Semantics II (Some Definitions) 1. Lexicon The lexicon is the collective name for the list of the lexemes of a language. We may call it the vocabulary of the language. But it has to be remembered that all the lexemes of a language are not single word forms. The lexicon also includes the phrasal lexemes which have an idiomatic meaning that cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words which constitute them. 2. Lexemes Lexemes are the word forms and phrasal expressions having an idiomatic meaning used in a language which are listed in a dictionary using their base forms or citation forms or stem forms or in any other way which distinguishes them from one another. It must be remembered, however, that the base form and the citation form of all the words of English except BE is identical. The lexemes are listed in the dictionary which gives not only their meanings but also all the grammatical information about them. All the lexemes of a language are not single word form...
Syntax – Constituents, Categories and Phrase Structure Rules A. Constituents Constituents are the units which may be words, phrases (groups of words not qualifying as sentences) or clauses (sentences embedded in lager sentences) that go into the making of a larger structure. For example, the sentence – Boys are naughty – has three constituents all of which are words. In the sentence – The naughty boy broke the glass, - again, we have three constituents two of which are noun phrases and the third one is a verb. In the sentence – The boy who is naughty broke the glass – we have a clause (a sentence within a sentence) - 'who is naughty' - as a constituent of a larger sentence. Traditional grammar operated with words as the constituents of sentences. The words were then classified into parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc. But modern grammarians have rejected this classification because 1. Their defini...