Presedence. "@_ is always evaluated to a true" - No, "@lexlist = @_" is.

I think these braces are in the right place: 

my @lexlist = @_ or sort keys %lexicon;

# read as
(my @lexlist = @_) or (sort keys %lexicon);

[download]
What you want is: 
my @lexlist = @_ || sort keys %lexicon;

# read as
my @lexlist = (@_ || sort keys %lexicon);

[download]
Or use braces: 
my @lexlist = (@_ or sort keys %lexicon);

[download]
Hopefully the braces make it a little more readable :) or, and & not have much lower presedence than || && and !

In my experience, to avoid such confusion, I avoid the English versions...

cLive ;-)

Update: see below :) /me eats humble pie and revisits old scripts to see why this has never caused me a problem b4...

In reply to Re: @_ still mystifies me by cLive ;-)
in thread @_ still mystifies me by PetaMem

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