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A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning , can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its definition and numerous attempts to find specific criteria of the concept remain controversial. Different standards have been proposed, depending on the theoretical background and descriptive context; these do not converge on a single definition. Some specific definitions of the term "word" are employed to convey its different meanings at different levels of description, for example based on phonological , grammatical or orthographic basis. Others suggest that the concept is simply a convention used in everyday situations.

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72-408: A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word , phrase , or other set of symbols ). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definitions (which try to list the objects that a term describes). Another important category of definitions is the class of ostensive definitions , which convey

144-426: A connotative definition, specifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for a thing to be a member of a specific set . Any definition that attempts to set out the essence of something, such as that by genus and differentia , is an intensional definition. An extensional definition , also called a denotative definition, of a concept or term specifies its extension . It is a list naming every object that

216-516: A natural language such as English contains, at any given time, a finite number of words, any comprehensive list of definitions must either be circular or rely upon primitive notions . If every term of every definiens must itself be defined, "where at last should we stop?" A dictionary, for instance, insofar as it is a comprehensive list of lexical definitions , must resort to circularity . Many philosophers have chosen instead to leave some terms undefined. The scholastic philosophers claimed that

288-441: A word , phrase , or symbol ) to have multiple meanings (that is, multiple semes or sememes and thus multiple senses ), usually related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field . It is thus usually regarded as distinct from homonymy , in which the multiple meanings of a word may be unconnected or unrelated. In mathematics, definitions are generally not used to describe existing terms, but to describe or characterize

360-421: A "word" in the opinion of the writers of that language. This written form of a word constitutes a lexeme . The most appropriate means of measuring the length of a word is by counting its syllables or morphemes. When a word has multiple definitions or multiple senses, it may result in confusion in a debate or discussion. One distinguishable meaning of the term "word" can be defined on phonological grounds. It

432-401: A cabinet in the executive branch of parliamentary government", an extensional definition is not possible since it is not known who the future prime ministers will be (even though all prime ministers from the past and present can be listed). A genus–differentia definition is a type of intensional definition that takes a large category (the genus ) and narrows it down to a smaller category by

504-663: A certain way), etc. In languages with a literary tradition , the question of what is considered a single word is influenced by orthography . Word separators , typically spaces and punctuation marks are common in modern orthography of languages using alphabetic scripts , but these are a relatively modern development in the history of writing . In character encoding , word segmentation depends on which characters are defined as word dividers. In English orthography , compound expressions may contain spaces. For example, ice cream , air raid shelter and get up each are generally considered to consist of more than one word (as each of

576-464: A concept or a term is an extensional definition that gives an explicit and exhaustive listing of all the objects that fall under the concept or term in question. Enumerative definitions are only possible for finite sets (and only practical for small sets). Divisio and partitio are classical terms for definitions. A partitio is simply an intensional definition. A divisio is not an extensional definition, but an exhaustive list of subsets of

648-458: A concept. For naming the object of a definition mathematicians can use either a neologism (this was mainly the case in the past) or words or phrases of the common language (this is generally the case in modern mathematics). The precise meaning of a term given by a mathematical definition is often different from the English definition of the word used, which can lead to confusion, particularly when

720-481: A definition of the object must include these essential attributes. The idea that a definition should state the essence of a thing led to the distinction between nominal and real essence—a distinction originating with Aristotle. In the Posterior Analytics , he says that the meaning of a made-up name can be known (he gives the example "goat stag") without knowing what he calls the "essential nature" of

792-467: A distinguishing characteristic (i.e. the differentia ). More formally, a genus–differentia definition consists of: For example, consider the following genus–differentia definitions: Those definitions can be expressed as a genus ("a plane figure") and two differentiae ("that has three straight bounding sides" and "that has four straight bounding sides", respectively). It is also possible to have two different genus–differentia definitions that describe

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864-751: A famous argument from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (which deal primarily with the philosophy of language ), the private language argument , in which he asks if it is possible to have a private language that no one else can understand. John Passmore states that the term was first defined by the British logician William Ernest Johnson (1858–1931): "His neologisms, as rarely happens, have won wide acceptance: such phrases as "ostensive definition", such contrasts as those between ... "determinates" and "determinables", "continuants" and "occurrents", are now familiar in philosophical literature" (Passmore 1966, p. 344). This pragmatics -related article

