Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Word: a structure separated by spaces from other words within a language. In general, words are formed by one or more characters which are attached to one another. Whole words can in turn be interpreted as signs. In human languages, the elements of the words are letters; in computer languages, other symbols are used within words. See also concepts, expressions, terms, language, characters, symbols, subsentential, meaning._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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John Lyons on Words - Dictionary of Arguments
I 71 Word/Linguistics/Lyons: is ambiguous (which we can now make clear as a) a composition of expressive elements (sounds) (realisation). b) completely abstract as a grammatical function. (formal). c) a graphic substance (irrelevant here). >Ambiguity, >Phonemes, >Morphemes, >Sentences, >Syntax, >Grammar. I 197 Word/Linguistics/Grammar/Tradition/Lyons: in traditional grammar the word is the unity par excellence. It is the basis for distinguishing between morphology and syntax and at the same time the most important unit of lexicography. (encyclopedia). I 198 Def Morphology/Tradition/Lyons: deals with the structure of words. Def Syntax: deals with the rules for joining words into sentences. Contrary to the syntax: Flexion. Flexion/Linguistics/Tradition/Lyons: = Theory of Form. I 200 Word/Linguistics/Lyons: the term "word" is ambiguous: a) phonological word that represents b) grammatical word that is represented phonologically (or orthographically). >Representation. For example, the phonological word [säng] represents the grammatical preterite of singular There are now cases where 1. one phonological word represents several grammatical [postmen]: postman and post men 2. several phonological words represent a grammatical word: Example[räd]: Preterite of read or adjective red. c) Third, abstract form of "word": lexeme. I 203 Def Word/Lyons: it was proposed to define "word" as "any section of a sentence", "at the ends of which a pause is possible". Lyons: this is of course not a definition, but a description of the material with which linguistics works. It is a help for its work. Def Word/Linguistics/Semantic Definition/Lyons: (well known definition): "a word can be defined as the connection of a certain meaning with a certain sound complex which has a certain grammatical use". Lyons: this implies that the word is simultaneously a semantic, phonological and grammatical unit. Problem: it may be that all units meet these three conditions, I 204 but they're not the only units they need. For example, whole syntagmas such as "the new book" have a fixed meaning, form and use. The same applies to distributionally limited segments, even of higher rankings. Wrong solution: to consider words as the smallest segments of expressions that meet the three conditions. Vs: that is still not enough: e.g. the "un" and "acceptable" of "unacceptable" satisfy all three conditions. Moreover, the word "unacceptable" is more or less synonymous with the syntagma "not acceptable". >Synonymy. Word/sound/criterion/phonology/Lyons: the phonological characteristic for the delimitation of the word is never more than a side effect. We define the word exclusively grammatically. Word/Definition/Lyons: Problem: how to define a unit that occupies a middle rank between morpheme and sentence, so that it somewhat corresponds to our intuitions, whereby this intuition is rather guided by the non-essential orthographic convention? I 207 Word/phonological/Lyons: in many languages words are phonologically marked, usually with an accent. Word accent/Lyons: there are fixed and rigid word accents and also "restricted free". E.g. Latin: Accent position is generally determined by the length of the penultimate syllable. Polish: always on the second to last Turkish: generally on the last Czech: on the initial syllable Vocal harmony: exists in Turkish and Hungarian within the word boundaries. I 208 Word accents/Lyons: for all languages with word accents applies that a sentence has as many accents as words. Different: e.g. Russian: here the word "ne" ("not") never has an accent. Accents/Lyons: cannot be the primary characteristic for the delimitation of words. E.g. French: here a congruence between phonological and grammatical structure can be found, if at all, for units of higher rank than the word. Word/Criteria/Lyons: the two criteria above are not only independent of each other, but also independent of the criteria for defining morphemes as smallest grammatical units. The result is that the same units in certain languages I 210 can be words and morphemes at the same time. For example the morphs /nais/, ,/boi/, /wont/ (nice, boy, want) simultaneously the morphemes "nice", "boy" and "want" and grammatical words, each consisting of a morpheme. >Morphemes._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Ly II John Lyons Semantics Cambridge, MA 1977 Lyons I John Lyons Introduction to Theoretical Lingustics, Cambridge/MA 1968 German Edition: Einführung in die moderne Linguistik München 1995 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-18