lexische

Lexische is the inflected form of the German adjective related to lexicon, meaning word- or vocabulary-related. In everyday German, the more common adjective is lexikalisch, but lexisch appears in many linguistic and scholarly contexts as the base meaning “related to words” and is used in its declined forms in attributive positions. The form lexische specifically appears after definite articles in the nominative or accusative singular for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns (for example: der lexische Begriff, die lexische Bedeutung, das lexische System).

In linguistic use, lexische serves to describe properties of words and word behavior at the lexical level. This contrasts with aspects of language that are grammatical or syntactic. Phrases such as lexische Bedeutung (lexical meaning), lexische Merkmale (lexical features), or lexische Einheiten (lexical units) are common when discussing vocabulary, word formation, or dictionary entries. The broader term for this area is lexical or lexikalisch, with lexikalisch being the more widely adopted adjective in modern technical writing.

Etymologically, lexische derives from lexis, the Greek-root word meaning “a speaking, a word,” which underpins the German lexikalisch/lexikalisch and the English lexical. The concept encompasses items stored in a mental lexicon, including words, fixed expressions, collocations, and their meanings, usages, and morphologies. In lexicography and computational linguistics, the lexical level is distinguished from the grammatical level to study how vocabulary interacts with syntax and semantics.

See also: Lexikon, Lexem, Lexikalisch, Lexikalische Semantik, Lexikonarbeit.