I

NTRODUCTION TO

L

INGUISTICS

.

L

ECTURES

3

The structure of language: Words (1)

1. Dictionary definition of a word:

word n 1 [C] (a) sound or group of sounds that expresses a meaning and forms an
independent unit of a language (...). (b) this represented as letters or symbols, usually
with a space on either side (...).

[OALD, 5

th

ed., p. 1374]

word [C] a single unit of language which has meaning and can be spoken or written.

[CALD, 3

rd

ed., p. 1677]

word [C] the smallest unit of language that people can understand if it is said or
written on its own.

[LDOCE, 3

rd

ed., p. 1648]

2. A word is a minimal free form (i.e. it can occur in isolation, its position with respect to

neighbouring elements is not entirely fixed).

3. Lexeme (lexical item): the unit conventionally listed in dictionaries as a separate entry (a

separate unit of meaning); a single item belonging to some lexical category, having an
identifiable meaning or grammatical function and typically a fairly consistent
phonological shape: work (work, works, working), look after, kick the bucket

4. Lexicology: the study of words / vocabulary of a language.

5. Lexicography: the compiling of dictionaries (applied linguistics).

6. Lexicon: the vocabulary of a language, list of all lexical items.

7. Listeme: a sound-meaning combination (the sound-meaning combinations are arbitrary,

hence the connection must be listed in the speaker’s/hearer’s mind)

8. Lexical category = part of speech.

9. Open categories (major lexical categories – N, V, Adj, Adv) and closed categories

(function words, minor lexical categories – pronouns, particles, prepositions,
determiners, conjunctions).

10. Word-formation (WF): formation of new words.

11. Morphology: the internal structure of words.

12. Morpheme: minimal meaningful unit (the smallest unit of grammar):

I; dog + s; teach + er + s; un + believ(e) + able; over + look;
(lexical meaning vs. grammatical meaning)

13. Allomorph: variant form of a morpheme:

Eng.: a/an;

/-s/, /-z/, /-Iz/;
in-: independent, impossible, irregular, ignoble;

Pol.: w/we, z/ze;

14. Types of words (I):

1. basic root: friend, box, post;

2. derived forms: befriend, boxer, postal;

3. compound forms: girl-friend; box-office; postbox, post box, post-box; receive;

4. multi-word forms:

a. idioms: to kick the bucket, to hit the bottle;

b. binomials: fish and chips, bread and butter, gin and tonic, in and out;

c. fixed phrases: I’d better go now, first of all, as a matter of fact, frankly

speaking, once upon a time, how do you do?;

d. reduplicatives: fifty-fifty, helter-skelter, willy-nilly, hotch-potch, mumbo-
jumbo, nitty-gritty, hanky-panky, dilly-dally; tit for tat.

15. Types of words (II):

1. An orthographic word; has a space on either side of it;

2. A morphological word: a unique form, considers only form and not meaning (table,

tables – two words);

3. A lexical word (lexical item): the various forms of items closely related by

meaning;

4. A semantic word: distinguishes between items which may be morphologically
identical but differ in meaning:

1. table – ‘a piece of furniture’;
2. table – ‘a diagram’;
3. table – ‘a tablet’;
one morphological word but two semantic words, ‘polysemy’.

16. Words have form and function. For example:

round:

He won the first round

noun

A round table

adjective

She rounded her lips

verb

Come round for the party

adverb/adverbial particle

He sailed round the world

preposition