936-416: A following semi-vowel /j/, yielding the corresponding palatal sound, but only within one word. Conversely, external sandhi rules act across word boundaries. The prototypical example of this rule comes from Sanskrit ; however, initial consonant mutation in contemporary Celtic languages or the linking r phenomenon in some non-rhotic English dialects can also be used to illustrate word boundaries. It

1008-520: A group of words called articles , such as the (the definite article) or a (the indefinite article), which mark definiteness or identifiability. This class is not present in Japanese, which depends on context to indicate this difference. On the other hand, Japanese has a class of words called particles which are used to mark noun phrases according to their grammatical function or thematic relation, which English marks using word order or prosody. It

1080-425: A language) or because of the nature of the term (such as colors or sensations). It is usually accompanied with a gesture pointing to the object serving as an example, and for this reason is also often referred to as " definition by point ". An ostensive definition assumes the questioner has sufficient understanding to recognize the type of information being given. Ludwig Wittgenstein writes: So one might say:

1152-414: A language; demonstrative definitions , which define something by pointing to an example of it ( "This," [said while pointing to a large grey animal], "is an Asian elephant." ); and precising definitions , which reduce the vagueness of a word, typically in some special sense ( "'Large', among female Asian elephants, is any individual weighing over 5,500 pounds." ). An intensional definition , also called

1224-500: A lexeme, especially in agglutinative languages. For example, there is little doubt that in Turkish the lexeme for house should include nominative singular ev and plural evler . However, it is not clear if it should also encompass the word evlerinizden 'from your houses', formed through regular suffixation. There are also lexemes such as "black and white" or "do-it-yourself", which, although consisting of multiple words, still form

1296-452: A lexicon; and syntactically , as the smallest permutable and substitutable unit of a sentence. In some languages, these different types of words coincide and one can analyze, for example, a "phonological word" as essentially the same as "grammatical word". However, in other languages they may correspond to elements of different size. Much of the difficulty stems from the eurocentric bias, as languages from outside of Europe may not follow

1368-406: A metalogic). On the other hand, lambda-calculi are a kind of logic where the definitions are included as the feature of the formal system itself. Authors have used different terms to classify definitions used in formal languages like mathematics. Norman Swartz classifies a definition as "stipulative" if it is intended to guide a specific discussion. A stipulative definition might be considered

1440-403: A new approach to essentialism . Insofar as the essential properties of a thing are necessary to it, they are those things that it possesses in all possible worlds. Kripke refers to names used in this way as rigid designators . A definition may also be classified as an operational definition or theoretical definition . A homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share

1512-405: A person) and the pair left (past tense of leave) and left (opposite of right). A distinction is sometimes made between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes , which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal). Polysemy is the capacity for a sign (such as

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1584-709: A rock"), and sentences ("I threw a rock, but missed"). In many languages, the notion of what constitutes a "word" may be learned as part of learning the writing system. This is the case for the English language , and for most languages that are written with alphabets derived from the ancient Latin or Greek alphabets . In English orthography , the letter sequences "rock", "god", "write", "with", "the", and "not" are considered to be single-morpheme words, whereas "rocks", "ungodliness", "typewriter", and "cannot" are words composed of two or more morphemes ("rock"+"s", "un"+"god"+"li"+"ness", "type"+"writ"+"er", and "can"+"not"). Since

1656-501: A set, in the sense that every member of the "divided" set is a member of one of the subsets. An extreme form of divisio lists all sets whose only member is a member of the "divided" set. The difference between this and an extensional definition is that extensional definitions list members , and not subsets . In classical thought, a definition was taken to be a statement of the essence of a thing. Aristotle had it that an object's essential attributes form its "essential nature", and that

1728-412: A similar fundamental classification into a nominal (nāma, suP) and a verbal (ākhyāta, tiN) class, based on the set of suffixes taken by the word. Some words can be controversial, such as slang in formal contexts; misnomers, due to them not meaning what they would imply; or polysemous words, due to the potential confusion between their various senses. In ancient Greek and Roman grammatical tradition,

