Week 4: Words and the Lexicon

Question 1

What is the ORTHOGRAPHIC DEFINITION of ‘word’?

Answer 1

A (written) word is a string of letters with white space, or punctuation at either end

Question 2

What is the PHONOLOGICAL DEFINITION of ‘word’?

Answer 2

A (spoken) word only has one main stress and is bound by pauses

Question 3

What is the SEMANTIC definition of ‘word’?

Answer 3

The smallest meaningful form that can occur in isolation

Question 4

Define: LEXEME

Answer 4

A ‘headword in a dictionary’ - i.e. the basic uninflected form of a word

Question 5

Define: LEXICAL ITEM

Answer 5

One individual form of a lexeme

Question 6

Define: LEMMA

Answer 6

All the inflected realisations of a lexeme

Question 7

Define: THE MENTAL LEXICON

Answer 7

A large, complex and highly organised network that stores entries of ‘words’

Question 8

Define: SEMANTIC FIELDS

Answer 8

Conceptual domains that consist of word associations by meaning

Question 9

Define: SEMANTIC NETWORK

Answer 9

Represents semantic relations between concepts in a network to map r connect semantic fields

Question 10

What are the components of a lexical entry?

Answer 10

Orthographic form:
Phonological form:
Morphological form:

Word class:
Phrase structure:

Core meaning:
Differs from meanings of:

Question 11

Define: INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY

Answer 11

Morphemes used to mark grammatical functions and properties

Question 12

Define: DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY

Answer 12

Morphemes that are not required by grammar, but create new lexemes i.e. ‘derive’ new word classes e.g. ‘teach’ —> ‘teacher’

Question 13

Define: CONTENT WORDS

Answer 13

Open class words that carry lexical meaning and consist of NOUNS, VERBS, ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS

Question 14

Define: FUNCTION WORDS

Answer 14

Closed class words that carry grammatical meaning and consist of PREPOSITIONS, DETERMINERS, CONJUNCTIONS, PRONOUNS