Lexical gap

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One speaks of a lexical gap when there is no word for a subject in a (natural) language.

A school example is the missing word for "not being thirsty anymore" in German:

  • no longer hungry = full ; no longer thirsty =?

The example shows a lack of lexical symmetry in the German vocabulary. Sometimes the lack of symmetry is stated as being specific to a lexical gap .

Regardless of questions of symmetry, however, archisemen , for example, may also lack a lexical realization.

In language development in children, one speaks of a gap- filling strategy when lexical gaps are filled through over-generalization.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Gabriel, Trudel Meisenberg: Romance Linguistics ( UTB Basics ; Vol. 2897). Fink Verlag, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-2897-2 . P. 169.
  2. ↑ a b Helmut Rehbock: Lexical gap . In: Helmut Glück (Hrsg.): Metzler Lexikon Sprache. 4th edition Metzler, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02335-3 .
  3. ^ Heidrun Pelz: Linguistics. An introduction . Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-455-10331-6 , p. 195
  4. ↑ Michael Schlaefer: lexicology and lexicography. An introduction using the example of German dictionaries (Fundamentals of German Studies; Vol. 40). 2nd edition E. Schmidt, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-503-09863-7 , p. 39.
  5. ↑ Helmut Glück: gap filler strategy . In the S. (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language. 4th edition Metzler, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02335-3 .