1800-492: A single collocation with a set meaning. Grammatical words are proposed to consist of a number of grammatical elements which occur together (not in separate places within a clause) in a fixed order and have a set meaning. However, there are exceptions to all of these criteria. Single grammatical words have a fixed internal structure; when the structure is changed, the meaning of the word also changes. In Dyirbal , which can use many derivational affixes with its nouns, there are

1872-580: A suffix, e.g. ya-nta 'go!', thus conforming to a segmental pattern of Walmatjari words. In the Pitjantjatjara dialect of the Wati language , another language form Australia, a word-medial syllable can end with a consonant but a word-final syllable must end with a vowel. In most languages, stress may serve a criterion for a phonological word. In languages with a fixed stress, it is possible to ascertain word boundaries from its location. Although it

1944-416: A temporary, working definition, and can only be disproved by showing a logical contradiction. In contrast, a "descriptive" definition can be shown to be "right" or "wrong" with reference to general usage. Swartz defines a precising definition as one that extends the descriptive dictionary definition (lexical definition) for a specific purpose by including additional criteria. A precising definition narrows

2016-443: A term by pointing, in the case of an individual, to the thing itself, or in the case of a class, to examples of the right kind. For example, one can explain who Alice (an individual) is, by pointing her out to another; or what a rabbit (a class) is, by pointing at several and expecting another to understand. The process of ostensive definition itself was critically appraised by Ludwig Wittgenstein . An enumerative definition of

2088-511: A voluntary imposition, whereby such a word is made arbitrarily the mark of such an idea". Wittgenstein 's thought transitioned from a word as representation of meaning to "the meaning of a word is its use in the language." Each word belongs to a category, based on shared grammatical properties. Typically, a language's lexicon may be classified into several such groups of words. The total number of categories as well as their types are not universal and vary among languages. For example, English has

2160-405: A way of defining a proper name, the definition being given by a definite description that "picks out" exactly one individual. Saul Kripke pointed to difficulties with this approach, especially in relation to modality , in his book Naming and Necessity . There is a presumption in the classic example of a definition that the definiens can be stated. Wittgenstein argued that for some terms this

2232-550: A word means (i.e., which says what the "nominal essence" is), and is definition in the classical sense as given above. A real definition, by contrast, is one expressing the real nature or quid rei of the thing. This preoccupation with essence dissipated in much of modern philosophy. Analytic philosophy , in particular, is critical of attempts to elucidate the essence of a thing. Russell described essence as "a hopelessly muddle-headed notion". More recently Kripke's formalisation of possible world semantics in modal logic led to

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2304-484: Is a highly analytic language with few inflectional affixes, making it unnecessary to delimit words orthographically. However, there are many multiple-morpheme compounds in Mandarin, as well as a variety of bound morphemes that make it difficult to clearly determine what constitutes a word. Japanese uses orthographic cues to delimit words, such as switching between kanji (characters borrowed from Chinese writing) and

2376-491: Is a member of a specific set . Thus, the " seven deadly sins " can be defined intensionally as those singled out by Pope Gregory I as particularly destructive of the life of grace and charity within a person, thus creating the threat of eternal damnation. An extensional definition, on the other hand, would be the list of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. In contrast, while an intensional definition of " prime minister " might be "the most senior minister of

2448-411: Is a unit larger or equal to a syllable, which can be distinguished based on segmental or prosodic features, or through its interactions with phonological rules. In Walmatjari , an Australian language, roots or suffixes may have only one syllable but a phonologic word must have at least two syllables. A disyllabic verb root may take a zero suffix, e.g. luwa-ø 'hit!', but a monosyllabic root must take

2520-841: Is distinguished from that of a morpheme , which is the smallest unit of language that has a meaning, even if it cannot stand on its own. Words are made out of at least one morpheme. Morphemes can also be joined to create other words in a process of morphological derivation . In English and many other languages, the morphemes that make up a word generally include at least one root (such as "rock", "god", "type", "writ", "can", "not") and possibly some affixes ("-s", "un-", "-ly", "-ness"). Words with more than one root ("[type][writ]er", "[cow][boy]s", "[tele][graph]ically") are called compound words . Contractions ("can't", "would've") are words formed from multiple words made into one. In turn, words are combined to form other elements of language, such as phrases ("a red rock", "put up with"), clauses ("I threw

