LEXICOLOGY

The Study of Words

Aya's prop/Int to Ling (4)

Word
The Smallest of the linguistic
unit which can occur on its own
in speech or writing

Aya's prop/Int to Ling (4)

Meaning of Words
1. Orthographic Word
A word which has a space on either side of it. The definition applies
only to written medium.
2. Morphological Word
It is a unique form. It considers form only and not meaning.
e.g. Ball and Balls
3. Lexical Word
It comprehend the various forms of items which are closely related
by meaning.
e.g. chair and chairs are two morphological words but one
lexical word.
4. Semantic Word
It involves distinguishing between items which may be
morphologically identical but differ in meaning.

Aya's prop/Int to Ling (4)

Word Formation (1)

1. Reduplication
The process is similar to the derivation, in which the initial syllable is
doubled
e.g. papa, goody-goody, zig-zag, nitty-gritty, etc
2. Conversion/Functional Shift
It is conversion of one part of speech without addition of suffix
e.g. v>n run, drive, walk
n>v telephone, contact, etc
3. Compounding
The combination of two or more free root (plus associated affix)
e.g. ice cream, stonewall, homebody, etc
4. Blending
Involving two process of word formation, compounding and Clipping
e.g. smoke + fog smog
motor + hotel motel etc.

Aya's prop/Int to Ling (4)

Word Formation (2)

5. Back Formation
Deriving morphologically simple word from a form which they
analyze
e.g. emotion emote
editor edit etc
6. Shortening
Clipping
Dropping part of the word
e.g. mike < microphone
burger < hamburger
fax < facsimile
flu < influenza
Acronym
Taking the initial letters and pronounce it a word
e.g. NATO, AIDS
Initialisms
Taking the initial letters and pronounce it as letters
e.g. pm, AD
7. Root Creation
Can be formed from onomatopoeic or natural sound
e.g. cuckoo, hiss, etc Aya's prop/Int to Ling (4)

Word Class/Part of
Speech(1)
There are nine parts of speech/word classes in English;
1. Noun
It refers to person or things
e.g. Andy, pen, book, etc
2. Determiners
It refers to adjective-like word which precedes both adjective
and nouns (article, possessives, numbers, and indefinite
determiner)
e.g. this, those, the, one, two, some, all, my, your etc
3. Pronoun
It replaces noun
e.g. I, you, they, me, us, mine, hers, myself, himself etc.
4. Adjective
It refers to words that modify noun
e.g. polite, blue, my, our, book store
Aya's prop/Int to Ling (4)

Word Class/Part of
Speech(2)
5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Verbs
It refers to words that show action of the subject
e.g. run, read, call etc
Adverbs
It refers to words that modify verbs, adjective, adverb, or whole sentences
e.g. slowly, soon, unfortunately, etc
Preposition
Words that show the relationship of a noun to another noun in the
sentence
e.g. in, on, between, before, etc
Conjunction
It refers to words that join words, phrases, clauses, or sentences
e.g. and, but, because, etc
Interjection
Words that express emotion that dont have any grammatical relationship
to the sentence
e.g. Wow, Oh my! etc

Aya's prop/Int to Ling (4)