This thesis entitled A Study of Slovenian Multi-Word Lexemes from a Lexicographical Perspective provides a typology of newer nominal multi-word lexemes with potential terminological meaning, based on the theory of Russian linguist N. M. Shanskiy which brings four precisely defined levels of semantic merger of their components. The analysis of individual components of multi-word lexemes from a morphological, syntactic and semantic perspective reveals typological tendencies of nominal multi-word lexemes which occurred especially in the last twenty years. The typology takes into account the causal relationship between the level of semantic transfer (of the components) of a multi-word lexeme on the one hand and the level of semantic merger of components of a multi-word lexeme and related lexicalization of a multi-word lexeme on the other hand, which is also reflected in the restricted collocability of their components. Lexicalized or non-lexicalized metaphorical and metonymic semantic transfers are contributing to the new semantic and syntactic combinations of individual words in the phrase, to the consequent integration of their meanings to form a single meaning of the multi-word lexeme and thus to a higher level of lexicalization and semantic firmness of a multi-word lexeme. The level of semantic merger of words as components of a fixed phrase and thus the level of lexicalization of a multi-word lexeme depends on the lexicalised and non-lexicalized semantic transfers. The component with lexicalized transferred meaning is semanticaly independent and has several collocational options, as opposed to the component with non-lexicalized meaning which has only one collocational option (monocollocability) and is capable of forming a phrase which is "fixed" to greater extent (semantically and structurally more stable). The highest level of semantic merger of the components is characteristic for multi-word lexemes with non-lexicalized meaning of both components (the meaning of those is not the sum of the meanings of its components). In this way the typology allows determination of the level of lexicalization of multi-word lexemes (especially in combination with the determing of the level of collocability by the method of corpus-based statistics) and shows the dynamics of the progress of semantic and structural stability (from the phrases the meaning of which is the sum of the meanings of its components, to the ones the meaning of which is not the sum of the meanings of its components - those retain the possibility of semantic interpretation as free combinations). 11 The typology, together with consideration of the relevant theoretical principles and the already established tendencies in the Slavic lexicography brings linguistically based suggestions for consistent lexicographical treatment of this kind of lexicon, particularly in relation to the selection of multi-word lexemes, the position of multi-word lexemes inside the entry, distinguishing this type of multi-word lexemes from phrasemes and idioms, treatment of (semantically opaque) terminological phrases, taking into account any varieties, synonymy, polysemy in multi-word lexemes, and definitions of the classifying adjective as a component of a multi-word lexeme. The semantic properties of multi-word lexemes which prove fixed phrases as lexemes are illustrated from three different perspectives. The perspective of the distinctive semantic features (semes) shows the semantic structure of a multi-word lexeme and its changes which are associated with semantic transfers (of the components) of set phrases. The types of semantic transfers (of the components) of set phrases which result in different levels of semantic merger of the components of multi-word lexemes are treated from a perspective of semantic derivation. The thesis that set phrases are single lexemes is also confirmed by the inclusion of the perspective of transformational (generative) word-formation theory, with the possibility of the transformation of nominal phrases with a noun modifier to compounds with an interfixal formant. The transformation also serves as a display of various possibilities of a certain semantic relationship between two nouns (a noun phrase with a noun modifier that is transformed into a noun phrase with an adjectival premodifier, or a noun phrase with a noun modifier as a syntactic base of a compound). In addition, the transformation provides a more accurate breakdown of meaning of (the component(s) of) multi-word lexemes, which is directly applicable to the dictionary definitions of certain types of multi-word lexemes - semantically transparent and those with lexicalized semantic transfer of the component(s) where the relationship is apparent.
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