Words, Sentences, and
Dictionaries
Agita Risma N., S.Hum, M.A
IKIP PGRI Madiun
1. Words as meaningful building-
blocks of language
Words are basic in 2 senses:
1. Their meanings that are
unpredictable and so must be listed
in dictionaries (the meaning is
arbitrary/ not logical).
2. They are the building-blocks out of
which phrases and sentences are
formed.
Examples:
1. Month N . Any of twelve
portions into which the year is
divided
2. Miranda went to Paris last month.
NP VP PP
sentence
2. Words as : Types and Tokens
Example:
Mary goes to Edinburgh next week,
and she intends going to
Washington next month.
Therefore, how many word-types or
word-tokens which are listed in
dictionary?
So, what’s type? What’s token?
Type : words as listed in
dictionaries entries
Token : type which appear more
than once
3. Words with predictable
meanings
a. Onomatopoeic: Words created to
sound like the thing that they name.
English Japanese Tagalog Indonesian
Cock-a-doo Kokekokko Kuk-kakauk Kukuruyuk
Meow Nya Niyaw Meong
b. Sound symbolism: set of words which
symbolize particular meaning
words that begin with sl-
slip, slop, slurp, slither, slick usually
reflected with meaning ‘smoothness’
or ‘wetness’
c. The use of Affixation. Any words that
are composed of independently
identifiable parts, where the meaning of
the parts is sufficient to determine the
meaning of whole word.
example:
dioecious (having male and female
flowers)
Gingko trees reproduce dioeciously
4. Non-words (phrase and
sentence) with unpredictable
meaning
Idiom
-white house
-hot spot
Proverb
-too many cooks spoil the broth
-it’s no use crying over spilt milk
Conclusion: words vs lexical items
Words have 2 characteristics:
1. Their meanings are unpredictable
lexical item
2. They are building-blocks for
phrases and sentences word
