What is the difference between lexis and semantics

In grammar, the distinction between syntax and morphology is, by tradition, lexically based. In recent decades, however, this distinction has been disputed by research in lexicogrammar : lexis and grammar are now generally perceived as interdependent.

The morphemes above—the 's' on 'cats' and on 'eats'—give grammatical information: the 's' on 'cats' tells us that the noun is plural, and the 's' on 'eats' could suggest a plural noun, as in 'they had some eats. Let us take a simple example. These are both likely sentences of English:. But the following are not likely sentences of English. The verb put is incomplete unless it is followed by both a direct object, such as it , and also an adverbial of place like here or away :.

Taking three different verbs, laugh, buy and put , as starting points results in sentences which are quite different in structure The lexis and the grammar, the words, and the sentence, proceed hand in hand. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.

Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. If, for example, we change 'cats' to 'moggies', the referent stays the same but the feline connotations are much more offhand and down-market. Change 'cat' to 'feline quadrupeds' and you get an odd clash between the scientific connotations of the phrase and the emotional characteristic of the verb 'like' of which it is the grammatical object.

When we changed the syntax in sentence 1 to produce sentence 3 we also changed the meaning of the sentence in dramatic fashion.

This sort of sentence meaning is included in the aspect of meaning usually called semantics. The linguistic levels we have briefly explored so far explain what is needed when we consider a single decontextualised sentence. But of course sentences don't just occur on their own.

They turn up next to other sentences in texts and talk, and, especially in talk, they occur within a situational context. This fact brings into play some other aspects of linguistic organisation, a couple of which we need to mention here.