Lutzeier sketches the recent expansion of lexical field theory as described in the introduction to this collection. Brief summaries of 11 contributions place them in the context of current tendencies in lexical field theory, particularly that of opposition to the word as the basic unit of semantic description. A contrastive approach, a discussion of metaphorical field theory, and relationships between lexical fields and various models of cognitive psychology are also addressed. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (J. Hitchcock in LLBA 1997, vol. 31, n. 1)