2592-404: Is impossible to predict word boundaries from stress alone in languages with phonemic stress, there will be just one syllable with primary stress per word, which allows for determining the total number of words in an utterance. Many phonological rules operate only within a phonological word or specifically across word boundaries. In Hungarian , dental consonants /d/, /t/, /l/ or /n/ assimilate to

2664-448: Is not clear if any categories other than interjection are universal parts of human language. The basic bipartite division that is ubiquitous in natural languages is that of nouns vs verbs . However, in some Wakashan and Salish languages , all content words may be understood as verbal in nature. In Lushootseed , a Salish language, all words with 'noun-like' meanings can be used predicatively, where they function like verb. For example,

2736-437: Is not the case. The examples he used include game , number and family . In such cases, he argued, there is no fixed boundary that can be used to provide a definition. Rather, the items are grouped together because of a family resemblance . For terms such as these it is not possible and indeed not necessary to state a definition; rather, one simply comes to understand the use of the term. Word The concept of "word"

2808-412: Is often the case that a phonological word does not correspond to our intuitive conception of a word. The Finnish compound word pääkaupunki 'capital' is phonologically two words ( pää 'head' and kaupunki 'city') because it does not conform to Finnish patterns of vowel harmony within words. Conversely, a single phonological word may be made up of more than one syntactical elements, such as in

2880-408: Is only needed to avoid misunderstanding. Locke and Mill also argued that individuals cannot be defined. Names are learned by connecting an idea with a sound, so that speaker and hearer have the same idea when the same word is used. This is not possible when no one else is acquainted with the particular thing that has "fallen under our notice". Russell offered his theory of descriptions in part as

2952-403: Is the smallest segment of sound that can be theoretically isolated by word accent and boundary markers; on the orthographic level as a segment indicated by blank spaces in writing or print ; on the basis of morphology as the basic element of grammatical paradigms like inflection , different from word-forms; within semantics as the smallest and relatively independent carrier of meaning in

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3024-403: Is the study of word formation and structure. Words may undergo different morphological processes which are traditionally classified into two broad groups: derivation and inflection . Derivation is a process in which a new word is created from existing ones, with an adjustment to its meaning and often with a change of word class. For example, in English the verb to convert may be modified into

3096-408: Is to be constructed. In modern usage, a definition is something, typically expressed in words, that attaches a meaning to a word or group of words. The word or group of words that is to be defined is called the definiendum , and the word, group of words, or action that defines it is called the definiens . For example, in the definition "An elephant is a large gray animal native to Asia and Africa" ,

3168-519: Is to create or alter rights, duties, or crimes. A recursive definition , sometimes also called an inductive definition, is one that defines a word in terms of itself, so to speak, albeit in a useful way. Normally this consists of three steps: For instance, we could define a natural number as follows (after Peano ): So "0" will have exactly one successor, which for convenience can be called "1". In turn, "1" will have exactly one successor, which could be called "2", and so on. The second condition in

3240-523: The and of ). Some semanticists have put forward a theory of so-called semantic primitives or semantic primes , indefinable words representing fundamental concepts that are intuitively meaningful. According to this theory, semantic primes serve as the basis for describing the meaning, without circularity, of other words and their associated conceptual denotations. In the Minimalist school of theoretical syntax , words (also called lexical items in

3312-478: The English phrase I'll come , where I'll forms one phonological word. A word can be thought of as an item in a speaker's internal lexicon; this is called a lexeme . However, this may be different from the meaning in everyday speech of "word", since one lexeme includes all inflected forms. The lexeme teapot refers to the singular teapot as well as the plural teapots . There is also the question to what extent should inflected or compounded words be included in

3384-437: The beginning of the study of linguistics, numerous attempts at defining what a word is have been made, with many different criteria. However, no satisfying definition has yet been found to apply to all languages and at all levels of linguistic analysis. It is, however, possible to find consistent definitions of "word" at different levels of description. These include definitions on the phonetic and phonological level, that it

3456-815: The components are free forms, with the possible exception of get ), and so is no one , but the similarly compounded someone and nobody are considered single words. Sometimes, languages which are close grammatically will consider the same order of words in different ways. For example, reflexive verbs in the French infinitive are separate from their respective particle, e.g. se laver ("to wash oneself"), whereas in Portuguese they are hyphenated, e.g. lavar-se , and in Spanish they are joined, e.g. lavarse . Not all languages delimit words expressly. Mandarin Chinese

