# Definition of a "word"



## Roymalika

word (n):

(Linguistics) a unit of a language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation and functioning as a carrier of meaning:[countable]"A,'' "bicycle,'' "won't,'' and "speedy'' are words in English. (WR Dictionary)
I dont understand how "A" and "won't" are words.
Can someone explain?
I have been taught that "A" is a letter, but it is odd to hear that it is also a word.


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## grassy

_A_ as a letter doesn't carry any meaning but _a_ as, for example, the indefinite article does carry meaning.


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## heypresto

And why do you question 'won't' as a word? What is it if it isn't a word?


(Sorry to spoil what was a rather nice floral thread with my breakfast.   )


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## grassy

heypresto said:


> And why do you question 'won't' as a word? What is it if it isn't a word?


 


heypresto said:


> (Sorry to spoil what was a rather nice floral thread with my breakfast.  )


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## Roymalika

heypresto said:


> And why do you question 'won't' as a word? What is it if it isn't a word?


Because it does not have any meaning.


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## heypresto




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## Roymalika

heypresto said:


>


Why are you confused? What meaning do you think it has?


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## heypresto

It has the same meaning as 'will not'.


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## Roymalika

heypresto said:


> It has the same meaning as 'will not'.


How would you _write_ the meaning of "will not"?


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## heypresto

I would look up 'will' in the dictionary, find the appropriate entry for the context and then negate it.

Are you going to suggest that 'will' and 'not' are not words?

I'm sure there are many philosophical theories dealing with what 'words' are and what 'meaning' and the relationship between words and their meaning, but I'm not conversant with any of these. I'm talking in everyday terms. If you want a philosophical discussion, I'm not the person to have it with.


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## Roymalika

I asked how you would write the meaning of " will not" because one of my teachers once told me that if something has a meaning, it should have capability to be written down.
For example, the word "clever" has a meaning. And it can be written down as: _smart_. I m not sure how we would write the meaning of "will not".


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## Riyan

Roymalika said:


> I asked how you would write the meaning of " will not" because one of my teachers once told me that if something has a meaning, it should have capability to be written down.
> For example, the word "clever" has a meaning. And it can be written down as: _smart_. I m not sure how we would write the meaning of "will not".


One of the hundred meanings of *won't/ will not *is 'to indicate that the action of that verb is _not_ going to take place in the future'.
For example: I _won't _be there tomorrow.


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## dojibear

Roymalika said:


> I asked how you would write the meaning of " will not" because one of my teachers once told me that if something has a meaning, it should have capability to be written down.


Did your teacher say it can be written down *using different words*?


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## london calling

Roymalika said:


> Because it does not have any meaning.


You seem to think that only nouns are words, which is untrue. A word is a linguistic unit made up of one (for example the indefinite article 'a') or more letters. All parts of speech are words.


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## bennymix

Roymalika.   There is an issue, here.   But almost everything (made of letters, aside from headers)  you see on a page of text is a word.  Borderline cases:  "Eww"  "Ooo".   Those might be debated.   If you ask, "How do you like sushi" and I say "Eww," I'm expressing disgust; there's an intended meaning.   BUT if you hit me in the belly, and I make the sound "ooof";   that is clearly not a word.


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## Roymalika

bennymix said:


> BUT if you hit me in the belly, and I make the sound "ooof"; that is clearly not a word.


Can you explain why it is not a word?




dojibear said:


> Did your teacher say it can be written down *using different words*?


Yes.


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## Barque

Are you thinking of what you're saying?


Roymalika said:


> because one of my teachers once told me that if something has a meaning, it should have capability to be written down.


If "will not" didn't have a meaning, you could say "I do it" to mean "I will not do it". You could just omit "will not" if it's meaningless. But you can't, can you?

"Will" and "not" do have meanings that can be written. Try the dictionary.


Roymalika said:


> Can you explain why it is not a word?


It's a representation of a sound. I'd call it a word once it's written down.

Have you looked up "word" in the dictionary?


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## Roymalika

Barque said:


> It's a representation of a sound. I'd call it a word once it's written down.


Sorry I dont understand what you're saying.
The dictionary says:
...consisiting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation

"ooof" has a spoken sound and it can be written. Why is it not a word then?


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## Barque

Roymalika said:


> "ooof" has a spoken sound and it can be written. Why is it not a word then?


Did you read my post?

I said:


Barque said:


> I'd call it a word once it's written down.


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## bennymix

Here's a definition from a linguistics dictionary {SIL}.

*Word*

Definition: 





[TD valign="top"]            
A word is a unit which is a constituent at the phrase level and above. It is sometimes identifiable according to such criteria as

being the minimal possible unit in a reply
having features such as
a regular stress pattern, and
phonological changes conditioned by or blocked at word boundaries
 

being the largest unit resistant to insertion of new constituents within its boundaries, or
being the smallest constituent that can be moved within a sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical.            

