LIN102H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Underlying Representation, Allomorph, Truck Driver
Document Summary
No linguists have succeeded in finding sufficient enough criteria for establishing a definition of a word that functions cross-linguistically. Some linguists have offered suggestions on how to define a word but never have they worked in their own right. In many ways the concept of a word is a very fuzzy notion and the status of wordhood must be defined on a language specific basis. Words are the smallest units of meaning that exist within a language. Words are not necessarily the smallest units of meaning as that position is reserved for morphemes. Words that are monomorphemic are made of just a single morpheme or unit of meaning while words that are polymorphemic are complex and comprised of multiple units of meaning. Orthography cannot be used as a method to distinguish word boundaries as written conventions do not necessarily provide evidence to suggest that words are distinct due to the unreliability of orthography.
