We show that free vector lattices over vector spaces can be realised in a
natural fashion as vector lattices of real-valued functions. The argument is
inspired by earlier work by Bleier, with some analysis in locally convex
topological vector spaces added. Using this fact for free vector lattices over
vector spaces, we can improve the well-known result that free vector lattices
over non-empty sets can be realised as vector lattices of real-valued
functions. For infinite sets, the underlying spaces for such realisations can
be chosen to be much smaller than the usual ones.Comment: 8 page