Word as a Basic Lingual Unit

Word occupies central place in the hierarchy of lingual units which comprises the following levels: phonemes, morphemes, lexemes (words), phrasemes (word-combinations), sentences and text. Word is a basic lingual unit consisting of morphemes, each of which consists of phonemes. Words differ from morphemes due to the quality of their meaning. Word is a nominative lingual unit, which expresses direct, nominative meaning: it names, or nominates various referents. The words consist of morphemes, and the shortest word can include only one morpheme, e.g. cat. The meaning of the morpheme is abstract and significative: it does not name the referent, but only signifies it. Separate words should be distinguished from word-combinations, which are the combinations of two or more notional words, representing complex nominations of various referents (things, actions, qualities, and even situations) in a sentence, e.g. a sudden departure. The meaning of a word-combination is complex nomination.

In connection with the hierarchy of lingual units there exists the size-of-unit problem. It’s the problem of discriminating between the word and the morpheme, on the one hand, and the word-combination, on the other hand, and the issue of how words can be singled out in the flow of speech as independent units.

Words differ from morphemes which cannot function beyond words. The word criterion is the positional mobility while morphemes are bound within a sequence: shipwreck (s)VS the wreck (s) of the ship (s); John Lyons illustrates the fact with the following sequences: the boys walked slowly up the hill; slowly the boys walked up the hill; up the hill slowly walked the boys.

Words differ from word-combinations. One cannot insert another word between the elements of the given word without a disturbance of its meaning, unlike word combinations words are characterized by indivisibility or morphological uninterruptability: a lion (a living lion, a dead lion)VS alive.

Graphically words also tend to be indivisible though some borderline units occur where parts of compound words are graphically separable: each other, one another, but morphologically indivisible: with each other, with one another. Variation takes place in a ltogether which is one word according to its spelling, whereas all right which is rather a similar combination has a different spelling.

Phonologically the majority of English words tend to bear one stress: ' mother, 'brand name.

Grammatically words also tend to be whole-formed. A word has grammatical forms which are expressed by grammatical suffixes added to the word: mother – mothers, at my mother’s, two gin and tonics. But how should one treat the following sequences: Ilf and Petrov’s book; the girl I danced with’s father; ‘we were the good guys, they were the bad guys ’ kind of thing?

In such cases one can apply to the criterion of semantic integrity, that is naming one thing, not many things: Earl Grey, real estate, rack rate. The semantic criterion can be also applied to functional words which function like morphemes: to give up.

As the above mentioned examples show, there is a size-of-unit problem. That’s why Check linguists Josef Bachek and Vilem Mathesius stated that there is no borderline between a word and a word-combination, which correlates with the field theory.

Thus, words are relatively easy to be diagnosed in speech as separate units because they are featured by positional mobility, semantic integrity and graphic, phonological and grammatical whole-formedness.

The identity-of-unit problem. The term ‘identity’ implies systemic speech usage and invariability of basic properties of the lingual unit.

Words are subject to some variations. Sometimes the ‘law of the sign’ (one-to-one correspondence of expression and content) is violated without impairing the word’s globality as a separate lexical unit.

1. Phonetic variation: bread and butter, now and then, normal and natural, Past Simple; ' contrary – cont ' rary,' territory – terri ' tory,' aristocrat – a ' ristocrat,' coffee bean – ' coffee bean, again, Iranian, privacy, mountain, expertise, nausea.

2. Morphological variation:

a) grammatical: to learn – learned, learnt; to broadcast – broadcasted, broadcast; to bide – bode, bidded – bided, bidden; bolsheviki – bolsheviks;

b) word-building: academic – academical, explicable – explainable, damp down – dampen down.

The words of this group make the so-called doublets. They vary in pronunciation and morphemic arrangement, but function as full equivalents of each other. They do not signal some semantic or stylistic change of context. Their usage depends only on speech habit of a speaker.

3. Lexico-semantic variants (polysemy): bed (1. furniture,2. bottom,3. area or ground).

Variants of the words are their subkinds conditioned by position (context). Variants of the word cannot replace each other, they can only complement each other in different surroundings. Sometimes different lexico-semantic variants have peculiarities in word-changing paradigm, e.g. the verb to cost can function as a regular one in the meaning ‘to estimate the price of’: We’ll get the plan costed before presenting it to the board or Well, I've only had 3 courses and a bottle of wine and costed here.

One should be able to discriminate between different meanings of the same word and its homonyms: a baseball club, a golf club, a club of a gun – a wine club. Polysemy doesn’t violate the identity of the word as all the meanings of it are interconnected with each other, they have some common semantic element (a baseball club, a golf club, a club of a gun are kinds of a stick). The meanings of homonyms are by no means connected with each other (a club of a gun и a wine club).

Word as a lingual sign. Ferdinand de Saussure was the first to define lingual units as specific signs: the elements of language are special lingual signs – meaningful, bilateral (two-sided) units that have both form and meaning. Ferdinand de Saussure spoke about an indissoluble link between a phonetic ‘ signifier ’ (French ‘signifiant’), and concept signified (‘signifie’). The other pair of terms to name these two sides of a lingual sign was suggested by Luis Elsmlev: the plane of content and the plane of expression. There is regular semantic connection between the signifier and the signified, otherwise people wouldn’t be able to understand each other in the process of human intercourse.

