What is word?
 In language, a word is the smallest element that
may be pronounced in isolation. This contrasts
with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of
meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own.
 A word may consist of a single morpheme.
For example:
Rock - Red - Quick - Run - Go
 Or several morpheme.
Rocks - Redness - Quickly - Running - Goes
 A complex word will typically include a root and one or more affixes.
Rock-s Run-ning
Red-ness Go-es
Quick-ly
 Or more than one root in a compound.
Black-board Down-fall
 Words can be put together to build larger elements of language.
Sentence
He threw a rock near to the
lake.
Phrase
A red rock
Clause
I threw a rock
Lexical word vs. grammatical word
Word classes may be either open or closed. An open class is one that
commonly accepts the addition of new words, while a closed class is
one to which new items are very rarely added. Open classes normally
contain large numbers of words, while closed classes are much smaller.
Typical open classes found in English and many other languages
are nouns, verbs (excluding auxiliary verbs, if these are regarded as a
separate class), adjectives, adverbs and interjections are often an open
class, though less familiar to English speakers, and are often open
to nonce words. Typical closed classes are prepositions (or
postpositions), determiners, conjunctions, and pronouns.
 A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological
analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to
a set of forms taken by a single word.
What is a Lexeme?
For example:
Run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same
lexeme, conventionally written as RUN
Find, finds, found, and finding are forms of the English
lexeme FIND
morphology
inflection derivation
Difference between Lexeme and Morpheme
Lexeme refers to a single word and all of its forms. For
example the word "go" in English has the forms "go" "goes"
"went" and "going". All of these words are from the same
lexeme "go.“
Morpheme refers to the smallest unit of meaning of a
word can be broken down into. For example the word
"cats" This can be broken down into "cat-s" "cat" carries the
meaning of the furry four legged animal and "-s" carries the
meaning of plural.
Lexicon v/s Mental lexicon
 Lexicon refers to the words used in a language or
by a person or group of people.
 The mental lexicon is defined as
a mental dictionary that contains information
regarding a word's meaning, pronunciation,
syntactic characteristics, and so on. The mental
lexicon is a construct used in linguistics and
psycholinguistics to refer to individual speakers
'lexical, or word, representations.
The mental lexicon differs from
the lexicon because it is not just a general
collection of words; instead, it deals with how
those words are activated, stored, processed,
and retrieved by each speaker. An individual’s
mental lexicon changes and grows as new
words are learned and is always developing.

Words and lexemes

  • 2.
    What is word? In language, a word is the smallest element that may be pronounced in isolation. This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own.  A word may consist of a single morpheme. For example: Rock - Red - Quick - Run - Go  Or several morpheme. Rocks - Redness - Quickly - Running - Goes
  • 3.
     A complexword will typically include a root and one or more affixes. Rock-s Run-ning Red-ness Go-es Quick-ly  Or more than one root in a compound. Black-board Down-fall  Words can be put together to build larger elements of language. Sentence He threw a rock near to the lake. Phrase A red rock Clause I threw a rock
  • 4.
    Lexical word vs.grammatical word Word classes may be either open or closed. An open class is one that commonly accepts the addition of new words, while a closed class is one to which new items are very rarely added. Open classes normally contain large numbers of words, while closed classes are much smaller. Typical open classes found in English and many other languages are nouns, verbs (excluding auxiliary verbs, if these are regarded as a separate class), adjectives, adverbs and interjections are often an open class, though less familiar to English speakers, and are often open to nonce words. Typical closed classes are prepositions (or postpositions), determiners, conjunctions, and pronouns.
  • 5.
     A lexemeis an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. What is a Lexeme? For example: Run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN Find, finds, found, and finding are forms of the English lexeme FIND
  • 6.
  • 7.
    Difference between Lexemeand Morpheme Lexeme refers to a single word and all of its forms. For example the word "go" in English has the forms "go" "goes" "went" and "going". All of these words are from the same lexeme "go.“ Morpheme refers to the smallest unit of meaning of a word can be broken down into. For example the word "cats" This can be broken down into "cat-s" "cat" carries the meaning of the furry four legged animal and "-s" carries the meaning of plural.
  • 8.
    Lexicon v/s Mentallexicon  Lexicon refers to the words used in a language or by a person or group of people.  The mental lexicon is defined as a mental dictionary that contains information regarding a word's meaning, pronunciation, syntactic characteristics, and so on. The mental lexicon is a construct used in linguistics and psycholinguistics to refer to individual speakers 'lexical, or word, representations.
  • 10.
    The mental lexicondiffers from the lexicon because it is not just a general collection of words; instead, it deals with how those words are activated, stored, processed, and retrieved by each speaker. An individual’s mental lexicon changes and grows as new words are learned and is always developing.