A lexicon is a collection of words and expressions used in a language or profession. It does not include grammar or phonetics. Psycholinguists study how words are learned and retrieved from the brain. Slang is a miniature lexicon used by specific groups. Writers use a thesaurus to choose the right word.
In linguistics, a lexicon contains the vocabulary and expressions understood by the speaker of a language. The term can also refer to the jargon of a particular profession or business, such as business parlance. Grammar and phonetics are not included in the definition. A lexicon is also synonymous with a thesaurus, a reference containing groupings of words that have similar meanings.
Words are the parts of speech that people use to communicate their thoughts. As each person learns the language of her culture, words and their meanings and usages are stored in the mental lexicon. Psycholinguists and neurolinguists study how words are retrieved from storage within the brain and how they are learned.
The English language contains approximately 600,000 words. Most people only use around 2,000 in their daily speech. Many of the words have more than one definition and various sets of forms, called lexemes. Spanish and French are languages in which conjugation creates new forms of its verbs with respect to gender, number or person and idiomatic expressions. A collection containing all the lexemes of a language is called a complete lexicon.
A specialized lexicon referring to an occupation contains only terms used specifically in that occupation. Examples of business language include financial words, those related to personnel matters, and others that encompass business jargon. The medical profession has its own vocabulary with abbreviations and acronyms that healthcare professionals use to communicate with each other. Sports, technical professions and the arts also use specific terms of their own.
Slang is a miniature lexicon specializing in a particular region or group. Teens typically have their own words for things and they change drastically with each generation. Longtime fans of a TV show or movie can create their own dictionary of terms and expressions from the show. The slang may have no meaning to anyone outside the group. With the Internet, slang can spread exponentially, and updates are instantaneous, providing linguists with up-to-date data they can use to study the vernacular.
Writers use a thesaurus to look up words to convey an idea. Choosing the wrong word can alter how a sentence expresses that concept. The collected lexicon gives them many choices to express the exact meaning they mean. Because language is dynamic, an updated thesaurus will include new words as they are coined.
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