Lexis and Semantics
Lexis concerns word choice; semantics concerns meaning. Clearly the two concepts are intimately bound together. A lexical item is the technical term for a word; a lexeme is a root word; a lexicon is a stock of words such as exists in a dictionary; your individual lexicon is your personal vocabulary or stock of words.
Words have two separate aspects that can be useful to your analyses: they have form and they have content. Form refers to the shape and sound of something, that is, what can be perceived by the eyes and ears (see also graphology and phonology). In one respect, therefore, lexis can be considered as being involved with the form of a word because, once the mind becomes involved, the word’s content or meaning is being considered, and this is the realm of semantics, the study of meaning (but see also pragmatics).
Some important lexical and semantic aspects of language are:
- denotation – this refers to the generally accepted or literal meaning, e.g. ‘That’s a poodle.’ connotation – in certain contexts, certain words can take on associated meanings beyond their denotation, e.g. ‘He’s sure is no poodle, so take care!’
- figurative language, i.e. the use of figures of speech such as metaphor.
- lexical or semantic ‘fields’ – when a series of lexical items appears in a text that are related through their semantic value, then this forms what is termed a lexical field (perhaps better called a semantic field). An instruction manual on how to use a computer mouse will, naturally, rely on the lexical/semantic field of computer technology. Where semantic fields become interesting analytically is when one semantic field is used metaphorically to describe another. So, in a report on a football match, the semantic field of war become very useful (‘He gunned down the opposition shooting straight into the back of the net…’). In romantic fiction, the semantic field of food is frequently used (‘She looked good enough to eat…’; ‘She would have Mr Blue Eyes for main course and Mr Brown Eyes for dessert…’).
- idiomatic language – a non-literal way of using language that adds colour to conversation and description. Idiomatic expressions are a natural part of everyday colloquial language but they make life difficult for learners of English. Consider a foreigner trying to make sense of: ‘I’m up to my neck in you-know-what!’, ‘I’m utterly lost for words’, ‘Up yours mate!’ and ‘I’m all fingers and thumbs today’. Or what would a foreigner on a bus think of being told by the driver, ‘Come on sunshine, get off!’
Lexical cohesion occurs when words have an affinity for each other as in collocations. A lexical field (or semantic field) occurs when a writer or speaker chooses several lexemes from the same semantic area. Often, when a sport’s writer writes about football, he or she will choose to use a lexical field of war.