Arbitrariness is the fundamental property of the lingual sign. It is the absence of any natural connection between the signifier and the signified. For example, the form and the meaning of the word eye are arbitrarily linked, the connection between them being a matter of convention (this means that there is no reason beyond convention why the English word eye should refer to глаз and not to ухо, нос or something else). Moreover either changed over time. On the one hand, the graphic form were altered (cf. Old English eage, ege; Middle English eie, ie). On the other hand, in the course of time the meaning of the word developed along several lines, e.g.: “the power of seeing”, “the hole in the needle through which the thread passes”, “the calm centre of a storm, especially of a hurricane”, etc. In other words, there is no necessary connection between the word and the object it denotes, and either may change over time.

The idea of arbitrariness can also be supported by the fact that in various languages one and the same object is given different names, cf. English wife, Russian жена, German Frau, French femme.

Asymmetric duality of the lingual sign is the ability of the plane of expression (signifier) to be associated with more than one signified (plane of content) – polysemy, homonymy: table, bank of a river – central bank, seal, hand; and the ability of the plane of content (the signified) to be associated with more than one plane of expression (the signifier) – synonymy: nice – pleasing, agreeable; pretty – nice, beautiful.

Sometimes a lingual sign (including words) is graphically presented in the form of a triangle (Diagram 2), including material form, content and referent. Fulfilling the naming (expressive) function, a word represents a unity of the three components: the material (sound) form, the referent and the concept of it. For example, the word ‘dog’ is a sign, consisting of a signifier, or form – the sequence of phonemes (or, in written presentation, of letters), and a signified, or concept – the image of the animal in our mind; the referent is the ‘real’ animal in the outside world, which may or may not be physically present.

Diagram 2.

concept (an idea of a class of objects)

‘dog’

sound form (sign) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ referent (thing meant)

The sign problem applied to a wordis all about identifying the correlation between the word and the referent and the connection between the sound form and the concept it signifies.

Motivation of the word.

Some lingual signs may be motivated. Motivation (inner word form, etymological structure) of the lingual sign is the direct connection between the signifier and the signified. Some examples, of motivation are cuckoo, bluebell, woodpecker, volleyball (volley – «стрелять залпами»), alphabet. The question of word motivation is examined by onomasiology.

Motivation doesn’t imply an exact reflection of the world in a language. The basis for motivation is usually some outstanding, conspicuous but not necessarily significant feature(s) (e.g. Russian медведь – «медом ведает»; English handkerchief – hand «рука» + kerchief «платок»). Thus, in case of motivation many language phenomena appear as a result of some interpretation of reality by speakers. If the word preserves semantic connection with the words it has been derived from, it is considered to be motivated or have a transparent inner word form: time-table, foresee, speaker, to safeguard, chairman, springboard. If the speaker isn’t aware of the semantic connection between the meaning of the word and its form, the word is said to be non-motivated for the present stage of language development: home, read, parachute, etc. Borrowings are seldom motivated for native speakers.

It should be borne in mind that in different languages one and the same object gets its name on the basis of different features. That’s why motivation of the words expressing the same notion in different languages may differ: cf. Russian стол < стлать, English table < Latin tabula (доска).

Traditionally, three types of motivation are distinguished: phonetic, morphological, and semantic.

Phonetic motivation is a direct connection between the sound form of the word and its meaning. Phonetic motivation is observed in onomatopoeic words, e.g. buzz, splash, gargle, purr, etc. Onomatopoeia or sound imitation is the naming of the action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it.

Morphologic (al) motivation is a direct connection between the morphological structure of the word and its meaning. For example, in the pair friend – unfriendly, the morphologically motivated word is unfriendly. The morphological structure suggests the following: the prefix un- gives a negative meaning to the stem; the suffix -ly shows the part of speech – when the suffix -ly is attached to a noun stem, the resultant word is an adjective.

Semantic motivation is a connection between the direct meaning and figurative meaning(s) of the word. The derived meaning is interpreted by means of referring to the primary one, the transfer being often based on metaphor or metonymy. For instance, the direct meaning of mink “a small fierce animal like a weasel” is not motivated, but its figurative metonymical meaning “the valuable brown fur of this animal (a mink coat)” is motivated by the direct meaning and based upon it.

Thus, the word is a basic lingual unit possessing a form to express concepts which reflect reality within the word meaning. Words reflect reality in this respect. The sound form of a word doesn’t reflect outward reality, it only gives a name to some phenomenon. In this sense word is a sign. Word is an arbitrary sign regularly used in communication, though some words can be motivated. Words combine in sentences, in connected sense-bearing speech, this property distinguishes them from morphemes which can’t function in speech beyond words. Words are relatively easy to be distinguished in speech as they are separate meaningful (characterized by semantic integrity) whole-formed (phonologically, morphologically and grammatically) lingual units. Words are used in speech in one meaning.

Word is the most complex unit of language. It comprises synchronic and diachronic features. Word refers to the real world of things, thinking and other lingual units. It coarticulates the signifier and the signified while the signifier can correspond to several signified (homonymy, polysemy) and vice versa (synonymy). Word is a merger of sound, morphological and semantic structures. It belongs to both grammatical and lexical systems, and at the same time takes part in human communication. Word semantically interacts with meanings of other words. It always enters some lexical set, class, sub-class, group or row.