WHAT IS THE LEXICAL FAMILY OF CRYING? - LITERATURE - 2025

The lexical family of the word cry is made up of words such as crying, crying and crying, among others. A lexical family is a group of voices that share the same lexeme; therefore, they are etymologically and semantically related.

A lexeme is the fundamental unit of the lexicon, or word inventory of a language. It is also known as a lexical unit, lexical item, or lexical word.

Generally, to form lexical families, elements are added before or after the base. In the specific case of the lexical family of crying, the base is "cry".

By adding these elements different words are derived. These word formation mechanisms are known as morphological procedures.

Lexical family of «cry»

The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) indicates that the meaning cry comes from plorāre, which in Latin means to cry.

As you can see, the start -pl mutated to -ll. In this sense, in the poem of the Cid Campeador it is observed that the voices plorar and lorar are used alternately. Note this alternation in the following stanzas:

… His eyes are so strong, my belly is praying, he

turns his head and he is tasting them……

Exien to see him, men

and women, burgesses and burgesses for the feints they are,

praying from the eyes so much pain…

On the other hand, plorāre and its modern form, cry, have generated a set of words in common use. The voices that belong to the lexical family of crying are:

- Verbs

To congratulate

Accompany another in crying or in pain. It can also mean associated with the feeling of misfortune.

Cry

Action of shedding tears.

Whimper

Cry without much force and without apparent cause.

- Nouns

Cried

Shedding of tears

Crying

Continuous and excessive crying.

Crying

It is said of the person who cries.

Cry them

Person given to crying and lamenting their mishaps.

Crying

I cry loud and continuous.

Weeping

Person who cries frequently and for any reason.

Crybaby

Similar to llorica.

Whining

Whining action and effect,

I cry

Action of crying.

Weeping

Of or relating to crying.

Crybaby

Female weeper, character of Latin American legend (La Llorona).

- Adjectives

Tearful

That shows signs of having cried.

Characteristics of the lexical family of «cry»

A lexical family comprises all the words formed by the morphological processes known as derivation, composition, and parasynthesis.

The derivation consists of adding prefixes or suffixes to the base form to form new words (lie: lie, deny, lies).

For its part, composition is the procedure by which two or more lexemes are joined to form new words (opens + cans = can opener).

Finally, the parasynthesis is the combination of both processes (birthday + year + age = birthday).

In the case of crying, almost all the words of the lexical family are formed through the mechanism of derivation.

The exception is the verb conllorar and the noun lloraduelos, which were formed by composition.

On the other hand, only those words that arise from the addition of derivative suffixes make up a lexical family, which are those that form new words.

Inflectional suffixes are not taken into account, that is, those that show grammatical accidents such as gender and number.

However, in the specific case of La Llorona, this is taken into account since it refers to a concept from which an entity is identified that for some is real and for others, imaginary.

References

1. San Miguel Lobo, C. (2015). Adult Education: Communication Area II. Spanish language and Literature. Madrid: Editex.
2. Salicio Bravo, S. (2015). Approach to a family of words related to industrial processes of the Renaissance. In C. Grande López, L. Martín Aizpuru and S. Salicio Bravo (Coords.), With a young letter: advances in the study of the historiography and history of the Spanish language, pp. 273-280. Salamanca: University of Salamanca Editions.
3. Nordquist, R. (2017, March 03). Lexemes (words). At ThoughtCo. Retrieved on October 18 from thoughtco.com.
4. Pruñonosa Tomás, M. and Serra Alegre, E. (2005). The forms of language. In A. López García, and B. Gallardo Paúls (editors), Knowledge and language, pp. 155-216. Valencia: University of Valencia.
5. Royal Spanish Academy and Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (2014). Cry. Dictionary of the Spanish language (23rd edition). Madrid: Espasa. Retrieved on October 18 from dle.rae.es.
6. Soca, R. (2012). The fascinating history of words. Buenos Aires: Interzona Editora.
7. Royal Spanish Academy and Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (2014). To grieve. Dictionary of the Spanish language (23rd edition). Madrid: Espasa. Retrieved on October 18 from dle.rae.es.
8. White, IM; Escudero, JF; García, A. and Echazarreta, JM (2014). Basic Professional Training - Communication and Society I. Madrid: Editex.
9. Escandell Vidal, MV (2011). Notes on Lexical Semantics. Madrid: Editorial UNED.