Lemma

Revision as of 10:40, 26 January 2010

Lemma is the canonical (citation) form of a lexeme.

Lexemes, as a set of different word forms with different inflectional affixes, but with the same stem, are normally referred to by a citation (default) word form called lemma. The lemma, more generally referred to as headword, is essentially an abstract representation, subsuming all the formal lexical variations which may apply within the same lexeme. For instance, the lexeme comprising the word forms "die", "dies", "died", "dying" is normally referred, in English, by the lemma "die".

How to create a lemma

Lemmas may vary from language to language. In English, for instance, the lemma of a verbal lexeme is the infinitive form ("love", "be"); in Latin, it is the first person of singular of the present of indicative ("amo", "sum"). In the UNLarium framework, the lemma is expected to be the most common citation form of a given lexeme in the lexicographical tradition of the working language (i.e., the infinitive, in English, the first person, in Latin, and so on), provided that:

The lemma should be a word form (i.e., not a root or an affix)

The lemma of the lexeme "die, dies, died, dying" should be "die" and not "d-".

The lemma should be as complete as possible

The lemma of the lexeme "kick the bucket, kicks he bucket, kicking the bucket, kicked the bucket" should be "kick the bucket" and not "kick" or "bucket".

The lemma of the lexeme "me souviens, te souviens, se souvient, etc" (= remember (fr) should be "se souvenir" (and not "souvenir").

The lemma must include obligatory (and only obligatory) variables

The lemma of the lexeme "behind someone's back" should be "behind <person>'s back" (there is no "behind back");

However, the lemma of the lexeme "take something into account, taking something into account, etc" should be "take into account" (because there can be "take into account", as in "take into account that ...").

Obligatory variables, if any, must be expressed by the corresponding value between < >. The values must be expressed in the working language in lower case letters: "person", "personne", "pessoa", etc.

Examples