A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

lexical representation language 277
lexical diffusion
see diffusion
lexical entry see entry (1)
lexical-functional grammar (LFG) A linguistic theory in which the role of
the lexicon is central, and grammatical functions are taken as primitive.
The syntactic structure of a sentence consists of a constituent structure
(c-structure) and a functional structure (f-structure), which represent superficial
grammatical relations. In this approach, the lexical component is
assigned much of the role formerly associated with the syntactic component of a
transformational grammar.
lexicalist (adj./n.)
see lexis
lexical item
lexicalize (v.)
see lexis
see lexis
lexical minimality
lexical morpheme
see minimality
see morpheme
lexical noun phrase A term used in later generative grammar to refer to a
type of noun phrase with phonological content which is of particular
importance for the theory of binding. Unlike anaphors and pronominals, lexical
NPs are free in all positions in the sentence; their reference is typically
independent of other NPs. A contrast can be drawn with non-lexical noun phrases
(PRO, pro, t). See empty (1).
lexical phonology (LP) A theory of phonology in which morphological
and phonological rules are brought together within a single framework. The
approach is based on the insight that much of the phonology operates together
with the word-formation rules in a cyclic fashion to define the class of
lexical items in a language. The morphological sub-theory is ‘level-ordered’:
affixes are differentiated, not by the use of boundary-markers (as in earlier
phonological theory), but by being divided into distinct subsets (numbered ‘levels’
or ‘strata’) within the lexicon, where the division of the word-formation rules
corresponds to a division among the phonological rules. The phonological
sub-theory is divided into a lexical (sometimes called a cyclic) component and
a post-lexical (sometimes called a post-cyclic) component, the latter also being
referred to as the ‘phrasal phonology’, as its rules operate across word boundaries,
making use of syntactic structure.
lexical phrase A type of phrase recognized in government-binding theory
for a structural configuration built around a lexical head, as in the case of np
and vp. It contrasts with functional phrase.
lexical representation language A model used in semantics to represent
basic lexical entries and characterize systematic lexical processes. A notion of