Word
hideA word is the smallest free form (an item that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content) in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme (e.g. cat), but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form (e.g. the English plural morpheme -s).
Typically, a word will consist of a root or stem, and zero or more affixes. Words can be combined to create other units of language, such as phrases, clauses, and/or sentences. A word consisting of two or more stems joined together form a compound. A word combined with an already existing word or part of a word form a portmanteau.
For more information about Word, read the full article at
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News tagged with words
Thoughtful words help couples stay fighting fit
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
12 hours ago |
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Couples who bring thoughtful words to a fight release lower amounts of stress-related proteins, suggesting that rational communication between partners can ease the impact of marital conflict on the immune system.
Disappearing vowels 'caught' on tape in US midwest
Oct 26, 2009 |
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Try to pronounce the words "caught" and "cot." If you're a New Yorker by birth, the two words will sound as different as their spellings. But if you grew up in California, you probably pronounce them identically.
How words shape the world
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Sep 08, 2009 |
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Our minds might be able to find the right word quicker than Google and yet we rarely pause to think about how language shapes everything we do.
Expressing comparisons is possible even without language, researchers find
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Jun 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Making comparisons between objects, like comparing a tiger to a cat, is elemental in the development of a child’s ability to grasp the concept of categories.
Language change can be traced using gigantic text archives
Jun 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Historical collections that include everything ever written in a dozen American and British newspapers since they started are now available electronically. Donald MacQueen from Uppsala University, Sweden, ...
Scientists discover oldest words in the English language, predict which ones are likely to disappear
Feb 26, 2009 |
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The oldest words in the English language include "I" and "who", while words like "dirty" could die out relatively quickly, British researchers said Thursday.
Scientists Model Words as Entangled Quantum States in our Minds
Feb 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- When you hear the word “planet,” do you automatically think of the word’s literal definition, or of other words, such as “Earth,” “space,” “Mars,” etc.? Especially when used in sentences, ...
New study may revolutionize language learning
Jan 27, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The teaching of languages could be revolutionised following ground-breaking research by Victoria University, New Zealand, PhD graduate Paul Sulzberger. Dr Sulzberger has found that the best way to learn a ...
Our faces, not just our ears 'hear' speech: study
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Jan 20, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A McGill-led study has found that the perception of speech sounds is modified by stretching facial skin in different directions. Different patterns of skin stretch affect how subjects perceive different words.
Baby talk: The roots of the early vocabulary in infants' learning from speech
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 30, 2008 |
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Although babies typically start talking around 12 months of age, their brains actually begin processing certain aspects of language much earlier, so that by the time they start talking, babies actually already know hundreds ...
Microsoft Gets Patent for Patently Offensive Audio Content
Oct 28, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Microsoft recently obtained a patent designed to create an Automatic Censorship of Audio Data For Broadcast . The invention is intended to act as a filter for live broadcasts where it is impracticable to delete or make inaudible certai ...
Scientists Watch As Listener's Brain Predicts Speaker's Words
Sep 11, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Rochester have shown for the first time that our brains automatically consider many possible words and their meanings before we've even heard the final sound of the word.
Scientist unveils secret of newborn's first words
Aug 26, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study could explain why "daddy" and "mommy" are often a baby's first words – the human brain may be hard-wired to recognize certain repetition patterns.
Indigenous children don't need number words to 'count', says new study
Aug 18, 2008 |
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The study, by researchers from the University of Melbourne and University College London, is set to be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
