THE DIFFERENCES AMONG WORD, WORD FORM AND LEXEME
In linguistic they are principles which explain the basic concept in morphology. Morphology is
defined as the study of the structures and classification of words and the units that make up
words. This essay will highlight the differences among word, word form and lexeme by defining
them and giving examples in natural language.
First and foremost a word is defined as a minimal unit of a sentence and it has an abstract
meaning for example walk, timayenda. It is abstract in sense that it cannot be pronounced or
written, there is relationship between meaning and the form. Oxford dictionary defines word as
distinct unit of language (sounds in speech or written letters) with a particular meaning
composed of one or more morphemes and also one or more phonemes that determine its sound
pattern. Word is the central importance to lexicology that is to say in morphology the word is not
sufficient in the analysis, because there are small units. Basically word can be defined depending
on whether we focus on its representation, the thought which it express or purely formal criteria
which lead to the term word that it is used to designate an intermediate structure smaller than a
whole phrase and yet larger than a single sound segment. However although it may be difficult to
define word even the non-literate speakers can divide the speech chain into words. According to
L. Bloomfield who suggested a formal definition of word he contrasted it with other significant
units, the morpheme or the minimal meaningful unit and the structure consisting potential of
more than one word.
To understand more about meaning or the definition of word we also have to consider the
characteristics of word. First the word is an uninterruptible unit, meaning to say that when
elements are added to a word to modify its meaning they are never included within that word.
They tend to respect the internal stability of the word and are added either at the beginning as
prefixes and suffixes at the end. To illustrate this the prefix un-and –able may be added to words
aware and drink and give unaware and drinkable respectively. Further examples in Chichewa
‘‘wa’’ can be a prefix as in a word wavomeleza and suffix “-ira’’ as in kulira from the verb lira.
Secondly, the word may consist of one or more morphemes, when it consist of one morpheme
only then it cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful units for examples dog, mwana,
work etc. However when words consist of more than one morpheme, they may be either complex
, or compound words consist of more than one free form for example birthday, utakafumbi. In
other cases the word may consist both complex and compound for instance windshield wiper
consist of the compound word wind, shield and the complex word wiper. Finally it is important
to group each word to what it belong to for there is a specific word class or part of speech, we
regard the various occurrences as separate word for example smoke as noun and as distinct from
smoke this time as a verb.
In linguistic a word is unit that can be spoken or written alone and still have meaning. In contrast
a lexeme is a group of word forms that are related to the same root word. The word in lexeme
will be grammatically different from each other, but they all function to represent the same
overall meaning. For instance “fly”,” flying’’, “flies” and “flew’’ are all derived from same root.
While they are different words, they all represent the same lexeme. Lexemes are represented or
named by single word called lemma or citation form. A clear example of this difference can be
found in dictionaries. Dictionary entries are made by a lexeme rather than by word in a literal
sense. A lexeme is an abstract unit which represented by word form for example cry, crying and
cried.
Word form is a particular shape that a word has in a particular occasion of a lexeme for example
teach can occurs as teaching, teaches and taught. Furthermore a word form is not abstract it has a
phonological and orthographical shape to illustrate this in our vernacular language Chichewa the
word lima can occur in different forms for example ulimi, mlimi and malimidwe. A word form
and lexeme behave similarly in a sense that morpheme is an abstract.
As already said it is difficult to define the word as it may refer to the word from the physical unit
or concrete realization either the orthographical word the written form or the phonological word
the uttered or transcribe form. It may refer to the lexeme, which is rather like a dictionary entry.
A lexeme includes all infected forms of a word, it is an abstract and is indicated by small capitals
for example walk, walks, walked and walking since the lexeme is an abstract it is conventional to
choose one of the inflected forms to be represent it such as infinitive of the verb or singular of
In linguistic they are principles which explain the basic concept in morphology. Morphology is
defined as the study of the structures and classification of words and the units that make up
words. This essay will highlight the differences among word, word form and lexeme by defining
them and giving examples in natural language.
First and foremost a word is defined as a minimal unit of a sentence and it has an abstract
meaning for example walk, timayenda. It is abstract in sense that it cannot be pronounced or
written, there is relationship between meaning and the form. Oxford dictionary defines word as
distinct unit of language (sounds in speech or written letters) with a particular meaning
composed of one or more morphemes and also one or more phonemes that determine its sound
pattern. Word is the central importance to lexicology that is to say in morphology the word is not
sufficient in the analysis, because there are small units. Basically word can be defined depending
on whether we focus on its representation, the thought which it express or purely formal criteria
which lead to the term word that it is used to designate an intermediate structure smaller than a
whole phrase and yet larger than a single sound segment. However although it may be difficult to
define word even the non-literate speakers can divide the speech chain into words. According to
L. Bloomfield who suggested a formal definition of word he contrasted it with other significant
units, the morpheme or the minimal meaningful unit and the structure consisting potential of
more than one word.
To understand more about meaning or the definition of word we also have to consider the
characteristics of word. First the word is an uninterruptible unit, meaning to say that when
elements are added to a word to modify its meaning they are never included within that word.
They tend to respect the internal stability of the word and are added either at the beginning as
prefixes and suffixes at the end. To illustrate this the prefix un-and –able may be added to words
aware and drink and give unaware and drinkable respectively. Further examples in Chichewa
‘‘wa’’ can be a prefix as in a word wavomeleza and suffix “-ira’’ as in kulira from the verb lira.
Secondly, the word may consist of one or more morphemes, when it consist of one morpheme
only then it cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful units for examples dog, mwana,
work etc. However when words consist of more than one morpheme, they may be either complex
, or compound words consist of more than one free form for example birthday, utakafumbi. In
other cases the word may consist both complex and compound for instance windshield wiper
consist of the compound word wind, shield and the complex word wiper. Finally it is important
to group each word to what it belong to for there is a specific word class or part of speech, we
regard the various occurrences as separate word for example smoke as noun and as distinct from
smoke this time as a verb.
In linguistic a word is unit that can be spoken or written alone and still have meaning. In contrast
a lexeme is a group of word forms that are related to the same root word. The word in lexeme
will be grammatically different from each other, but they all function to represent the same
overall meaning. For instance “fly”,” flying’’, “flies” and “flew’’ are all derived from same root.
While they are different words, they all represent the same lexeme. Lexemes are represented or
named by single word called lemma or citation form. A clear example of this difference can be
found in dictionaries. Dictionary entries are made by a lexeme rather than by word in a literal
sense. A lexeme is an abstract unit which represented by word form for example cry, crying and
cried.
Word form is a particular shape that a word has in a particular occasion of a lexeme for example
teach can occurs as teaching, teaches and taught. Furthermore a word form is not abstract it has a
phonological and orthographical shape to illustrate this in our vernacular language Chichewa the
word lima can occur in different forms for example ulimi, mlimi and malimidwe. A word form
and lexeme behave similarly in a sense that morpheme is an abstract.
As already said it is difficult to define the word as it may refer to the word from the physical unit
or concrete realization either the orthographical word the written form or the phonological word
the uttered or transcribe form. It may refer to the lexeme, which is rather like a dictionary entry.
A lexeme includes all infected forms of a word, it is an abstract and is indicated by small capitals
for example walk, walks, walked and walking since the lexeme is an abstract it is conventional to
choose one of the inflected forms to be represent it such as infinitive of the verb or singular of