A word is sometimes placed, in a hierarchy of grammatical constituents, above the morpheme level and below the phrase level.
Word


===
Further, when we hear people speak, a) the 'words' have some standard meaning in the community,  b) the speaker is intending to convey that meaning.

The dictionary compares 'word' with 'morpheme,' the smallest unit with its own meaning.[/TD]


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## bennymix

Look, scientists in a particular area mostly agree on defintions, but there is an element of arbitrariness.    Nonetheless, you can't pick a quarrel.   Suppose a biologist says,  "A sponge is an animal"   {='not' is a word}.   You can't just start an argument by saying. "To me, it doesn't seem at all like an animal because it does not locomote;  it's fixed; so it's a plant."   {'not' is not a word}.

PS: _ Eww_ is in dictionary.com.  Also M-W and Cambridge.   _Oof_  is not.

'not' is in every dictionary of English.


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## Andygc

Of course "oof" in response to a punch in the belly is a word. Its meaning will depend on the exact emotion experienced by the person punched, but typically it could mean "I am surprised and that hurt". A lot of meaning for such a short word.

It is, of course, in the OED, with citations going back to 1777.


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## Roymalika

Andygc said:


> Of course "oof" in response to a punch in the belly is a word. Its meaning will depend on the exact emotion experienced by the person punched, but typically it could mean "I am surprised and that hurt". A lot of meaning for such a short word


Andy, so you disagree with 
"BUT if you hit me in the belly, and I make the sound "ooof"; that is clearly not a word."?


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## Andygc

Andygc said:


> Of course "oof" in response to a punch in the belly is a word.


Yes, obviously. Why do I need to say something twice before you recognise what I have said?


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## Roymalika

Andygc said:


> Yes, obviously. Why do I need to say something twice before you recognise what I have said?


Yes, thanks. If something does not have any meaning but can be spoken or written, can it be a word?


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## Riyan

Roymalika said:


> Yes, thanks. If something does not have any meaning but can be spoken or written, can it be a word?


Can you give an example of anything that _does not have any meaning but can be spoken or written?_


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## Andygc

Roymalika said:


> Yes, thanks. If something does not have any meaning but can be spoken or written, can it be a word?


How can something that is spoken not have meaning? Language is spoken and writing is a means of recording speech. It follows that anything written must also have meaning.


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## Hulalessar

The definition in post 20 uses the word "sometimes". That emphasises that "word" is a slippery concept. A definition that fits one language may not fit another.

Whether sounds like "oof" are words however you define "word" is a question which can be considered independent of any given language. Clearly not all sounds made by the human vocal tract are words even if an attempt is made to represent them in writing. I am inclined to think that whether a sound is a word or not depends on one or more of the following:

· the degree of control you exercise when making it
· whether the sounds you make include phonemes of your native language
· whether the sound you make depends on the language you speak

If you tread on a native English speaker's foot he may say "ow" whilst a native French speaker will probably say "aie". Neither utterance involves phonemes absent from the speaker's native language. I would therefore say that "ow" and "aie" are words. However, if a native speaker of English or French is crying out in agony the sounds he makes are likely to be similar and not involve phonemes of his native language. Such sounds are not words.


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## Roymalika

riyanswat said:


> Can you give an example of anything that _does not have any meaning but can be spoken or written?_





Andygc said:


> How can something that is spoken not have meaning? Language is spoken and writing is a means of recording speech. It follows that anything written must also have meaning.


The best example is abbreviations.
LCD, CSS (Central Superior Services), MIR (Magnetic resonance imaging), MIT (Messachussets Institute of Technology) etc.

They can be spoken and written (as I have done above), but dont have any meaning.


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## Henares

Maybe your teacher meant verbs and nouns referring to physical objects. What does mean “he” or “and” or “the” or” this“? Some words have meaning only in context. And that’s how we use languages.


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## Riyan

Roymalika said:


> The best example is abbreviations.
> LCD, CSS (Central Superior Services), MIR (Magnetic resonance imaging), MIT (Messachussets Institute of Technology) etc.
> 
> They can be spoken and written (as I have done above), but dont have any meaning.








If LCD does not have any meaning, then why do you call this thing LCD?


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## Andygc

Roymalika said:


> but dont have any meaning


Really?  What does LCD mean? Liquid Crystal Display, last time I looked.


riyanswat said:


> If LCD does not have any meaning, then why do you call this thing LCD?


Well, I'm not sure. It might be an LED display, but either way it's a pretty good bit of kit.


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## Roymalika

Andygc said:


> What does LCD mean? Liquid Crystal Display, last time I looked.


OK. Thanks, I did not know that it has meaning.
Can you tell me some combinations of letters which are not words?


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## heypresto

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ BHNNVTD LLLLLJK MPPLWQ CCDESSWA.


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## Riyan

Roymalika said:


> OK. Thanks, I did not know that it has meaning.
> Can you tell me some combinations of letters which are not words?


Xyz, jkl, bcdj, jdndn, djdkls etc.


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## heypresto

This whole sentence is meaningless.


