Defining Words

There have been many proposed criteria for identifying words. However, no definition has
been found to apply to all languages. Dictionaries categorize a language's lexicon (i.e., its
vocabulary) into lemmas. These can be taken as an indication of what constitutes a "word" in the
opinion of the writers of that language. The most appropriate means of measuring the length of a
word is by counting its syllables or morphemes. When a word has multiple definitions or multiple
senses, it may result in confusion in a debate or discussion.
A word is a speech sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing, that
symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or a combination
of morphemes. In linguistics, a word is the smallest element that can be uttered in isolation
with objectiveor practical meaning. The branch of linguistics that studies word structures is
called morphology. The branch of linguistics that studies word meanings is
called lexical semantics
The task of defining what constitutes a "word" involves determining where one word ends
and another word begins—in other words, identifying word boundaries. There are several ways to
determine where the word boundaries of spoken language should be placed:
 Potential pause: A speaker is told to repeat a given sentence slowly, allowing for pauses. The
speaker will tend to insert pauses at the word boundaries. However, this method is not
foolproof: the speaker could easily break up polysyllabic words, or fail to separate two or more
closely linked words (e.g. "to a" in "He went to a house").
 Indivisibility: A speaker is told to say a sentence out loud, and then is told to say the sentence
again with extra words added to it. Thus, I have lived in this village for ten years might
become My family and I have lived in this little village for about ten or so years. These extra
words will tend to be added in the word boundaries of the original sentence. However, some
languages have infixes, which are put inside a word. Similarly, some have separable affixes;
in the German sentence "Ich komme gut zu Hause an", the verb ankommen is separated.
 Phonetic boundaries: Some languages have particular rules of pronunciation that make it easy
to spot where a word boundary should be. For example, in a language that regularly stresses the
last syllable of a word, a word boundary is likely to fall after each stressed syllable. Another
example can be seen in a language that has vowel harmony (like Turkish):[9] the vowels
within a given word share the same quality, so a word boundary is likely to occur whenever
the vowel quality changes. Nevertheless, not all languages have such convenient phonetic
rules, and even those that do present the occasional exceptions.
 Orthographic boundaries: In languages with a literary tradition, there is interrelation
between orthography and the question of what is considered a single word. Word
separators (typically spaces) are common in modern orthography of languages
using alphabetic scripts, but these are (excepting isolated precedents) a relatively modern
development (see also history of writing).
Identifying Words
The word identify is easy to well identify when you notice how much it looks like the
word identity (a noun, meaning who or what something is). Only one consonant separates the two
words in spelling ("f" vs. "t"), and they are close relatives in meaning as well. You can easily
remember the meaning of identify, a verb, when you recognize that it’s just a way to express the
act of establishing identity — in other words, saying who or what something is.
Parts of speech are categories that are used to describe each word's function in a sentence. The best
way to identify a word's part of speech is to think about what role the word plays in the sentence,
but there are also a few clues that can help you figure out the part of speech if you are unsure about
the word's function.
a. Identify naming words as nouns
A noun is any word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns can be concrete (Alice,
dog, table, etc.) or abstract (beauty, independence, cycle, etc.).
1. Proper nouns are used to name a specific person, place, or thing, and the main words are
always capitalized (Fred, New York, the Declaration of Independence).
2. Nouns can be either singular or plural.
3. Nouns can be possessive, in which case they typically end in 's or s'.
b. Know that pronouns stand in for nouns.
Sometimes, a noun is not always named. Words that do not directly name a person, place,
thing, or idea, but take the place of a word that does, are pronouns.[2]
1. Some pronouns stand in for people's names (he, our, they, hers, etc.).
2. Other pronouns represent an object or idea (it, these, this, etc.).
3. Pronouns may also stand in for very indefinite nouns that may be difficult to name without
the use of a pronoun (everyone, no one, something, etc).
c. Recognize action words as verbs.
A verb is any word that is used to express an action (run, cleaned, driven, etc) or being (is,
was, been, etc). Verbs have multiple tenses that express when the action took place.[3]
 Auxiliary verbs (also known as helping verbs) are words that are used to change the tense
of the main verb (will, did, would, etc.). These are still considered verbs.
d. Learn that adjectives modify nouns and pronouns.
An adjective is any word that is used to modify or describe a noun or pronoun (blue, many,
smart, etc.). Adjectives typically answer questions like "how many?", "what kind?", or "which
one?"
 Numbers are considered adjectives when they are used to answer the question "how
many?"
 Articles (a, an, and the) are considered adjectives by many because they answer the
question "which one?" However, some people consider articles to be a separate part of
speech.
e. Know that adjective and verb modifiers are adverbs.
An adverb is similar to an adjective in that it is used to describe or modify. Instead of modifying
a noun or pronoun, however, an adverb modifies a verb or adjective (happily, extremely, then,
etc.). Adverbs typically answer the question "how?", "why", "when?", or "how much?"
 Adverbs may also modify other adverbs. (I ran very quickly.)
f. Understand that prepositions express relationships.
A preposition is a word or phrase that is used to show the relationship between noun or pronoun
and another element in the sentence (at, by, in, to, from, with, etc.).
g. Identify words used to join clauses as conjunctions.
A conjunction is a word that connects other words, phrases, or clauses.
 Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two clauses that are equally important to the
sentence. There are 7 coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet. (I like
cats, but I don't like dogs.)
 Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a main clause and a subordinate clause, which
is less important to the sentence. (I went outside, although it was raining.)
h. Recognize exclamations as interjections.
An interjection is a word or phrase used to express an emotion or feeling, such as surprise. (oh,
wow, my goodness, etc). Interjections are capable of standing alone and are not grammatically
related to the rest of the sentence. However, they can also be included in a sentence, separated
by parenthesis, dashes, or comas on either

