What is Lexicon:
As lexicon is called the set of words that make up a language. Likewise, as a lexicon it is also designated the dictionary of a language. The word, as such, comes from the Greek λεξικός (lexicós).
In this sense, the lexicon is also known as set of words that are in particular use in a region: Mexican, Argentine, Colombian lexicon; in a particular activity or discipline: legal, scientific, computer lexicon; or of a special semantic field: lexicon of love. Hence lexicon and vocabulary be terms synonyms.
The word lexicon can also be used with an adjective function to describe what belonging to or relating to the lexicon: lexical family, lexical studies, lexical richness.
Lexicon can also refer to set of words that a person uses daily or knows or understands. This type of lexicon referring particularly to a speaker is called mental lexicon.
Likewise, as a lexicon it can be called the set of words, idioms or phrases that characterize the language that an author uses to express himself. For example: “The Cortazarian lexicon is characterized by the use of lunfardo.”
The lexicon is very important when developing the communicative skills of a person. A broad lexicon means the possibility that a person can express themselves better and more eloquently and, in addition, they are demonstrative of their intellectual level and their culture.
In a language, the lexicon is in a constant process of development, evolution, change and adjustments, as well as the incorporation of new terms, which may well be neologisms (new words), foreign words, or words created to name new realities. , such as those referring to the world of technology, among other things.
Lexicon and semantics
The semantics refers to the meaning or set of meanings that a word has, that is, the meaning of linguistic signs and their possible combinations. He lexicon, for its part, simply refers to the set of lexical units of a language or, in other words, the set of words that make up the language in question. In this sense, lexicon and semantics are two complementary areas of study of Linguistics, where one collects the set of words and the other analyzes the meanings they have.
See also: