lexérèse

Lexérèse is a term found in some French-language linguistics literature to describe the lexical dimension of language, including how words are stored, retrieved, and organized in the mental lexicon as well as in external resources such as dictionaries and corpora. It is used to refer to processes and practices surrounding lexis, rather than syntax or phonology alone.

In cognitive linguistics, lexérèse refers to lexical access—the rapid activation of a word’s form, meaning, and morphosyntactic properties during production and comprehension. It is studied with tasks measuring reaction time and priming, and it is considered alongside other components of language processing, such as grammar and semantics, in models of how words are retrieved and integrated in real time.

In corpus linguistics and lexicography, lexérèse denotes methods for extracting and analyzing lexical items from text collections, including lemmatization, frequency analysis, collocation discovery, and the construction of lexical databases for natural language processing applications. It emphasizes practical work with word forms, senses, and their usage patterns across large datasets.

The term is not standardized and appears in only a subset of French-language sources; definitions and scope may vary, and its use is not universal across linguistics. Related concepts include lexicon, lexical access, lexical decision tasks, and lexicography.