What is a literal meaning in a lexical database?

The literal meaning is used to give the glosses of the individual components of a multi-morpheme expression, such as a compound or an idiom, where the meaning of the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

You only need to fill in the literal meaning if the entry is a compound or an idiom.

The literal meaning of the word for "train" in Chinese is "fire car."

Context for this page:

• Concept module: literal meaning in a lexical database
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): L
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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