小组研究报告（演示）范例

研究报告（演示）范例

Research Project: Definition and Morphological Structure of the Word

Question 1: How do we define a word? 

      sub-question 1: Are RIGHT(direction) and RIGHT(morality) the same word?   

      sub-question 2: Are GO and WENT the same word?  

      sub-question 3: Are DOG and DOGS the same word? 

Question 2: what are the constituents of the word? what are the word composed of?  

      sub-question: are GO and WENT allomorphs? 

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Question 1: How do we define a word? 

According to Wang(2013:3) ，在语言中能独立、自由使用的具备完整意义的最小语言单位。

According to Zhang(2004:2), a word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function. 

According to Wen&Yang(2015:38), a word is the minimal meaningful free unit of language. 

example:  Bill saw John.

                 John saw Bill.

However, these definitions can't answer sub-questions 1-3. 

To solve these problems,  the concept LEXEME（词位） is introduced by Bloomfield （Hu&Jiang, 2002:129）. A lexeme is the abstract entity of a word. In other words, a lexeme is the abstract entity, while a word is the concrete realization of a word.  

GO and Went are the same word in terms of lexeme; but they are two words in terms of Grammar.

Conclusion: a word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function.  plus, different grammatical forms of a word are concrete realization of a common lexeme. 

KEY CONCEPTS： 

word: a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function.

lexeme:  the abstract entity of a word. 

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