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What Is a Lexical Set?
A lexical set is a group of words. Many definitions for this linguistic concept specify groups of words that have the same topic, have the same kind of construction, or function in the same way. Different kinds of lexical sets are useful for various linguistic tasks, or in conversational or language models applied to technology such as artificial intelligence.
One way to analyze a lexical set is through understanding parts of speech in a language. The lexical set may be broad enough to include all of a certain class, for instance, of nouns, verbs or adjectives. Other lexical sets may include more narrow categories of parts of speech. For example, a particular lexical set used in educational projects may include only phrasal verbs, auxiliary or helper verbs, or other kinds of specific verb constructions.
As a bounded set of words, a lexical set may be useful in certain kinds of educational games or other linguistic activities. Another application of lexical sets is in scientific observation of how humans use language. Upper-level linguistics or computer science departments may use lexical sets as part of an analysis of the use of language, for completing linguistic research, or for building computer models of language. The lexical set also applies to studies of phonology or phonetic systems.
Frame semantics is a field in which lexical sets are particularly useful. In this particular type of semantic study, scientists proceed from the theory that one word is not useful without a greater category of words. In this kind of scientific process, the lexical set is a critical part of establishing which sets of words complement each other in terms of meaning.
Linguists also benefit from comparing and contrasting lexical sets. For example, a linguist could look at two different lexical sets that represent word associations. They can use these models to compare the exact ways that speakers or writers link two different sets of single words to form unique communicated concepts, or how the final results of each set are perceived by a listener or reader.
A lexical set basically represents a formal approach to examining speech. The set is a kind of quantitative tool. It limits a category of words to specific units. Lexical sets may be shown visually in linguistic textbooks to help readers understand their contents or uses. This can help to demonstrate more high-level linguistic ideas or language models.
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Discussion Comments
I think humans do this all the time to improve our memories. We group words together that have a similar function, or sound, or meaning, and it helps us remember the words later.
Teachers do this all the time with flashcards for particular subjects. There might be flashcards for fruit or animals, and grouping them together helps students remember even unfamiliar words because they can associate them with other words they know. It's probably one of the first memory aids we use, all unconsciously. You can see it at work with toddlers who are learning to talk. If you ask them what the cow says, they may say, “Meow!” It’s not right, but it is an animal noise, and they get that. They may know “moo,” and they associate it with the familiar, “meow.”
It's always helpful when words are grouped according to function. In my college Spanish textbook, the verbs, for example, were grouped by whether they ended with "ar," "er" or "ir." That was really helpful for remembering the most common verbs. I could just memorize them by their ending, one group at a time, and I think it helped expand my vocabulary.
I found it much more efficient to try to pull words out of sentences to figure their meaning if I'd already memorized them in a group of other words with the same function. I still like to do that when I learn new Spanish words. If I learn them in a group with other like functions, it’s easier for me to remember what they do in a sentence.
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