# Lexicon **Domain:** Language / Linguistics / Culture **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition A **lexicon** is the full stock of words and meaningful units available to a language, a person, a field, or a culture. It covers vocabulary along with the knowledge of how each word is used, what it means, and how it combines with others. A dictionary is a recorded, curated form of a lexicon. Linguists study the mental lexicon, the store of words a speaker carries, and computer scientists build lexicons that let programs parse and interpret language. ## Corpus Context Bryant McGill treats the lexicon as a site of power. In a June 2016 broadcast he argued that whoever controls the dictionary shapes what a population can think, since a concept without a word becomes hard to discuss, and that each generation coins new vocabulary to express what earlier lexicons could not. The corpus develops that argument in [[wiki/Lexical Omission|Lexical Omission]] and [[wiki/Lexicographic Succession|Lexicographic Succession]]. ## Relationships - **Fields:** [[wiki/Linguistics|Linguistics]] · [[wiki/Lexical Semantics|Lexical Semantics]] · [[wiki/Semantics|Semantics]]. - **Power over words:** [[wiki/Lexical Omission|Lexical Omission]] · [[wiki/Lexicographic Succession|Lexicographic Succession]] · [[wiki/Linguistic Relativity|Linguistic Relativity]]. - **Structure:** [[wiki/Parse Tree|Parse Tree]] · [[wiki/Lexical Knowledge Graph|Lexical Knowledge Graph]]. - **Roots and sound:** [[wiki/Phonetic Etymology|Phonetic Etymology]] · [[wiki/Proto-Indo-European|Proto-Indo-European]] · [[wiki/Ablaut|Ablaut]], which links *legein*, *logos*, and *lexis*. - **Broadcast source:** [[livestreams/Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream|Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1]], June 1, 2016. - **Corpus project:** [[projects/Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine|Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine]], Bryant McGill's symbolic language engine, built from 1994 into the mid-2000s, with its phonological engine, sound indexes, and lexical knowledge graph. ## See Also [[wiki/Semiotics|Semiotics]] · [[wiki/Language|Language]]