Chapter 18 Lexical Functions: Description of Lexical Relations in a ...

Definition 18.3: Lexical Function
—Chapter 18. Lexical Functions— 16
A correspondence f that associates a set f(L) of lexical expressions with an LU L is called a
Lexical Function [= LF] iff it satisfies either conditions A1-A3 or condition B.
A. f is applicable to several LUs and:
1. Semantic homogeneity of f(L)
For any two different LUs L1 and L2, if f(L1) and f(L2) both exist, then any L´1 ∈ f(L1) and
L´2 ∈ f(L2) bear an (almost) identical relationship to L1 and L2, respectively, as far as
their meaning and the DSynt-role are concerned:
2. Maximality of f(L)
L´1 L´2
—— ≈ ——
L1 L2
For any two different LUs L´1 and L´2, if L´1 ∈ f(L1) and L´2 ∉ f(L2), then L´2 does not
stand to L2 in the same relationship as L´1 to L1:
3. Phraseological character of f(L)
a) At least in some cases f(L1) ≠ f(L2); and
L´1 L´2
—— ≠ ——
L1 L2
b) at least for some f(Li) some elements of f(Li) cannot be specified without mentioning
an individual LU Li.
B. f is applicable to only one LU L (or perhaps to a few semantically close LUs).
In f(L), the LU L, which is the argument of f, is called the keyword 5 of f, and f(L) = {L´i}
is f’s value.
An LF that is applicable to several LUs—satisfying Conditions A1-A3—is called normal;
an LF applicable to only one LU (or two or three semantically close LUs)—satisfying Condition
B—is degenerate. (Degenerate LFs are an extreme case of non-standard LFs, see 4.5.2, p.
00.)
Thus, a normal LF f specifies for its keyword L a set of lexical expressions
f(L) = {L´i | 1 ≤ i ≤ n} SYNTAGM
such that:
• all its elements stand to L in (almost) the same semantic/syntactic relation R;
• it includes all the expressions that bear the relation R to L;