Words are the building block of the English language. They are very impor verbal communication. We shall review in this chapter the term lexicology, the concept of word, word classes, the features of word, and the concept shall also discuss the difficulties in the definition of the word, the # words, and the place of words in linguistic analysis. z. 1.2. What Is Lexicology? 3 Word is a complex phenomenon in our daily life. As the nam is the study of the vocabulary or lexicon of a given language simple words, but also with complex and compound words, # we want 10 23 swords, we shall have to look at words andl their relations to other fields from Gierent perspectives. Lexicology is closely related to morphology, semantics, etymology, end lexicography, because these fields also deal with words. 1.2.1 Morphology and Semantics Morphology is the study of the forms of words and cir 62 In morphology, morpheme isa basie concept. The major purpons of srady in morphology is to look at morphemes and their arrangements in word formationChapter Lexicology and Words is corn ‘orrespund to the i the granunatical word i, is} {ain and the orthographic word fi 5, third person singular of find. ‘The wontn end Ue Words are diferent pra ee ats tt, that whic eannor usally occur shine gen tte ate fos _Following Jackson and Amsela C000) a tal uninterruptible unit of structure comsnting 9 The w we shall consider f one or nar ee rpheres | 13.2. Major Features of Words _ Apparently, words play an important role in aur verlal « feta our understanding ofthe ance of word, se chlor ne arrett, 1967; Jackson and Amvels, 2000) have tried to generalize she ener Commas eens, to generalize the major 1. Aword voluntarily with our vocal equipment. In E sound or combination of sounds which we make glish, when fi symbolize these sounds in writing, they use a special alphubet that has a different symbol for each phonente. For example /@/ (the vowel in blink, mat, bang) 151 (hye fest sound in shirr and the lat in fsb) Feif (he diphehong in say, bare, same) ZA/ (he vowel in ran, food) 1/4 (the Jast consonant sound in running) 745 / (che first sound in jros and the lastin bridge) In addition to phonemes, there are three other sound characteristics stress pitch, and juncture. Stress has to do with the degree of loudness, of # Pitch refers to voice tones, cent, t which is given to certain words o parts of words. may range from high to low in a eypical uttera between speech sounds and at the end of urte For eximple, the . Jumetare bas to do wi ces and also with dhe pauses with the things thot happen to the voice tones at those tines sntences, when spoken aloud, can be idenstied with incaning of the following se the help of these character Trant some sehitewall paint. (paint for my tires) ‘eal pain. (paint for my living toe") or lack of it between white and wall helps es ‘teh, and junetus ech, our use of stress, pitch, and juncture Tivaat some white e In writing, the understand what is intended. In spe dues the job. dec << gvinholic- and is used to stand for something es 2, A word is syinbolic and is used 10 8 ia languag wk enings, sounuty are used! to represent objects Happens athan s whole phrase and yet generally larger than a single sound seqgment. However, peuple always face the difficulty of deciding what a word is. Even usree on all points of definition, Many people tend to think o meaningtul experts lo not the word in visual terms, that is, as a pup of letters printed or written down in a piece of paper. Such casual conception, af cours is little more than a reflection of the millions of woals which appear on pages of textbooks, journals, newspapers, magazines, and novels, Linguists have tra jonally depended on the written word as Wrimary sourve material for detining the ewential meanings of words. Some linguists regard the study of spoken word as more important than the seudy of the written, Children learn to master the sounds of a language, its basic grammatical structure and an elementary vocabulary, long before they lear to write. Historically, the spoken word comes first. The earliest evidence of writing dates back about veral thousand years, The word may be defined differently depending on whether we focus on its Representation, the thought whieh it expresses, oF pur have been several types of definitions, Jackson and Amvela 2000) classifi’ these definitions into three types. ly formal criteria. There UDhe first type of definition relies mainly on writing traditions that separate by spaces sequences of letters of characters. As noted chem, these separations do not always correspond to fimetional realities, For example, in ‘a new waste Paper basket’, the first evo spaces do not have the same value as the last two because the group ‘waste paper basket’, although represented by three words, constitutes a semantic unit, while such a unit does not exist for the group ‘a new waste’. Thus, 2 definition based on wi satisfactory. The sevond expe of definition considers the word as a thought unit or 2 pochologieal unit, The main problem faced by this view of word is that of ‘Uctimitation’, For example, a wort! may: form one block but include two units ting traditions alone cannot be entirely ofthought, e.g. rank import and portable. Besides, the psychological unit exceeds the limit of the graphologieal u adden, as usual. The third type of definition reli Bloomficld (1933) was the first to Suge word is viewed ay a