Within linguistic theory, the idea that there is, for any given lexeme, a single sound form in the mental lexicon from which an entire paradigm may be deduced, and furthermore that this form is the address of the lexeme whose paradigm is been generated, the idea, in short, of a "lexical representation" [Aronoff, M., 1978b, “Lexical Representations”, Chicago Linguistic Society] has been tremendously important. The lexical representation, howewer, differs from the citation form in that it is (or may be) an abstract sound form, both phonologically and morphologically, that never actually occurs as a surface form of the lexeme.
- Aronoff (2004), Pag. 58