Chapter 3Lexicon.docx

Chapter 3Lexicon.docx

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Chapter3Lexicon

Chapter3Lexicon

3.1Whatisword?

WORDisaunitofexpressionthathasuniversalintuitiverecognitionbynative-speakers,whetheritisexpressedinspokenorwrittenform.Thisdefinitionis,perhaps,abitvague,astherearedifferentcriteriawithregardtoitsidentificationanddefinition.Itfollowsthatitishardtodefine"word"inthescientificsense.Nevertheless,itisagreedthatthreesensesareinvolvedindefining"word",noneofwhich,ofcourse,issatisfactorytocopewithallthesituations.

3.1.1Threesensesof"word"

（1）Aphysicallydefinableunit

Althoughlanguageisproducedasacontinuousstretchofutteranceorwriting,onecanstillfindpausesandblankseverynowandthen.Thus,wordmaybeseenasaclusterofsoundsegmentsorlettersbetweentwopausesorblanksasseeninthefollowingexamples~

p¬p=łphã

ex.3-1

Phonological:

/itis‘w/

Orthographic:

Itiswonderful.

Basedontheabovecriterion,threewordsineachcasearerecognized.However,incasualspeechorwriting,onetendstogiveexpressiontothesameideasasfollows:

ex3-2

Phonological:

/Its?

/

Orthographic:

It'swonderful.

So,thereisaproblem.Whenliaisonandcontractedformoccurasinex.3-2,andtheydooccurveryofteninspeechandwriting,shouldtheybeidentifiedasthreewordsortwowords?

（2）Thecommonfactorunderlyingasetofforms

Whenoneisfacedwithasetofnouns,suchasboyandboysorasetofverbs,suchascheck,checks,checked,andchecking,theyarerecognizedastwowordsandfourwordsrespectivelyinthefrequencycountofapieceofwritingoranutterance.However,theyareeachregardedasonewordinadictionary,asthetwonounformssharethegameroot"boy"andallthefourverbformssharethesameroot"check".Consequently,WORDisthecommonfactorunderlyingasetofforms,aunitofvocabulary,alexicalitem,oralexeme.

Inordertoreducetheambiguityoftheterm"word",thetermLEXEMEispostulatedastheabstractunitunderlyingthesmallestunitinthelexicalsystemofalanguage,whichappearsindifferentgrammaticalContexts.Forexample,"write"and"fat"arethelexemesofthetwosetsofwordsinex.3-3respectively.

ex.3-3

writefat

writesfatter

wrotefattest

writingwritten

（3）Agrammaticalunit

Wordisacomparablyabstractunittobesetuptoshowhowwordsworkinthegrammarofalanguage.Sincelanguagepresentsitselfasahierarchyindifferentrespects,itrises,intermsoflexicogrammar,frommorphemeatthebottomuptotheclausecomplexattop,andwordisarankbetweenmorphemeandwordgroup,asisshowninthefollowinghierarchicalrankscale.

sentence

clause

wordgroup/phrase

word

morpheme

Aword,inthissense,isthenagrammaticalunit,ofthesametheoreticalkindasmorphemeandsentence.Thisunderstandingmaybeacceptablewhenspeakingofpolymorphemicwords,suchasblackbird,aircraft,anddownhill.However,thereisaloopholeinthisstatement,sinceitmakesoneconfusedwhenoneistalkingaboutmonomorphemicwords,suchasblack,bird,air,craft,town,andhall.Theyarefreemorphemesaswellaswords.

3.1.2Identificationofwords

Inadditiontothethreesensesof"word"mentionedabove,whicharehelpfulindefining"word"inspiteoftheirinadequaciestoaccountforallthelanguagedata,thereareotherfactorswhichhelpustoidentifywords.

（1）Stability

Wordsarethemoststableofalllinguisticunits,inrespectoftheirinternalstructure,thatis,theconstituentpartsofacomplexwordhavelittlepotentialforrearrangement,comparedwiththerelativepositionalmobilityoftheconstituentsofsentencesinthehierarchy.Takethewordchairmanforexample.Ifthemorphemesarerearrangedas*chairman,itisanunacceptablewordinEnglish.Butitisallrightforustorearrangetheconstituentsinasentencetoacertaindegree.

ex.3-4

Thechairmanlookedattheaudience.

Theaudiencelookedatthechairman.

（2）Relativeuninterruptibility

Byuninterruptibility,wemeannewelementsarenottobeinsertedintoawordevenwhenthereareseveralpartsinaword.Nothingistobeinsertedinbetweenthethreepartsoftheworddisappointment:

dis+appoint+ment.Norisoneallowedtousepausesbetweenthepartsofaword（*disappointment）.Incontrast,onecouldadd"fane"inthecoordinatingsubjectofthefollowingsentence.

ex.3-5

Paul,（Jane）andRebeccaaremyclassmates.

Inanextremecase,onecouldinserttheadverb"even"betweenanytwopartsinthefollowingsentence.

ex.36

（Even）Paul（even）didn't（even）love（even）Jane（even）.

（3）Aminimumfreeform

ThiswasfirstsuggestedbyLeonardBloomfield.Headvocatedtreatingsentenceas"themaximumfreeform"andword"themini:

'inurefreeform",thelatterbeingthesmallestunitthatcanconstitutebyitself,acompleteutterance.Lookattheunderlinedpartinthefollowingexchangeofutterances.

ex.3-7

--IsJanecomingthisevening?

