2. Words, Sentences, and
Dictionaries
Words as Meaningful Building-Blocks
of Language
Words as Types and Word as Tokens
Words With Predictable Meanings
Non-word With Unpredictable
Meanings
Conclusion : Words Versus Lexical
Items
3. Words as Meaningful Building-
Blocks of Language
Words as meaningful building-blocks mean
that words can be merge into the sentences as a
building-blocks.
We think of words as the basic units of
language, but in fact that is not to say that a
sentence must always consist of more than one
word.
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One word commands such as "go" or "sit",
although they crop up relatively seldom in
everyday conversation.
Even as adults, there are quite a few
circumstances in which we use single word
outside the context of any actual or reconstruct
able sentence, example:
•Warning shouts, such as "Fire!".
(That example mean sometimes one word can
describe a sentence, it mean a word can be
classified in a various ways)
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So that, an english dictionary is the key when
we do not know the meaning of the word. in
fact, that is what a dictionary entry basiclly
consist of. Not only for the meaning, but also
some information about grammar.
it seem that a word is not just a building-
blocks of sentences, it is unpredictable, so we
need dictionary and even for native speakers.
Two characteristics of words:
1.They have meaning that unpredictable and
so must be listed in dictionary.
2.They are the building-blocks out of which
phrase and sentences are form.
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Words as Types and Word as
Tokens
Token having a reference of individual
occurrence of a type of the words.
Example:
Mary goes to Edinburgh next week, and she
intends going to Washington next month.
The same word in that sentence (to and next) are
distinct token of a single type.
7. In much the same way, one can say that two
performance of the same tune, or two copies of the
same book, are distinct tokens of one type.
The type-token distinction is relevant to the
notion “word” in this way. Sentences may be said to be
composed of word-tokens, but it is clearly not word-
tokens that are listed in dictionaries.
It would be absurd to suggest that each
occurrence of the word next in sentence merits a
separate dictionary entry.
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8. Is it enough to say that characterization
have a relation between the first
characterization, because the words as a
building-blocks can be relates to word-tokens
and characterization of merits a separate
dictionary entry.
The term word would be ambiguous
between a ‘type’ interpretation and a ‘token’
interpretation; but the ambiguity would be just
the same as is exhibited by many other terms
not specifically related to language.
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9. For example: “tune” => a tune I heard this morning
may be ‘the same’ as one I heard
yesterday
That may be instances of the same type, but the tokens
that I have heard of it are distinct.
The distinction between a type and tokens is an
ontological one between a general
sort of thing and its particular
concrete instances.
The types are generally said to be abstract and tokens
are mean a concrete particulars.
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Words With Predictable
Meanings
sometimes, words has meanings that are predictable.
that is meanings that can be worked out on the basic of the
sounds and make them up.
Onomatopoeic words are some words whose sound seems to
reflect their meaning fairly directly, such as: bow-wow, miaow,
and cock-a-doodle-doo.
another example, sl- seems to reflect it's meaning (slip, slide,
slop, slurp) are called as sound symbolism.
So, easier to predict a sound symbolism meaning than the
real word.
11. Example : Ginkgo trees reproduce dioeciously.
Dioeciously is an example of word that,
although not brand new (it may even be listed in
some dictionaries), chould just as well be brand
new so far as most readers of this book are
concerned.
For present purposes, what matters is to be
aware that not every word can be listed in a
dictionary, even in the fullest dictionary
imaginable.
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Non-word With Unpredictable
Meanings
We saw it is possible for a linguistics item to be a
basic building-block of syntax. The item is clearly not
itself a sentence or a phrase and yet to have a meaning
that is predictable.
Consider these two sentences from the point of a
learner of English who is familiar with the usual
meanings of the words expenditure, note, and tab:
•I keep notes on all my expenditure.
•I keep tabs on all my expenditure.
13. Native speakers will instinctively interpret keep tabs
on as a single unit which has meaning pay close
attention to ,or monitor carefully.
Idiom is a combination of words that have meaning
owing to its common usage.
Idiom are enormously various in length, structure
and function.
verb (ex. :kick the bucket (die) )
Idioms =
noun (ex. :dark horse (competitor
whose strength is unknown)
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14. Akin to idioms, but distinguishable from them , are
phrases in which individual words have collocationally
restricted meanings.
Consider the following phrases :
1.White wine
2.White coffee
3.White noise
4.White man
In a broad sense they may count as idiomatic,
because the meaning that white has in them
is not usual meaning; rather, when collocated
with wine, coffee, noise and man.
15. •If a typical idiom is a phrase, then a word with
collocationally restricted meaning is smaller than a
typical idiom. It provokes the question whether there
are linguistic item with unpredictable meaning that are
larger than phrases. The answer is yes , because many
proverbs fall into this category.
A proverb is a traditional saying, syntactically a
sentence, whose conventional interpretation differs
from what is suggested by the literal meaning of the
words it contains.
16. Example: It’s no use crying over spilt milk.
(After an accident one should look to the future,
rather than waste time wishing the accident had not
happened.)
Spilling milk is a kind of accident, but in the proverb at
the sentence above, it is used metaphorically to stand
for any accident.
What is important about proverbs is that they
constitute a further example of a linguistic unit whose
use and meaning are in some degree unpredictable ,
but which is larger than a word.
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Conclusion : Words Versus
Lexical Items
In this chapter we can got the information about:
1. Pointed out that we tend to think of words as
possessing two characteristics:
• The meaning are unpredictable and so must be listed
in dictionaries.
• The are the building-blocks for words and phrase.
2. The two characteristics do not always go together. It
will be helpful to have distinct terms for items with
each of the two characteristics.
18. We can use lexical items for items with first
characteristics, and reserve Word for items with second
characteristics.
Sometimes we meet there are some words that are
not lexical items, and some lexical items that are not
words.
It is mean there are not really the traditional view of
words as things that are (or should be) listed in
dictionaries is entirely wrong.
Many words have meanings that are predictable,
there is nevertheless a tendency for these meaning to
lose motivation over time. The words which does not
start out as a lexical item may in due course become
one
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19. Selected the dictionaries list to contain the
lexical items or words, or contain both of them
influence the most practice dictionaries to
reflects a compromise.
Because some are more generous than
others in listing idioms, and some are more
generous than other in listing word with entirely
predictable meanings.
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