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Vocabulary

In linguistics , the lexicon of a language is the set of his lemmas , or a more common but less precise, "all of his words. " Also in common usage, is used, the easier the term vocabulary.

By metonymy, a glossary is a collection of words whose meaning is explained.

Summary

Size of the lexicon

The size of a lexicon is inherently impossible to define precisely because the only way to get an idea of its extent is counting lemmas (or entries) of a dictionary of this language when it exists.

In synchrony

No dictionary can not count all the lemmas of one language. Indeed, the specialized vocabulary, the jargon , the sociolects , the idiolect , the slang and all terms that are not yet lexicalized can not be counted. Moreover, only the written language is actually taken into account in editing dictionaries usual: a large number of purely oral sociolects eludes investigation.

A common dictionary, in fact, can only identify the words written the most documented but can not identify all cases lemmas that exist at any given time, in synchrony , in the language it describes. Moreover, assuming that an army of lexicographers starts on the lookout for all the words used by speakers of a language, the operation would take enough time for the body established or obsolete at the time of publication. New words are in fact appeared and others disappeared, especially in oral sociolects.

One can appreciate the difficulty that one has to specify the limits of a lexicon by asking what does "word does not exist." Did it mean that there is not because he is not attested in the dictionary? In which case one wonders where. Did it mean that a word exists because it is a fairly large number of speakers who know? In which case it is not possible to give an exact percentage of speakers required for this purpose. Finally, it is necessary that the word is known or used? What changed greatly for appraisal.

For example, the word paryponoan is not for everyone. Common dictionary like the Oxford Dictionary (electronic edition of 2001) or Webster (second updated edition of 1992) did not record any more than the Treasury of the French language computer (Version 3 06/18/2002). Yet it is well known to those skilled rhetoric.

Finally, even assuming that we would find a way to combine all of the lexicon stored in all the dictionaries, specialized glossaries including the fact remains that some methods of word construction is productive, available at any time to create of occasionalism doomed to oblivion immediate or better fortune. Such is the case with the addition of many affixes the French: the prefix re-iteration of the mark where the action or state mentioned in the verbal group, nominal suffix-age etc.. Thus, on the basis of proper name-Wikipedi (see n In diachrony

In addition, diachronically , the lexicon of a language is constantly evolving: lemmas appear and disappear constantly uses the speakers without so far possible to identify all cases, if only because the disappearance of a word can be found only by specialists (given that users no longer use that word) and that its appearance is not necessarily a guarantee of sustainability (which can tell whether a particular buzzword will be used again in five years?). Conventional dictionaries do indeed identify the words when they reach a certain frequency of use, which, faute de mieux, is most often calculated from written corpora.

It often takes a new term is sufficiently attested by various sources for dictionaries accept it as lemma , some being more restrictive than others (like the French Academy ). Indeed, it would not be useful to identify new terms that are only a reflection of a fleeting fad. A common dictionary provides a snapshot of the lexicon, therefore, more or less precise, but never exact. Dictionaries etymological , meanwhile, also identify the missing words and, paradoxically, that are not really as if not used, they are nevertheless known.

Life and Death of lemmas

The lexicon of a language is a set of lemmas to the dimensions and fuzzy variables. It has been said, it is also impossible to identify all for a precise state of a language, some appear or disappear, making the limits even more elusive.

Creating new lemmas

One method of enriching the lexicon, can be relied mainly derivation (creation of a word from a radical or a theme morphological pre-existing), the composition (creating a new unit of meaning from assembled several lemmas) and lexical borrowing (borrowing a word from another language). All creation is called a lexical neologism. As a signifier is preexisting added a new signified , it may be a catachresis , a par excellence , a layer ... In this case, it is not really a new "word" but an extension of its meaning.

The words appear primarily to meet a need, when you need a means to represent a signified (as it is new or not: it may be to replace worn signifiers meant to keep them), or for reasons fashion.

It is not always easy to know when a new term has emerged. At most, we can realize it when it starts to be sufficiently used by speakers of various backgrounds. Generally, dictionaries list the first written statements (for lack of better when the lemma goes back to a time when the voice recording did not exist or because lexicography was not sufficiently developed) in a recognized text (if known), whether literary or not.

Disappearance of lemmas

The reasons for the disappearance of a lemma are numerous. One can quickly identify the disappearance of a signifier for a signified that no longer exists, when an object or concept disappeared from everyday life and that there is no need to talk. Generally, the complete disappearance is rare because even if a lemma is not identified by current dictionaries, older texts may be used, in which case it still exists, virtually, for those reading these texts. This is not because the daguerreotype is no longer used and sold as the word designating it disappeared.

The mode can also play currently, bath, in the sense of "chic" looks outdated and is probably destined to disappear, especially since it belongs to register familiar. Such terms, often ephemeral, appear and disappear very frequently carried by the media and the fashion world (like show business now, but also the Gemstone in the seventeenth century , large creative neologisms that do not all survived), then quickly abandoned in favor of a new or simply forgotten (which still has the word scopitone?). See also French plugged.

Finally, the phonetic wear can play when, by dint of phonetic evolution , the words become too short to be easily identifiable, they can be protected from extinction by being derivative or simply leave the lexicon. This is true for bee (from Latin apicula, properly "Little Bee" Bee is a loan to the Occitan language ) which, in XIV century , replaced the form ef (from Latin apis, classical form of the word) e become too short to remain comprehensible. If we add to that the homophones possible (is, and has), we see that the word had not a large enough yield. This replacement, however, was not sudden and it has existed in the lexicon more competitors in combination to describe the same creature: Avet, diminutive regular ef / e and snuffer, diminutive fly, among others. Abeille has however, prevailed, leaving in its wake remove these parallel forms, which have nevertheless been kept in regional parlance.

Whatever the reasons, the lexicon does not in fact only rarely. It would be fairer to say that it is renewed. One can, for French, identify many words medieval who did not survive the time, as cuid ("think") or graindre / graigneur ("greater"), comparative tall. Yet can we say that these lemmas are not really French but unique to Old French, which is not the same language (understanding a text in Old French is not possible for a speaker lambda). These two examples show that language is still able to serve these notions. In addition, some lemmas medieval really do not disappear but are preserved in another form. For example, the phrase of the day hui was lexicalized in the course of the fourteenth century , which would mark the birth of a new prefix. In the same movement, however, the word today (with a sense of today) disappeared: can we really speak of the disappearance of a lemma? In fact, there is conservation of Lemma hui, who was not properly understood, in another form.

In conclusion, we can say that the emergence of a neologism is altogether easier to identify than the disappearance of a word. Indeed, to say he has really disappeared, it is necessary to say that no speaker is employed. The fact that a word has disappeared from a common dictionary does not constitute proof.

Relationship between the words of the same lexicon

The words of a lexicon with one another reports semantics (relationship between the signified ) or formal (ties between signifiers ) designated by terms onymie-technical (Greek , Onuma, "word"):

Common Sense

By extension, a glossary is a collection of words related to a domain (the lexicon of weapons), a person (the lexicon of Balzac ) or a group of people (the lexicon of youth). It is in this case understood as a list of terms. It is synonymous with language , idiolect , glossary , dictionary , etc.. In lexicology this confusion of common sense is not acceptable. The purpose of the work to be a corpus of units documented and considered before any stemming, it deals with the vocabulary of a particular area .

References

  1. For example, derivational morphology and structure of the lexicon, Tbinger, Max Niemeyer, 1987, vol. 1.
  2. See for example Roland Eluerd, lexicology, PUF, Que sais-je? No. 3548, p. 10.

Related articles

List of glossaries

See Category: Glossary

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