El lexicón

Estructura, función y categorías

 El lexicón
Se define como la red de todas las piezas
individuales de información que una persona
debe almacenar en la memoria a fin de hacer
uso de él para hablar su lengua.

Es la red de unidades básicas forma-significado

que constituyen una lengua.

(Payne 2011:57)
 Unidades del lexicón
Las unidades del lexicón existen en la
memoria como un todo. A estas unidades se
les denomina entradas léxicas o lexemas.

– Ej. cat [khæt] /kæt/

(Payne 2011:57-58)
 Compuestos forma-significado

(Imagen, https://es.pinterest.com/pinominino/felinos-
famosos/)
(Payne 2011:58)
Visiones del lexicón

(Payne 2011:58)
 De un sistema lingüístico a otro id est
traducir

NO TE HAGAS TONTO ????

https://mobile.twitter.com/notehagas_ http://verne.elpais.com/verne/2016/12/16/mexico/1481
pato 925530_915438.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_CM_Verne

Hacerse pato (Coloq) Hacerse tonto. (http://dem.colmex.mx/)

Ensamblajes simbólicos

(Langacker 2013:15-16)
 Fórmula que representa un ensamblaje simbólico

La fórmula es un ensamblaje simbólico del patrón

regular del tiempo pasado past tense (Langacker
2008:15) que se almacena en la memoria de un
hablante.

(Payne 2011:59)
Un patrón de construcción se almacena en el lexicón y
permite miles de expresiones.

Fórmula que representa un ensamblaje simbólico

(Payne 2011:59)
¿Cómo es que algo se convierte en unidad en el
lexicón?

La respuesta es por la frecuencia de uso.

Las rutinas y los hábitos lingüísticos a los que

está expuesto un hablante permiten el uso del
lexicón y el uso de las propiedades
morfosintácticas de la lengua.
(Payne 2011:60-61)
¿Cuáles son las unidades y los patrones
gramaticales más frecuentes?

Respuesta: los más usados.

Las unidades más usadas son las que más

fácilmente “llegan” en el habla natural. Éstas
muestran un cierto «desgaste» debido a su uso
frecuente.
(Payne 2011:61)
Dos de los verbos más usados en inglés son go
y be.

(Payne 2011:61)
Los verbos go y be pueden funcionar como
auxiliares o como verbos que introducen citas
textuales.

“Then he goes ‘wassup with that?’ And I’m

all ‘Thanks a lot!’” (from an Internet blog)

(Payne 2011:63)
 Lexicalización
• Además de las palabras individuales, los ítems
léxicos pueden ser ensamblajes complejos.
Algunos de ellos han presentado tal desgaste
que se volvieron palabras individuales:

– May God be with thee1 > Goodbye > Bye

1PRON. 2.SG. ARCAICO.

(Payne 2011:62)
 Lexicalización
Otros ítems del lexicón se pueden componer
de más de una palabra. Aún así son
almacenados como unidades léxicas:

Dog-eat-dog. Used to describe a situation in which

people will do anything to be successful, even if
what they do harms other people.
(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/dog-eat-dog?q=Dog-eat-dog)

(Payne 2011:63)
Clases en el lexicón

(Payne 2011:67)
 Clases en el lexicón
Full lexical words
• Nouns
• Verbs
• Adjectives
• Adverbs

Grammatical functors
• Auxiliaries
• Prepositions
• Pronouns
• Conjunctions
• Affixes
Articles (Payne 2011:67)
 Clases en el lexicón
Full lexical words & Grammatical Functors

(Payne 2011:67)
Full lexical words = parts of speech = lexical
classes = lexical categories = word classes = major
classes = phrasal categories.

Grammatical functors = minor classes =

grammatical words = functional words.

Las clases de palabras son categorías que ocupan

ciertas posiciones en las estructuras sintácticas.

(Payne 2011:68)
 Door & to door
• door noun a flat object that is used to close
the entrance of something such as a room or
building, or the entrance itself.
(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/door)

• to door verb to door someone means to open

a car door in their path as they are riding a
bicycle. (Payne 2011:69)
Could you open the door, please?

https://twitter.com/sbwhite/status/816490363980484608
 El lexicón flexible
Algunas palabras pueden formar parte de clases
mayores y de clases menores.

(Payne 2011:70)
El lexicón flexible

(Payne 2011:70)
Full lexical words
 Nouns
The class of NOUNS includes words that
typically refer to entities that have clear
boundaries and are easily distinguished from
their environments, e.g., tree, king,
mausoleum, etc. These are concepts that tend
not to change very much over time, and which
can be referred to repeatedly in discourse as
the same thing.

(Payne 2011:71)
 Verbs
The best examples of VERBS are words that
describe visible EVENTS that produce changes
in the world, e.g., die, run, break, cook,
explode.

(Payne 2011:71)
 Adjectives
• An ADJECTIVE is a word that refers to an attribute, such as
color, size, shape, temperament, or other PROPERTY
CONCEPTS. When we think of adjectives, most of us think
of Modifiers of nouns within noun phrases, such as the
following:

green leafy vegetables

big fat companies

This can be called the ATTRIBUTIVE FUNCTION, and is

certainly one of the major functions of adjectives, though
syntactic elements of several other categories can also
function in this way.

