The Word (part 1)

8/18/2019 The Word (part 1)

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The Word


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WHAT IS A WORD?

WORK OUT YOUR OWN DEFINITION


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What is the defnition oword ?

‘A word is a minimal free form’- Leonard Bloom eld

‘One of the smallest completely satisfying bits of

isolated meaning into which the sentence resolves

itself’ - Sapir

‘A word is de ned by the association of a given

meaning with a given group of sounds capable of agiven grammatical employment’ ! - "eillet


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WHAT IS A WORD?

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&(+)(O*A%('S,! $O%&S A%' S' A%A)'& (*$%()(*. B/ S A+'

0! $O%&S A%' S' A%A)'& (*S ''+1 B/ A2S'


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WORKING DEFINITION

Words are uninterruptible unit of structure

consisting of one more morphemes and which

typically occurs in the structure of phrases


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DISTINCTION

TYPES NATURE EXAMPLE

1. Lexica Words 1ave fairly

independentmeanings and may bemeaningful even inisolation or in a series

Bottle - has an

independent meaningand so does the seriesboy, break, bottle,stone.

!. "ra##aticaWords

)hey are elements li3eprepositions articlescon4unctions formsindicating number ortenses

A, the, to, with …


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Lexica Meanin$ o theWord

• component of meaning proper to aword as a linguistic unit met in all

word-formse.g. go-goes-went lexical meaning – process ofmovement grammatical meaning – tense


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%haracteristics o&ords

5#6)he word is an 'ninterr'(ti) e 'nit !

• '!g! lock read

• Prefx : [ ongman! technical a group of letters that is

added to the beginning of a word to change its

meaning and ma3e a new word such as 7un7 in 7untie7

or 7mis7 in 7misunderstand‘8• Su x 9 [ ongman! a letter or letters added to the end

of a word to form a new word such as 7ness7 in

73indness7 or 7ly7 in 7suddenly7


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S'(rafx - an a


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,! )he word may consist of one or #ore#or(he#es !

#! (f one morpheme 5e!g! dog hand o"t 6 then asi#( e &ord 5minimum free form6!,! $hen words consist of more than one or moremorphemes they are either co#( ex &ords or%o#(o'nd &ords• +omple: $ords- may be bro3en down into one free

form and one or more bound forms9 dog#s, happpi#ly,work#ing

• +ompound $ords consist of more than one freeform9 birth#day, candle#stick


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0! )he word occurs typically in the structure ofphrases!

Morphemes are used to build wordsWords to build phrases

Phrases to build clausesClauses to build sentences

+ina characteristics, it should belong to a speci cword class or part of speech


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A#)i$'it- o Word

1. The $eneric character o the &ord

!. The #' ti( icit- o as(ects in e er- &ord

/. The ac0 o c ear*c't )o'ndaries in the non*

in$'istic &or d

. Lac0 o a#i iarit- &ith the re erent o the

&ords


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A#)i$'it- o Word

1. The $eneric character o the &ord

)he word has abstract reference- is more schematic!

e!g! mammal is more generic than the word cow 8 in

the same way animal is more abstract that mammal !


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A#)i$'it- o Word

!. The #' ti( icit- o as(ects in e er- &ord

)he words we use are never completely homogenous

in their meaning9 all of them have a number of facets

depending on the conte:t and situation! '!g! table for

two in a restaurant8 the table of contents in a boo3 a

multiplication table at school to give money under

the table


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A#)i$'it- o Word

/. The ac0 o c ear*c't )o'ndaries in the non*

in$'istic &or d

Overlapping use of words which merge into one

another and which have to be divide up into discrete

units! '!g! the co or s(ectr'# in a continuum8

however each language introduces into a certain

number of more or less arbitrary distinctions


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A#)i$'it- o Word

. Lac0 o a#i iarit- &ith the re erent o the

&ords

(t depends on the general 3nowledge and the special

interest of each individual! '!g! educators may have

ha>y notions about the meanings of tools which will be

perfectly clear to any mechanic


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Language as a system ofsigns

Language is a process of naming but this

does not mean that ?ready made ideas e:ist

before words@ but rather9

?)he linguistic sign unites not a thing and a

name but a concept and a sound-image@

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)he relationship between signi er and signi ed is

purely arbitrary!

)here is nothing that logically lin3s a particular

sound image to a concept!

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$ords are arbitrary


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Denotation

The strict dictionarymeaning of a word


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Connotation The emotional and imaginative

association surrounding a word


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2EN3TAT43N is the straight forward orcommon- sense meaning of a sign! Literallywhat is actually shown in an image !

A red rose is a ower that is its straightforward meaning or denotation

A lamb is a young sheep-

http://var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/Glossary/glossarypowerpoint.ppt#-1,2,Slide%202http://var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/Glossary/glossarypowerpoint.ppt#-1,5,Slide%205http://var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/Glossary/glossarypowerpoint.ppt#-1,2,Slide%202http://var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/Glossary/glossarypowerpoint.ppt#-1,2,Slide%202http://var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/Glossary/glossarypowerpoint.ppt#-1,5,Slide%205http://var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/Glossary/glossarypowerpoint.ppt#-1,2,Slide%202


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Same &enotation &i=erent+onnotationC

)wo words can have the sa#e

defnition while carrying di5erent

e#otiona content ! One word may

be cruel or insulting while another

word might be neutral or positive!


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Exa#( e,Aunt "yrna is proud of her nephew .eorge!Aunt $illa by contrast disapproves ofeverything .eorge does!

)he fact is9 .eorge li3es to save money whenshopping! Aunt "yrna says9 ?1e’s thri t- !@

Aunt $illa says9 ?1e’s stin$- !@?)hrifty@ suggests that .eorge is smart and 3nows how to ndbargains! ?Stingy@ depicts .eorge as greedy and lac3inggenerosity!


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)he fact is9 .eorgewor3s hard!Aunt "yrna says9 ?1e’svery oc'sed on his

4ob!@Aunt $illa says9 ?1e’so)sessed &ith his

4ob!@

?focused@ implies thatsomeone is interested inwhat they’re doing while?obsessed@ suggests thatthey are addicted to it!

)he fact is9 .eorge hasa son and twodaughters!Aunt "yrna says9

?.eorge has threechi dren !@Aunt $illa says9?.eorge has three

)rats !@

?Brat@ is a slang word for anoisy annoying child! $illais implying that .eorge’schildren misbehave all the


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Driendship lovevacation freedomusually arouse( easant ee in$s

Slum drun3ardtorture criminalusually arouse'n( easant ee in$s

$ords can have context*s(ecifc connotations thatare not always obvious from their dictionary meaning!e!g! the word e der - means ?old@ but it can only beapplied to a person8 no matter how old a house is itwould not be called ?elderly!@

Similarly ) onde means ?yellow@ but it refers only tohair and to some 3inds of wood8 it is never used to

describe other yellow ob4ects!


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E'(he#is#

Word or (hrase 'sed to a oid sa-in$ an'n( easant or o5ensi e &ord.

e.g. $%enior citi&en $ is a e"phemism or $ old person $.

'nglish has many euphemisms for death9 instead of

saying that someone ? died @ we might say they?(assed a&a- @ or ?de(arted !@

)his is a way to avoid the negative associationswith certain ideas!

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/citizenhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/oldhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/oldhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/personhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/personhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/oldhttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/citizen


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ACTIVITY 1

##! "onday

#,! wee3end#0! )!E!#F! murder#G! war#H! daughter#I! debt#J! tra

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The Word (part 1)