Flexeme

Flexemes are abstract lexical units characterized in terms of form, as opposed to lexemes, that are characterized in terms of meaning (cf. Fradin & Kerleroux 2003). For instance, the Latin word meaning 'keep away' displays different form variants, with the sequence "abarc" (prs.act.inf "abarcere", fut.act.ind.3.sg "abarcebit") or with the sequence "aberc" (prs.act.inf "abercere", prf.act.ind.1.sg "abalienaui"). Since the meaning is the same, all these variants belong to the same lexeme. However, there are two flexemes to account for the difference of form: one flexeme groups the forms displaying the sequence "abarc" ("abarcere" and "abarcebit"), the other one groups the forms displaying the sequence "aberc" ("abercere" and "abercebit").