minimal free form which can occur in isolation and have it and spreads over several words, eg. ail ofa only on purely formal criteria, sta formal definition of the word, A meaning but which cannot be analyzed into elements which ean occur alone and also have meanin Jexieal, a Yet, word may be defined from the phonological, | grammatical point of view. For example, the phonological wordeee Chapter 7 Lexicology and wf afters ‘obscure form, the - a rent form whieh i hol Atzold (1992) give several eramgiee et the verb depart, its initial nse wal Gui ‘separate’ in the : When speakers © ot analyze to replace it with ‘ 1: fal etymodoy Graney and voally teanspare: ransparent amples of folk etymedog stricted to wedding pression “till death do us depart, Laver, the vets obsolete and was analyzed as do ail pn h maa corey Wl part, hence the For English expression ‘all death do us part lckaon and Arnech hoon and Amvela, 2000) Lexicography is closely related to the words in a wivea the writing and compilation of dietionares,espeisl Mating mth ue that underlie the pracess of compiling ani ‘ich ing with the pei and editing dictionaries, Jackson considers lexicographical compilation ay derived from lesicolagical theory. Jac (2000) words, lexicography developed its ow i ‘and tradition indepenilently of linguistes in gene between lexicography and linguistics has b son and Amv ral, but in recent years the Lo en clearly established. Diction are compiled now mainly by lexicographers with linguistic knowle consider lexicography as applied lexicology, as it involves a wide £3 such as phonology, lexicology, morphology, syntax, semantics, se pragmatics, functional linguistics, psyvolinguistics, corpus lings linguistics, and discourse analysis. These fields contribu selection of the information to be presented in dhe dictionary. z 1.3. What Isa Word? } ort The notion of ‘word! is central in the study of lexicology. Most fluent speakers of English seem to know what a word is. They know, for example, that words are listed in dictionaries, that they are separated in writing by spaces, and thst they my be separated in speech by pauses. However, word is used traditionally to reter to a sequence of letters bounded by spaces: Apart from word, people use the terms ‘vocabulary’, ‘lexis’, and ‘lexicon’, but these terms may be considered “more oF less synonymous” (Jackson ancl Amvelay 2000). Before proposing the definition, we shall first discuss the difficulties involves in the definition of the word. Then we shall discuss in ten the characteristics oF THE word. 1.3.1 Difficulties in the Definition of the Word interme ture smaller ‘The corm word is also used to refer (0.an intermediate SU1.2.2 Morphemes are considered a5 the smallest meaningful units which ™2) constitute words or pans of words. From morphemes, we ean specify the Kind of relationship they have with the non-linguistic world. From the lexical ivems: bug, boy, smuggle, builder, dipsticls, reas see that bug, hoy and smuggle cannot be divided further into meanin: ful units However, Iuilder, dipsticks and reading can be analysed as 1 and ‘rede + ing’. The items bug, boy, ebrough, build er dip, ck dip, stick and read are simple ding, we OR uild + er’ “dip + sek -s, read and -ing ave all morphemes. Bug, boy, smnggte, buil words while er; -sand -ing are only parts of words. Semantics is often defined as the study of meaning. It tries to exp we know, meaning pervades the and describe meaning in natural languag whole of language. Generally speakin words, the meaning of utterances in contest, the meaning of senten ning relations that are internal to the semantics focuses on the meaning of s, meaning relations berween sentences, and the meai vocabulary of a language. According to Jackson and Amvela (2000), sernantics is usually approached from one of evo perspectives: philosophical or linguistic. Philosophical semantics is concerned with the logical properties of languss. the nature of formal theories, and the language of logic. Linguistic semantics involves all aspects of meaning in natural languages, from the meaning of complex urterances in specific context to that of individual sounds in syllables: As semanties covers all aspects of human language, meaning should be studied by detailed analyses of the way words and sentences are used ia specific context (Crystal, 1997). In fact, a number of factors are involved in the use of words. Thus, we should approach meaning in relation not only to lexicology, but also to phonology, syntax, pragmatics, functional linguistics, sociolingui poyeolinguisties, cognitive linguistics and text analysis icography Etymology and Le Etymology is the study of the whole history of words. Fer Jackson and Amvela 2000), etymological studies fice several difficulties. First, some words are not etymologically related tw ancient forms. It is therefore difficult to establish and in the forms from which such icate their origins. Consequentl Secoad, while it is words are said to derive can only be produced by analog possible to specify the exace ti Possible to specify che exact time when some terms entered the ae guage, it is clearly it C i sea impossible to say exactly when a form was dropped, since words can disappear e far various Phi ‘rue’ or origi pear from use for variaus reasons. Third, there con be no ‘true’ or original meaning, since Sr i since human fanguage stretches tao far back in history. head wh lh lll tlh A Li. kb Be el \