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## Roymalika

riyanswat said:


> Xyz, jkl, bcdj, jdndn, djdkls etc.





heypresto said:


> ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ BHNNVTD LLLLLJK MPPLWQ CCDESSWA.


Thanks. Are our usernames Roymalika, Heypresto, Riyanswat etc words?


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## Riyan

Roymalika said:


> Thanks. Are our usernames Roymalika, Heypresto, Riyanswat etc words?


Combination of words. But they're from different languages. Roy and Malika are probably meaningful words in your native language.


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## Henares

For sure our nicknames are not in the dictionary . But my is the birthplace of Miguel Cervantes, so it’s at least in the encyclopaedia


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## Riyan

Henares said:


> For sure they’re are not in the dictionary


I'm sure you meant _not in *English* dictionary. _


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## heypresto

_Hey_ and _presto _are words, and together '_hey presto_' is what a magician traditionally says, like 'abracadabra'.


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## Henares

@riyanswat  If my nickname was Sparrow I could find that word in the dictionary. But it does not mean I am a bird


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## bennymix

Andygc said:


> Of course "oof" in response to a punch in the belly is a word. Its meaning will depend on the exact emotion experienced by the person punched, but typically it could mean "I am surprised and that hurt". A lot of meaning for such a short word.
> 
> It is, of course, in the OED, with citations going back to 1777.



Hi Andy.   I have a couple 'words' you can submit to Oxford;  say they first appeared here in the forum, 2020.  Background. I involuntarily farted and the sound was _brrrt_;  my friend with me, almost at the same time, couldn't help himself and let one out that sounded more like _blaaat_.    Now consider a report by a bystander.

"A_ brrrt_ came from benny and then a_ blaaat_ came from his friend."     Now I suppose you'll say that these 'words' had meaning, in that I benny at the time felt relief.  My friend, it turns out, felt exaltation.

Well, Andy, you have your own peculiar lexicon and it doesn't make the basic distinctions as to 'meaning' that the semiotics folks like Peirce do (icon, index, and symbol).

Your world is fraught with 'words' and meanings.  The little mice in your house that do 'eek, eek' when you scare them, utter 'words' that indicate "I'm scared." (_Eek_ is in Oxford).


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## heypresto

bennymix said:


> "A_ brrrt_ came from benny


Is this another AE/BE thing? Here we spell it 'brrrrt'. But we only pronounce the third and fourth R's.


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## bennymix

(Just a you have _tyres_ and we have _tires_!)

PS.  I shall pass along this variant spelling to Merriam Webster, so it can be listed as (_var. BE_).


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## Myridon

Andygc said:


> How can something that is spoken not have meaning? Language is spoken and writing is a means of recording speech. It follows that anything written must also have meaning.


In the above text,  "ooof" is meant to represent the involuntary sound made by air forced through by a punch to the gut.  It's not speech so it's not a word. It is not a word any more than the sound of a rib bone snapping from the same punch.  Some people might say "ooof" voluntarily when punched (or even if someone pretends to throw a punch). In that case, it is a word - an act of speech, not an involuntary act that accidentally made a sound.


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## london calling

Roymalika said:


> The best example is abbreviations.
> LCD, CSS (Central Superior Services), MIR (Magnetic resonance imaging), MIT (Messachussets Institute of Technology) etc.
> 
> They can be spoken and written (as I have done above), but dont have any meaning.


They're acronyms. Acronyms are made up of... can you guess? Words.


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## Andygc

Myridon said:


> In the above text, "ooof" is meant to represent the involuntary sound made by air forced through by a punch to the gut.


Which "above text"? As soon as you say "oof" while discussing it, it's a word. And when you write it, giving it a spelling, it's a word.

As the OED puts it:
Representing the sound made when expelling breath loudly through the mouth, and hence expressing various emotions conveyed by this action, such as alarm, annoyance, wonder, relief, resignation, etc. Occasionally as n.

The English word represents a particular sound. I think you might find that an Italian or a Frenchman does not, when punched, say "oof".


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## Ponyprof

This is a very strange thread. 

The original question was odd, since clearly a contraction is a word.

An onomatopoetic word is a word. If I am reading a super hero comic book and the fight scenes include Oof! Argh! Boff! Whomp! In big yellow letters then these are clearly words.

However, the real life noises they represent are not words. Several years ago, I witnessed what was clearly a gang related assault and stabbing outside my house: multiple young men swarming a victim who later "refused to cooperate with police." When the police officer took my statement he asked if I heard any words. I said I had not, just grunts and thuds. The officer then asked if perhaps I had heard words in another language. I said that I didn't think so, they worked silently and fast.

If I was a cartoonist and wanted to illustrate that event I would no doubt write the words ooof! Grunt! Huhh! on the picture even though no one obviously said "grunt" during the fight.


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## DonnyB

This thread, although quite informative, and in places entertaining, has unfortunately drifted a long way outside the remit of our forum and I'm consequently now closing it.  

Thanks to everyone who's taken part for their suggestions and comments.  DonnyB - moderator.


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