English Words

Lexical item
.
Lexical item
A word belonging to one of the major word-classes (i.e. noun, adjective,
verb, adverb) which is listable in the dictionary with an identifiable
meaning and is capable of occurring independently e.g. 
girl, think,
quick,
etc. (Syntactically, prepositions are also lexical items since they
function as lexical heads of prepositional phrases 
see also
Phrase.)
Lexicon
The part of the grammar that contains the rules of wordformation and
a list of lexical items 
see also
Mental lexicon
.
Loan translation
A concept is borrowed but is rendered using the words of the language
doing the borrowing (e.g. 
ça va sans dire
→
it goes without saying
).
Loanword
A word adopted from another language, e.g. 
garage
from French.
Macron
A short straight line placed above a vowel to indicate that it is
pronounced long.
Malapropism
Use of the wrong word which resembles phonologically the intended
word, e.g. the use of 
progeny
instead of 
prodigy
in ‘I would by no means
wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning’ (Sheridan, 
The
Rivals
).
Mental lexicon
The dictionary in the speaker’s mind. It contains a list of words as well
as rules for generating words that are not listed.
Morph
A physical form that represents some morpheme.
Morphophonemic
Having to do with the interaction of phonology and morphology. 
Morphophonological
see
Morphophonemic.
Nasal
A sound like [m] [n] [ŋ] which is made with the soft palate lowered so
that air goes out through the nose.
Nonce word
A word that is coined and used just one time.
186 GLOSSARY

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