Lecture 2 Word as a basic unit of a language. Words vs. lexemes
Contents 1. The problem of the definition of the word 2. The nature of lexemes 2
Definitions should indicate the most essential characteristic features of the notion expressed by the term under discussion, the features by which this notion is distinguished from other similar notions. 3
A word must be distinguished from other linguistic units, such as the phoneme, the morpheme, or the word group. In contrast with a definition, a description aims at enumerating all the essential features of the notion. 4
Word vs. Morpheme The word – basic unit of language. It unites meaning and form. It is composed of one or more morphemes, each consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation. 5
Word vs. Morpheme (2) Morphemes are also meaningful units. But they are always parts of words, and they can’t be used separately. Words can be used as complete utterances (‘Listen!’). 6
Examples Unending; careful; driver; irregularly Listen-listener Listen-listens-listened I am listening to the music I like. He has just listened to the news. 7
Defining a word It has a sound form (being a certain arrangement of morphemes) It may occur in different word forms It may have different syntactic functions It may signal various meanings 8
Thomas Hobbes (English philosopher) Words are not mere sounds but names of matter. 9
Ivan Pavlov (Russian physiologist) Word is a universal signal that can substitute any other signal from the environment in evoking a response in a human organism. 10
In machine translation word is defined as a sequence of graphemes, which can occur between spaces, or the representation of such a sequence on morphemic level. 11
Linguists defined the word syntactically, semantically, phonologically, and by combining various approaches. 12
Henry Sweet (English grammarian) defined the word syntactically as ‘the minimum sentence’. 13
Leonard Bloomfield (American linguist) defined the word as ‘minimum free form’. 14
Edward Sapir (American linguist and ethnologist) defines the word as ‘one of the smallest completely satisfying bits of isolated ‘meaning’, into which the sentence resolves itself. And it cannot be cut into without a disturbance of meaning. 15
Examples (indivisibility) alive – a lion a living lion a dead lion 16
A. Millet (French linguist) A word is defined by the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. 17
John Lyons (English linguist) introduces 2 criteria: ‘positional mobility’ and ‘uninterruptability’ the-boy-s-walk-ed-slow-ly-upthe-hill (10 morphemes) 18
John Lyons (2) slow-ly-the-boy-s-walk-ed-upthe-hill up-the-hill-slow-ly-walk-ed-theboy-s s-the-boy ly-slow ed-walk 19
We define the word as the smallest significant unit of a given language capable of functioning alone and characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological uninterruptability and semantic integrity. 20
2. Words vs. lexemes What counts as a word? In a sentence ‘It was compensating’ we don’t know the meaning of the word ‘compensating’, which word should we look up in a dictionary ? And when we encounter ‘compensates’ or ‘compensated’? 21
What counts as a word? (2) We encounter the sentence ‘Off-the -shelf’, how can we get the meaning of it? Is it a sum of meanings of individual words? What shall we call ‘off-the-shelf’, then? 22
What counts as a word? (3) We encounter the sentence ‘Plug in’. Again we have a unit of meaning which is larger than a single word, but is this phrase an idiom? They are called phrasal verbs (or multi-word verbs) 23
Lexeme (or lexical item) is a unit of lexical meaning, which exists regardless of any inflectional endings it may have or the number of words it may contain. The headwords in a dictionary are lexemes. 24
Characteristics of lexemes ü Meaning is not totally predictable from form. ü Each is a minimal unit for certain syntactic purposes. ü Each is a social institution. 25
Taxonomy of lexemes Words, their relative usefulness is defined in terms of frequency of occurrence, range of text type in which the item occurs, availability, familiarity and coverage. e. g. connect, regenerative, transformer, power, electricity 26
Taxonomy of lexemes (2) Polywords are relatively short – two or three words. The meaning of the whole group may range from immediately apparent to totally different from component words. 27
Examples of polywords Put away, look up, come out - phrasal verbs Of course, on the other hand, once and for all - idioms Not all there (mentally subnormal), in the family way (pregnant), vertically challenged (short) - euphemisms 28
Multi-word items which can be subdivided into 2 groups: collocations which are messageoriented and institutionalized expressions which are pragmatic in character, 29
Collocations (word partners) Are pairs of words which co-occur, and variation is possible on both syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes. e. g. prices fell incomes rose unemployment stabilized 30
Examples of collocations Carbon capture(улавливание CO 2) To run smoothly (проходить как по маслу) Vitally important (жизненно необходимый) To run a shop (управлять магазином) A spare key (запасной ключ) 31
Institutionalized expressions Units of sentence length, functioning as separate utterances. They are invariable. Their parts cannot be separated. They include proverbs, aphorisms and other quotable utterances 32
Examples How do you do? Have a nice day. Give me a break. Long time no see. You can fool some of the people some of the time. Sorry to interrupt, but can I just say … 33
Phrasal constraints These are phrases which allow some degree of variation; they are usually quite short. e. g. as I was _ (saying, mentioning) good _ (morning, afternoon) a _ (day, long time) ago as far as I _ (can see, know) 34
Sentence builders Phrases which provide the framework for whole sentences; they allow considerable variation. e. g. not only … but also My point is that … I’m a great believer in … That reminds me of … 35
Thank you for your attention! Please ask your questions! 36
