Let me now turn to the term "citation form". Here I will cite Lyon's definition, which seems entirely satisfactory: "By the citation-form of a lexeme is meant the form of the lexeme that is conventionally employed to refer to it in standard dictionaries and grammars of the language" [Lyons, J., 1977, “Semantics”, Cambridge University Press, p. 19]. The term thus refer to the sound form of a particular member of the paradigm of a lexeme, and this sound form is conventionally used in mentioning it. As such, "citation form" is a metalinguistic notion not necessary meant to be of significance in a theory of language.
- Aronoff (2004), Pag. 57