{"id":1222,"date":"2021-05-02T02:51:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T02:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/chapter\/words-and-their-meaning\/"},"modified":"2023-02-03T00:06:02","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T00:06:02","slug":"words-and-their-meaning","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/chapter\/words-and-their-meaning\/","title":{"raw":"3.1 Words and Their Meaning","rendered":"3.1 Words and Their Meaning"},"content":{"raw":"It may seem a superficial question to ask \u201cwhat is a word?\u201d However, this question has stymied some of the greatest minds on history. Ferdinand de Saussure once said that a word is like a coin. It has two sides in that it has [pb_glossary id=\"634\"]form[\/pb_glossary] (the sounds that make up a word) and [pb_glossary id=\"638\"]meaning[\/pb_glossary] (the concept associated with it). In this sense, we could say that a word links form with meaning.\r\n\r\nWords also have some properties that go beyond these observations. For example, words are free as they can appear in [pb_glossary id=\"639\"]isolation[\/pb_glossary]. \u201cHow was the hamburger?\u201d \u201cDelicious\u201d. A perfectly sensible word that provides meaning on its own. Words are also [pb_glossary id=\"640\"]movable[\/pb_glossary]. They are not bound to a particular position in a sentence. Consider these examples:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>John is making a hamburger.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Hamburger is delicious.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Jenny loves to eat hamburgers for dinner.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe word <em>hamburger<\/em> can appear as the first, last or middle word in a sentence. However, now consider whether the meaning of words is inseparable from the form. We know we can break up a word\u2019s form into phonemes. Can me break up a word\u2019s meaning in the same way?","rendered":"<p>It may seem a superficial question to ask \u201cwhat is a word?\u201d However, this question has stymied some of the greatest minds on history. Ferdinand de Saussure once said that a word is like a coin. It has two sides in that it has <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_1222_634\">form<\/a> (the sounds that make up a word) and <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_1222_638\">meaning<\/a> (the concept associated with it). In this sense, we could say that a word links form with meaning.<\/p>\n<p>Words also have some properties that go beyond these observations. For example, words are free as they can appear in <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_1222_639\">isolation<\/a>. \u201cHow was the hamburger?\u201d \u201cDelicious\u201d. A perfectly sensible word that provides meaning on its own. Words are also <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_1222_640\">movable<\/a>. They are not bound to a particular position in a sentence. Consider these examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>John is making a hamburger.<\/li>\n<li>Hamburger is delicious.<\/li>\n<li>Jenny loves to eat hamburgers for dinner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The word <em>hamburger<\/em> can appear as the first, last or middle word in a sentence. However, now consider whether the meaning of words is inseparable from the form. We know we can break up a word\u2019s form into phonemes. Can me break up a word\u2019s meaning in the same way?<\/p>\n<div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_1222_634\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_1222_634\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>The sounds that make up a word.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_1222_638\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_1222_638\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>The concept associated with a word.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_1222_639\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_1222_639\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Words that appear in utterances alone and demarcated by moments of silence on either end.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><template id=\"term_1222_640\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_1222_640\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>The concept that words are movable and not bound to a particular position in a sentence.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-1222","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":1220,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1396,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1222\/revisions\/1396"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/1220"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/1222\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/psyclanguage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}