Essay 1
by Mae Riggins
The Size of the Lexicon
What is a lexicon? The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language especially in dictionary form; also called lexis. It is the bridge between a language and the knowledge expressed in that language. Every language has a different vocabulary; therefore, every language provides grammatical mechanisms for combining words to express a never-ending range of concepts.
How many words does the English language have? According to David Crystal in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, it is estimated that there are 500,000 lexemes. A lexeme is “a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain” (Crystal 118). The size of the English lexicon can not be determined when you look at different dictionaries such as the Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary. You will find many discrepancies in limited resources for words, extensive overlapping of words, and variations of words. Discrepancies are not only found in larger dictionaries but in dictionaries that have shorter versions. No one person or a particular group has the time or the energy to go through all the dictionaries to make comparisons. Even today with all the technology that we have, we still haven’t come to an agreement as to how large the Engish lexicon is.
What factors make this question difficult to determine the size of the English lexicon? There are many problematic situations that will make it difficult to determine the size of the English lexicon. The size of the lexicon can not be determined because there are variations of accidental, systematic, and cultural changes, which take place in words. Words are labels for concepts about the world around us. As new concepts emerge, old concepts change; the size of the English lexicon can not be determined because the lexicon changes too.
Take for example the accidental differences that happen in the lexicon because of the choices of sounds that we make. In our English language, the word hand refers to the part of the body from the fingertips to the wrist, but, in Russian, the word ruka extends all the way to the elbow.
Systematically, the structure of the words in the lexicon changes. In the English language we put our sentences in order with the subject first, the verb second, and the object third. In other countries they put their sentences in a different order.
The environment, activities, and culture of the people who speak the language determine the lexicon that is expressed by a language. Each language has its own lexicon. If American people, Japanese people, and French people prepare a meal, they use various ingredients, various methods of preparations, and various cooking utensils. Each culture will cook and eat the kinds of food they enjoy and use words from their lexicon that is not related to one another.
The size of the English lexicon can not be determined because every person that has a functional brain has a lexicon that contains words and the concepts they stand for which creates their own personal dictionary. This personal dictionary is nothing more than our own personal list of words which includes our thoughts, feelings, ideas, opinions, and theories. Within our own personal list of words we have memorized words for each category for our everyday lives.
Our English lexicon reflects so many sources of origin and changes
over time that it allows us to borrow thousands of words from different
cultures we come in contact with. These sources provide so many words,
which makes it hard for us to determine the size of our English lexicon.
For each language, the lexicon must provide the link that enables a language
processor to carry messages from one province to the other.