3528-603: The definition itself refers to natural numbers, and hence involves self-reference . Although this sort of definition involves a form of circularity , it is not vicious , and the definition has been quite successful. In the same way, we can define ancestor as follows: Or simply: an ancestor is a parent or a parent of an ancestor. In medical dictionaries , guidelines and other consensus statements and classifications , definitions should as far as possible be: Certain rules have traditionally been given for definitions (in particular, genus-differentia definitions). Given that

3600-438: The dual suffix -jarran and the suffix -gabun meaning "another". With the noun yibi they can be arranged into yibi-jarran-gabun ("another two women") or yibi-gabun-jarran ("two other women") but changing the suffix order also changes their meaning. Speakers of a language also usually associate a specific meaning with a word and not a single morpheme. For example, when asked to talk about untruthfulness they rarely focus on

3672-570: The highest genera (called the ten generalissima ) cannot be defined, since a higher genus cannot be assigned under which they may fall. Thus being , unity and similar concepts cannot be defined. Locke supposes in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that the names of simple concepts do not admit of any definition. More recently Bertrand Russell sought to develop a formal language based on logical atoms . Other philosophers, notably Wittgenstein , rejected

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3744-467: The intuitions of European scholars. Some of the criteria developed for "word" can only be applicable to languages of broadly European synthetic structure . Because of this unclear status, some linguists propose avoiding the term "word" altogether, instead focusing on better defined terms such as morphemes . Dictionaries categorize a language's lexicon into individually listed forms called lemmas . These can be taken as an indication of what constitutes

3816-403: The literature) are construed as "bundles" of linguistic features that are united into a structure with form and meaning. For example, the word "koalas" has semantic features (it denotes real-world objects, koalas ), category features (it is a noun), number features (it is plural and must agree with verbs, pronouns, and demonstratives in its domain), phonological features (it is pronounced

3888-402: The meaning of a term by pointing out examples. A term may have many different senses and multiple meanings, and thus require multiple definitions. In mathematics , a definition is used to give a precise meaning to a new term, by describing a condition which unambiguously qualifies what the mathematical term is and is not. Definitions and axioms form the basis on which all of modern mathematics

3960-408: The meaning of morphemes such as -th or -ness . Leonard Bloomfield introduced the concept of "Minimal Free Forms" in 1928. Words are thought of as the smallest meaningful unit of speech that can stand by themselves. This correlates phonemes (units of sound) to lexemes (units of meaning). However, some written words are not minimal free forms as they make no sense by themselves (for example,

4032-516: The meanings are close. For example, a set is not exactly the same thing in mathematics and in common language. In some case, the word used can be misleading; for example, a real number has nothing more (or less) real than an imaginary number . Frequently, a definition uses a phrase built with common English words, which has no meaning outside mathematics, such as primitive group or irreducible variety . In first-order logic definitions are usually introduced using extension by definition (so using

4104-404: The need for any undefined simples. Wittgenstein pointed out in his Philosophical Investigations that what counts as a "simple" in one circumstance might not do so in another. He rejected the very idea that every explanation of the meaning of a term needed itself to be explained: "As though an explanation hung in the air unless supported by another one", claiming instead that explanation of a term

4176-473: The noun a convert through stress shift and into the adjective convertible through affixation. Inflection adds grammatical information to a word, such as indicating case, tense, or gender. In synthetic languages , a single word stem (for example, love ) may inflect to have a number of different forms (for example, loves , loving , and loved ). However, for some purposes these are not usually considered to be different words, but rather different forms of

4248-471: The ostensive definition explains the use—the meaning—of the word when the overall role of the word in language is clear. Thus if I know that someone means to explain a colour-word to me the ostensive definition "That is called 'sepia' " will help me to understand the word.... One has already to know (or be able to do) something in order to be capable of asking a thing's name. But what does one have to know? The limitations of ostensive definition are exploited in

4320-413: The real nature of hobbits, and so the quid rei of hobbits cannot be known. By contrast, the name "man" denotes real things (men) that have a certain quid rei . The meaning of a name is distinct from the nature that a thing must have in order that the name apply to it. This leads to a corresponding distinction between nominal and real definitions. A nominal definition is the definition explaining what

