Relative semantic complexity in lexical units
Bo Ralph · 1980
The lexical component of a human language is typically heterogeneous and extremely complex.Before we can come to grips with the underlying lexical organization, we must reduce the bewildering complexity.Methods must be elaborated by which the interrelations between the units of the lexicon can be elucidated.This paper describes how a Swedish lexical material stored in a computer has been semantically stratified as a stage in the semantic analysis of the items included in the data base.In particular, a minor subset of the lexical items, consisting of current words in the language, has been selected as metalanguage in the definitions.It is argued that, in this way, a means of describing the relative semantic complexity in lexical units is provided.