LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:8 August 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Phonological and Grammatical Word as a
Linguistic Phenomenon

Mohsin Khan, Ph.D. Research Scholar

Abstract

Words are notoriously difficult entities to define, both in universal and in language specific terms. Many criteria have been proposed for identifying word but there has often been lack of a clear distinction between lexeme and word form, and between phonological and grammatical criteria. It is suggested that different sorts of criteria should be kept strictly apart – phonological criteria define phonological word, which is a unit in phonological hierarchy, while grammatical criteria define grammatical word, which is a unit in grammatical hierarchy.

The purpose of this paper is to define ‘word’ in terms of phonology and grammar, which explores the unit ‘word’ as a linguistic phenomenon, and to discuss the possible criteria to define word. In order to do so it is essential to look into the basic characteristic features of unit ‘word’, with the help of different sorts of definitions of ‘word’ given by scholars.

Introduction

The term ‘word’ is an older and familiar term. In non-technical everyday talk, we speak about words without ever thinking its complexity and that could be a problematic notion, because it is not as straightforward as one might expect. Word can be intuitively felt but the notion of word is difficult to define easily. In morphology we deal with words, how words are formed in terms of morphemes, clauses and sentences. ‘Word’ is one of the key concepts in morphology since we deal with word structure. Bloomfield (1933: 178) states that a word can be defined as “a minimum free form”, i.e. the smallest unit that can exist on its own. Studying words is not only the chief subject matter of lexicology but it depends on phonology for its phonological structure and on syntax for its delimitation of its status in more complex configuration.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Mohsin Khan, Ph.D. Research Scholar
Department of Linguistics
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh 202001
Uttar Pradesh
India
mohsinkhanyusufzai@gmail.com
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