4392-893: The roles of other categories. The current classification of words into classes is based on the work of Dionysius Thrax , who, in the 1st century BC, distinguished eight categories of Ancient Greek words: noun , verb , participle , article , pronoun , preposition , adverb , and conjunction . Later Latin authors, Apollonius Dyscolus and Priscian, applied his framework to their own language; since Latin has no articles, they replaced this class with interjection . Adjectives ('happy'), quantifiers ('few'), and numerals ('eleven') were not made separate in those classifications due to their morphological similarity to nouns in Latin and Ancient Greek. They were recognized as distinct categories only when scholars started studying later European languages. In Indian grammatical tradition, Pāṇini introduced

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4464-415: The same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings. Thus homonyms are simultaneously homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of their pronunciation) and homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of their spelling). The state of being a homonym is called homonymy . Examples of homonyms are the pair stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass

4536-404: The same term, especially when the term describes the overlap of two large categories. For instance, both of these genus–differentia definitions of "square" are equally acceptable: Thus, a "square" is a member of both genera (the plural of genus ): the genus "rectangle" and the genus "rhombus". One important form of the extensional definition is ostensive definition . This gives the meaning of

4608-539: The same word. In these languages, words may be considered to be constructed from a number of morphemes . In Indo-European languages in particular, the morphemes distinguished are: Thus, the Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dhom would be analyzed as consisting of Philosophers have found words to be objects of fascination since at least the 5th century BC, with the foundation of the philosophy of language . Plato analyzed words in terms of their origins and

4680-404: The set of things that meet the definition. C.L. Stevenson has identified persuasive definition as a form of stipulative definition which purports to state the "true" or "commonly accepted" meaning of a term, while in reality stipulating an altered use (perhaps as an argument for some specific belief). Stevenson has also noted that some definitions are "legal" or "coercive" – their object

4752-404: The sounds making them up, concluding that there was some connection between sound and meaning, though words change a great deal over time. John Locke wrote that the use of words "is to be sensible marks of ideas", though they are chosen "not by any natural connexion that there is between particular articulate sounds and certain ideas, for then there would be but one language amongst all men; but by

4824-419: The thing that the name would denote (if there were such a thing). This led medieval logicians to distinguish between what they called the quid nominis , or the "whatness of the name", and the underlying nature common to all the things it names, which they called the quid rei , or the "whatness of the thing". The name " hobbit ", for example, is perfectly meaningful. It has a quid nominis , but one could not know

4896-567: The two kana syllabaries. This is a fairly soft rule, because content words can also be written in hiragana for effect, though if done extensively spaces are typically added to maintain legibility. Vietnamese orthography, although using the Latin alphabet , delimits monosyllabic morphemes rather than words. The task of defining what constitutes a word involves determining where one word ends and another begins. There are several methods for identifying word boundaries present in speech: Morphology

4968-454: The word sbiaw can be understood as '(is a) coyote' rather than simply 'coyote'. On the other hand, in Eskimo–Aleut languages all content words can be analyzed as nominal, with agentive nouns serving the role closest to verbs. Finally, in some Austronesian languages it is not clear whether the distinction is applicable and all words can be best described as interjections which can perform

5040-420: The word "elephant" is the definiendum , and everything after the word "is" is the definiens . The definiens is not the meaning of the word defined, but is instead something that conveys the same meaning as that word. There are many sub-types of definitions, often specific to a given field of knowledge or study. These include, lexical definitions , or the common dictionary definitions of words already in

5112-456: The word was considered a unitary construct. The word ( dictiō ) was defined as the minimal unit of an utterance ( ōrātiō ), the expression of a complete thought. Ostensive definition An ostensive definition conveys the meaning of a term by pointing out examples. This type of definition is often used where the term is difficult to define verbally, either because the words will not be understood (as with children and new speakers of

5184-423: The word was the basic unit of analysis. Different grammatical forms of a given lexeme were studied; however, there was no attempt to decompose them into morphemes. This may have been the result of the synthetic nature of these languages, where the internal structure of words may be harder to decode than in analytic languages. There was also no concept of different kinds of words, such as grammatical or phonological –

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