A lexeme is a lexical unit, usually a word, that has semantic meaning. Conceptual/Denotative meaning is the literal meaning of a lexeme. These meanings might be easily definable or not, especially when compared with similar lexemes. One would expect to see conceptual meaning represented in a dictionary. For example, the conceptual meaning of the lexemeContinue reading “Semantic Categories”
Tag Archives: linguistics
Italian and English: Passive voice compared
The passive voice is a syntactic relationship that foregrounds the undergoer of an
argument and backgrounds the actor, compared to the active voice which does the
opposite. Italian and English both use periphrastic passives, utilising an auxiliary
verb and conjugating the main verb into the past participle form.
Variation in Fijian: Boumaa and Standard Fijian compared
Boumaa is a variety of Fijian spoken primarily on the island of Taveuni off the coast of Vanua Levu. Taveuni is quite geographically removed from the island of Bau from where Standard Fijian originally emerged, but the Eastern Fijian dialect chain, of which Boumaa and Standard Fijian are both part, distinctly crosses the archipelago.
Nicholas K Watson 