--Possibly.

ExpressionssuchasHi,Darting,Bother,Shitandothersmayfunctioninthesameway.

Itisinterestingtonotethatthereisheateddiscussionwithrespectthisstatement.Theopponentsarguethatnotallword-likeunitswouldsatisfythiscriterion,asthearticlesaandtheinEnglishcouldnotstandbythemselves.Buttheadvocatorscitethefollowingexcept

ex.3-8

--Whatismissinginasentencesuchas'Dogisbarking'?

--A.

3.1.3Classificationofwords

Althoughwecangeneralizesomecommonfeaturesofwords,wecanalsofindthisorthatdifferenceamongvariouswords,

（1）Variableandinvariablewords

Wordscanbeclassifiedaccordingtotheirvariability.InVARIABLEWORDS,onecouldfindorderedandregularseriesofgrammaticallydifferentwordforms;ontheotherhand,partofthewordremainsrelativelyconstant.Thus,eachorderedseriesconstitutesaparadigm.

ex.3-9

followmat

followsmats

following

followed

AmongIndo-Europeanlanguages,onecouldfindmorevariablewordsinLatinandSanskrit,lessinGerman,andtheleastinEnglish.

INVARIABLEWORDSrefertothosewordssuchassince,when,seldom,through,hello.Theydonothaveinflectiveendings.

（2）Grammaticalwordsandlexicalwords

Intermsofthemeaningexpressedbywords,theycanbeclassifiedintoGRAMMATICALWORDSandLEX1CALWORDS.Thosewhichexpressgrammaticalmeanings,suchas,conjunctions,prepositionv,articles,andpronouns,aregrammaticalwords.Thosewhichhavelexicalmeanings,thatis,thosewhichrefertosubstance,actionandquality,suchasnouns,verbs,adjectives,andadverbs,arelexicalwords.Asthelexicalwordscarrythemaincontentofalanguagewhilethegrammaticalonesservetolinkitsdifferentpartstogether,thelexicalwordsarealsoknownasCONTENTWORDSandgrammatical

onesFUNCTIONWORDS.

（3）Closed-classwordsandopen-classwords

Thedistinctionofgrammaticalwordsandlexicalwordsleadstothedistinctionof"closed-class"wordsand"openclass"words.

AwordthatbelongstotheCLOSED-CLASSisonewhosemembershipisfixedorlimited.Newmembersarenotregularlyadded.Therefore,pronouns,prepositions,conjunctions,articles,etc.,areallcloseditems.

TheOPEN-CLASSisonewhosemembershipisinprincipleinfiniteorunlimited.Withtheemergenceofnewideas,inventions,etc.,newexpressionsarecontinuallyandconstantlybeingaddedtothelexicon.Nouns,verbs,adjectivesandmanyadverbsareallopen-classitems.

Asamatteroffact,thedistinctionbetweenclosedclasswordsandopen-classwordsisnotquiteasclearcutasitseems.Preposition,thoughaclosed-class,isarelativelyopenoneinEnglish.Expressionsuchasregarding,throughout,outof',accordingto,withregardto,inspiteof,bymeansof...arenowrecognizedasprepositionsorcomplexprepositions.Inrespectofopen-classitems,auxiliaryverbs,whichusedtoberankedasopen-classwords,arerelativelyclosedinnumber.

（4）Wordclass

Alltheaboveclassificationseemstobegeneral.Amorerealisticwayistoclassifywordseitherbyanalyzingthevariousgrammatical,semantic,andphonologicalpropertiesofthewordsinalanguage,orbygroupingthemintoclassesonthebasisofformalsimilaritiesintermsofinflectionsanddistribution.ThisisclosetothenotionofPARTSOFSPEECHintraditionalgrammar.BasedonthisLatintradition,eightorninewordclassesareestablished,suchas,"noun",

pronoun","adjective","verb","adverb","preposition","interjecction","interjection",and"article".

Today,wordclassdisplaysawiderrangeofmorepreciselydefinedcategories.Herearesomeofthecategoriesnewlyintroducedintolinguisticanalysis.

i.Particles

PARTICLESincludeatleasttheinfinitivemarker"to"（despiteitssurfacesimilaritytoapreposition,itreallyhasnothingincommonwiththatoranyotherwordclass）,thenegativemarker"not",andthesubordinateunitsinphrasalverbs,suchas"getby"（tocontinue

one'swayoflife）,"doup"（tofasten）,"lookback"（toremember）,etc.

ii.Auxiliaries

AUXILIARIRESusedtoberegardedasverbs.Becauseoftheiruniqueproperties,whichonecouldhardlyexpectofaverb,linguiststodaytendtodefinethemasaseparatewordclass.Comparethebehaviouroftheauxiliarieswiththatofordinaryverbsinthefollowing

examples.

ex.3-10

NEGATIONIcan'tcome.

*Iwantn'tcome.

INVERSIONIshecoming?

*Keepshecoming?

CODEI'llcomeandsowillBill.

*IintendtocomeandsointendBill.

EMPHASISHe'hascome.

*He'seemstocome.

iii.Pro-form

Intraditionalgrammar,pronounistheonlywordclasswhichcanfunctionasasubstituteforanot