Elementslexical

Elementslexical is a theoretical construct in linguistics used to describe the fundamental units of the mental lexicon that encode both form and meaning and their syntactic and semantic potential. In this view, an elementslexical is a minimal lexical element that carries a distinct sense or set of related senses and a predictable pattern of distribution in syntax, rather than a mere surface form or a purely grammatical category.

Key features of elementslexical include: a phonological form or surface representation, a lemma as an abstract base, one or more sense inventories, a syntactic category, and a subcategorization or argument structure. They also carry morphological and frequency information that influences how they combine with other elements in discourse. The concept emphasizes the integration of semantic content with syntactic behavior, aiming to capture polysemy, selectional preferences, and inflectional paradigms in a single unit.

In modeling terms, an elementslexical is often represented as a data bundle containing fields for phonology, lemma, senses, semantic features, syntactic frames, morphological paradigms, and usage statistics. This representation supports applications in lexical semantics, parsing, and natural language processing by linking meaning with predictable syntactic and morphological patterns.

Examples illustrating polysemy can include a single elementslexical for the word bank with senses related to a financial institution and the side of a river, each with distinct subcategorization patterns. Another example is the verb run with senses tied to motion and to operation of a device, each with its own argument structure.

Overall, elementslexical is a framework used to unify form, meaning, and combinatorial potential within a single lexical unit, reflecting ongoing debates about the architecture of the lexicon.