What is a WORD?

What is a WORD?

1. MORPHOLOGY

   • definition: "the study of the internal structure of words" (Plag et al. 2009)
   • MORPHEMES
     • definition: "a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function" (Yule 2014: 69)
     • types of morphemes
       • BOUND
         • definition: "morphemes that appear only in combination with other, ususally free, morphemes" (Plag et al. 2009: 76)
         • DERIVATIONAL
           • produce new words by adding DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES
             • PREFIX: has "purely lexical role" (Crystal 2003: 198). e.g. un-, dis-.
             • SUFFIX: most are lexical. e.g. -ness, -ship.
           • a DERIVATIVE: a "word formed from a root or a base by the process of derivation"(Plag et al. 2009: 234)
         • INFLECTIONAL
           • INFLECTIONAL AFFIXES show grammatical function and categories
           • total of 8 in English
             • VERB +: s, en, ing, ed. NOUN +: s, 's. ADJ. +: est, er
         • UNIQUE
           • definition: "a type of bound morpheme that cannot be assigned a meaning nor a grammatical function, but nonetheless serves to distinguish one word from the other" (lecture 3)
         • STEM = "bases to which bound morphemes carrying grammatical meaning, such as 'plural', attach" (Plag et al. 2009: 76)
       • FREE
         • FUNCTIONAL
           • = conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns; "closed" word class
         • LEXICAL
           • definition: content/meaning words, e.g. girl, man, house, sad, go
         • definition: "morphemes. . . which can only occur on their own, without any other morphemes attached to them" (Plag et al. 2009: 76)

2. "container of meaning" (Yule 2014: 113)

   • SEMANTICS
     • defintion: "the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences" (Yule 2014: 109)
       • what is meaning?
         • "the relation between a linguistic expression (i.e. an arbitrary form, e.g. a word) and a mental category that is used to classify objects, i.e. a concept." (Plag et al. 2009: 145)
           • linguistic expression = SIGNIFIANT (Saussure)
           • mental category/concept = SIGNIFIÉ (Saussure)
     • types of meaning
       • CONVENTIONAL
         • = all speakers of a language agree on the meaning of a particular word
       • ARBITRARY
         • nothing in a lingusitic sign signals its function/meaning (word for"tree", for e.g. = different in different langs.)
       • CONCEPTUAL
         • "those basic, essential components of meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of a word." (Yule 2014: 110), i.e. dictionary meaning. e.g. woman = female, human, adult
         • DENOTATION
       • ASSOCIATIVE
         • e.g. woman = dress, long hair, emotional. . .
         • CONNOTATION

3. LEXEME = "the abstract unit that stands for the set of inflectional forms. . ." (Taylor. 2015: 158), e.g. BAKE

4. words have "relationships" with each other = LEXICAL RELATIONS (Yule 2014: 113)

   • 1) SYNONYMY
     • synonyms
       • = "two or more words with very closely related meanings" (Yule 2014: 113), e.g. almost/nearly; cab/taxi
   • 2) ANTONYMY
     • antonyms
       • = "two forms with opposite meanings" (Yule 2014: 114), e.g. alive/dead; big/small
   • 3) HYPONOMY
     • hyponyms
       • = "the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another" (Yule 2014: 115), e.g. 'rose' = hyponym of 'flower'
   • 4) PROTOTYPE
     • "the idea of the 'characteristic instance' of a category"/ the "clearest example" in a given category (Yule 2014: 116)
   • 5) HOMOPHONY
     • homophones
       • = "when two or more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation" (Yule 2014: 116), e.g. bear/bare
   • 6) HOMONYMY
     • homonyms
       • "when one form (written or spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings" (Yule 2014: 117), e.g. bat (animal) - bat (sports)
   • 7) POLYSEMY
     • = one form has multiple related meanings, e.g. head (of: person, nail, institution)
   • 8) METONYMY
     • = "when one of two words closely connected in everyday experience is used to refer to the other" (Yule 2014: 117), e.g. He drank the whole BOTTLE (bottle = liquid); THE WHITE HOUSE has announced. . . (White House = president)

5. How are words formed?

   • WORD_FORMATION PROCESSES
     • 1) COMPOUNDING
       • = "combining two or more words to make a new word" (Plag et al. 2009: 99)
     • 2) AFFIXATION
       • "common strategy of creating new words, namely adding affixes to existing bases" (Plag et al. 2009: 94)
     • 3) CONVERSION
       • creation of a new word by changing its word class; also known as "ZERO-DERIVATION" or "ZERO-AFFIXATION"
     • 4) SHORTENING
       • various forms:
         • 4i) CLIPPINGS/TRUNCATION
           • = words "created by deleting a part of the base word" (Plag et al. 2009: 106), e.g. Patricia - Pat/Trish
         • 4ii) BLENDS
           • = parts of 2 words put together, e.g. motor +hotel = motel
         • 4iii) ABBREVIATIONS
           • ACRONYMS
             • = pronounced like a word, e.g. NATO, UNESCO
           • INITIALISMS
             • = pronounced letter by letter, e.g. TV, CD.