Using Word Placement and Punctuation Clues

1. Learn the Subject-Verb-Object rule. Most sentences in the English language have the same
basic structure: the sentence begins with the subject, followed by the verb, and then the object
(if the sentence has an object). There are exceptions to this rule, but understanding the norm
can help you identify the partsentencesch in most sentences.
 Both the subject and object of a sentence will contain a noun or pronoun. This means that
a sentence that has both a subject and an object will contain a noun or pronoun both before
and after the verb. (I ate the apple.)
 The subject and object may contain modifiers such as adjectives as well.
 When the sentence has a direct object, it will come directly after the verb. (I like cookies.)
When the sentence has an indirect object, it will come after a preposition. (I gave the card
to Frank.)

2. Understand correct adjective and adverb placement. Although there are certainly exceptions to
the rules, the placement of adjectives and adverbs is usually very predictable. Understanding
where these words are most often found can help you identify them in sentences.
 Adjectives are almost always found before nouns and pronouns (We look at a reddress.) or
after the linking verb "to be" (The dress is red.)
  When adverbs are used to modify adjectives, they are almost always found right before the
adjective. (The meal was truly delicious.)
 When adverbs are used to modify verbs, they may be found before the subject (LaterI will
walk to school.), directly before the verb (I will carefully clean the artifacts .), or directly
after the verb. (I go to the park frequently.)

3. Identify clauses and phrases to find conjunctions. Because conjunctions are typically found
between two clauses or phrases, you should be able to identify one by looking for the clauses
or phrases that it joins together. If the word comes between the two clauses or phrases and
seems to join them, it is likely a conjunction.
 Conjunctions like "and" and "but" are sometimes used at the beginning of a sentence,
although this is more rare. When it is done, you should be able to identify the other clause
or phrase in the previous sentence.

4. Look for nouns and pronouns to identify prepositions. Prepositions are typically found before
noun or pronoun phrases. (I went to the store.) This is because the preposition expresses the
relationship of the noun or the pronoun to the previous part of the sentence.
 Keep in mind there may be an adjective, adverb, and/or article between the
preposition and the noun or pronoun. These modifiers are all considered to be part
of the noun or pronoun phrase. (We paid for the very expensive jeans.)

POWER POINT
Defining Words
Bloomfield says: A minimum free form is a word. A word is thus a form which may be uttered
alone (with meaning) but cannot be analyzed into parts that may (all of them) be uttered alone
(with meaning) (1926: 156).
Lexical item Syntactic words Phonological words
Flaw N Flaw /flo:/
/flo:r/
Flaws /flo:z/

Identifying Words
There are two main stages in the analysis of word. First, finding chunks such as fly, flew, which
recur as self-contained units. Second, deciding how many lexical item are covered by each chunk
( as with fly, which cover two lexical items), and conversely, deciding how many different chunks
belong to the same lexical item