ABSTRACT
In generative semantics, a procedure applied especially to causatives for the semantic description of lexical units by deriving them from an inventory of smallest (possibly universal) basic expressions ( semantic primitives), which on the basis of their internal syntactic structure constitute the complete meaning of the lexemes, e.g., to kill is ‘decomposed’ into CAUSE-BECOME-NOT-ALIVE. For the problematization and critique of the approach, generative semantics. Nevertheless, lexical decomposition is also applied in other approaches, for the principle of decomposition is only incompatible with a concept of integrality.
