraphrase may attempt to preserve the essential meaning of the material being paraphrased.
Thus, the (intentional or otherwise) reinterpretation of a source to infer a meaning that is not
explicitly evident in the source itself qualifies as "original research," and not as paraphrase.

Unlike a metaphrase, which represents a "formal equivalent" of the source, a paraphrase

represents a "dynamic equivalent" thereof. While a metaphrase attempts to translate a text
literally, a paraphrase conveys the essential thought expressed in a source text, if necessary, at
the expense of literality. For details, see dynamic and formal equivalence.