Flashcards

Front

What is the definition of a word from a syntactic perspective?

Back

H. Sweet defines the word as "the minimum sentence," and L. Bloomfield later defines it as "the minimum independent unit of utterance."

Front

What is the external structure of a word?

Back

The external structure of a word refers to its morphological structure, which consists of morphemes such as prefixes, roots, suffixes, and grammatical markers.

Front

Internal structure of a word

Back

The internal structure refers to the word's semantic meaning, which allows it to serve as a tool for human communication.

Front

How does a word differ from a word group in terms of formal unity?

Back

A word, like "blackbird," has formal unity and cannot be divided, while a word group like "a black bird" allows individual words to undergo grammatical changes, such as "the blackest birds."

Front

What are the three structural characteristics of a word?

Back

1) Isolatability

2) Formal and semantic unity

3) Susceptibility to grammatical employment.

Front

What does the semantic unity of a word mean?

Back

Semantic unity refers to the fact that a word conveys a single concept, even if it is composed of multiple morphemes.

Front

Lexeme vs. Orthographic word

Back

A lexeme is a group of words sharing a common meaning but with different grammatical forms (e.g., "sing" vs. "sings"). An orthographic word is distinguished by its spelling (e.g., "bow" and "bow").

Front

What is the main difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic studies in semantics?

Back

Syntagmatic studies analyze the linear relationship of a word with its neighbors in speech, while paradigmatic studies compare the word with other words in the vocabulary system.

Front

What are multi-word lexemes?

Back

Multi-word lexemes are sequences of words that function as a single lexeme.

Front

Why is indivisibility an inaccurate term for the unity of a word?

Back

word, such as "post-impressionists," is not truly indivisible because it consists of multiple morphemes, but these morphemes are permanently linked.