(Payne 2011:72)
 Adjectives
Another major function of adjectives is to
contribute to the main meaning of a predicate, as
in the following examples:

1) None of us is perfect forever.

2) My holiday became very long.
3) Are you sick?

This is sometimes called the PREDICATIVE

FUNCTION of adjectives.

(Payne 2011:72)
 Adjectives
Pruebas sintácticas:
adjectives vs verbs
adjectives vs nouns

(Payne 2011:72)
 Adjectives
AGE (young, old . . .)
SPEED (fast, slow, quick . . .)
VALUE (good, bad . . .)
HUMAN PROPENSITY ( jealous, happy, clever, wary . . .)
DIMENSION (big, little, tall, short, long . . . )
SHAPE (round, square . . .)
COLOR (black, white, red . . .)
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS (hard, heavy, smooth . . .)
NATIONAL ORIGIN (Japanese, Hungarian, English . . .)

(Payne 2011:72-73)
 Adverbs
Any full lexical word that isn’t clearly a noun, a
verb, or an adjective is often considered to be
an ADVERB. Semantically, forms that have
been called adverbs cover an extremely wide
range of concepts, and they have
correspondingly varied syntactic properties.
Also, sometimes adverbs function on the
clause or discourse level.

(Payne 2011:73)
 Adverbs
MANNER ADVERBS (the way in which some activity is
carried out):

1) He left for work five minutes later than he

normally did.
2) And if only one thing had happened
differently…
3) They quickly prepared the papers and left.

(Payne 2011:73)
 Adverbs
TIME ADVERBS (the time when some activity
happens, or the frequency with it happens):

1) That was then, this is now.

2) Yesterday, love was such an easy game to
play.
3) We’ll see each other tomorrow.

(Payne 2011:73)
 Adverbs
EXTENT ADVERBS (the degree to which some
variable quality is asserted):

1) I can hardly hear.

2) They didn’t fully understand.
3) I believe whatever doesn’t kill you, simply
makes you stronger.

(Payne 2011:74)
 Adverbs
EPISTEMIC ADVERBS (how likely or possible some
situation may be, or how the speaker obtained
the information):

1) I certainly hope not.

2) In your last house you clearly had a level of
security that I’m not used to.
3) Evidently Julliard has heard of you.

(Payne 2011:74)
 Adverbs
LOCATION ADVERBS (the place where a situation
occurs):

1) It is here that alternative approaches are

discussed and weighted.
2) Tell me about being over there, gramps.

(Payne 2011:74)
 Adverbs
HEDGING ADVERBS (disclaimers of responsibility):

1) This woman sort of knows my situation.

2) I’d eat, like, a piece of bread all day.
3) And once you start having children . . . I
mean, 13-year-old twin girls can be
difficult.

(Payne 2011:74)
Grammatical functors
 Auxiliaries
Auxiliaries constitute a closed, rather small set
of grammatical functors that play a very key
role in English syntax.

It is worth emphasizing that auxiliaries are the

“pivot point” of English clausal syntax, and in
many ways are the key to understanding
English grammar.

(Payne 2011:75)
 Prepositions
Prepositions are grammatical functors that precede
determined noun phrases (DPs) to specify the
SEMANTIC ROLE of the DP to the rest of the clause.
They include words like above, at, in, of, with, around,
on, under, beside, through, inside, before, and opposite.

Some prepositions are made up of more than one

piece, including out of, by means of, in spite of, instead
of, up to, up against, on top of, upon, etc.

Many prepositions also function as post-verbal particles

(phrasal verbs), as in get in, pick up, switch off.
(Payne 2011:75)
 Pronouns
Pronouns are ANAPHORIC words, which
means that they are tools that speakers use to
refer to (or “mention”) participants and props
on the discourse stage. They are sometimes
treated as a special subclass of nouns,
because pronouns distribute like DPs in
phrases, clauses, and discourses.

(Payne 2011:75)
 Conjunctions

Conjunctions are grammatical functors that

serve to connect words, phrases, or clauses to
form complex constructions.

(Payne 2011:76)
 Subtypes of conjunctions
COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS: conjoin two
units that are “equal” in terms of their syntactic
status, i.e., they must be of the same word class
or PHRASAL CATEGORY, and they must have the
same syntactic function. There are about six
words that can function as coordinating
conjunctions in english. These are: and, but, or,
for, then, and yet. There are also three or four
complex coordinating conjunctions, either . . . or,
neither… nor, and yet, and and then.

(Payne 2011:76
 Subtypes of conjunctions
SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS: conjoin two
units that may have distinct syntactic
discourse functions. The unit that follows a
subordinating conjunction is DEPENDENT in
some way on the other unit. Subordinating
conjunctions include: after, because, although,
if, before, since, though, unless, when, now
that, even though, only if, while, as, whereas,
whether or not, since, in order that, while,
even if, until, so, in case, etc.
(Payne 2011:76)
 Referencias
• Payne, T. 2011. Understanding English
Grammar. A Linguistic Introduction. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
• Langacker, R. 2008. Cognitive Grammar: A
Basic Introduction. New York: Oxford
University Press.
• Langacker, R. 2013. Essentials of Cognitive
Grammar. New York: Oxford University Press.