SECTION 5.

1: ANATOMY
OF A WORD
Instructional Objectives
After studying this section, you should be able to:
1. Describe the various types of words and how they change shape according to the
grammatical context in which they are found.
2. Discuss syllable structure and phonotactic rules.
3. Explain the symbol grounding problem and various attempts to resolve it.
4. Discuss the issues surrounding sound symbolism.

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What are Words?
Try to identify as many words as you can in the following videos:
Gad Elmaleh Sings A Song In Made-Up English

Skwerl: How English sounds to non-English speakers

◦ Skwerl Script

How were you able to distinguish the real from the fake?
What are Words?
Word
◦ Minimal unit of meaningful speech that can stand alone
◦ “brown”
◦ “bear”
◦ Label for a concept

Source

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What are Words?
Concept
◦ Mental representation based on experiences
◦ E.g., Classes of objects
◦ E.g., Classes of events

Source

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What are Words?
Label (symbol) for a concept
◦ Do we know the label of EACH concept we know?

Source

Source

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What are Words?
Label (symbol) for a concept
◦ Do we know EACH label for ALL the concepts we know?

Illustrates the dual nature of words (duality of patterning)

◦ Phonological form – how it sounds
◦ [w],[ə],[r],[d],[z]
◦ Semantic representation – what it means

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How Many Types of Words are There?
Think back to people with Broca’s aphasia…
◦ When describing a fairy tail, they might say "a mother...three kids...bad
mother...one kid...”

◦ Is this meaningful, grammatically correct, or both?

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How Many Types of Words are There?
1. Content words (aka open-class words) – labels for concepts
◦ Nouns
◦ Verbs
◦ Adjectives
Why are they also known as open class words?
◦ Think back to the tachometer & epaulet!

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How Many Types of Words are There?
2. Function words (aka closed-class words) – serve grammatical
purposes
◦ Prepositions (of, at, in, to, from)
◦ Determiners (the, a, some) – link nouns with referents
◦ Conjunctions (and, but, because) – combine phrases and sentences into larger
units
A princess was walking by a pond when she saw a frog. The frog said, “Princess,
kiss me and I will turn into a handsome prince.” The princess carefully
considered the proposition. (Ludden 168)

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Do Words ALWAYS Remain the Same?
No, they’re shapeshifters Did the
Lemma meaning of the
◦ Most basic form of a word (naked) word change?

Lexeme
◦ Set of all forms a word can take (dressed up depending on occasion)

man boy run walk

◦ man’s ◦ boy’s ◦ runs ◦ walks
◦ men ◦ boys ◦ ran ◦ walked
◦ men’s ◦ boys’ ◦ running ◦ walking

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Review
Question 1
◦ What is the difference between a word and a concept?
◦ Can you have one without the other?
◦ Why do we say that words have a dual nature?
Question 2
◦ Explain the difference between content words and function words.
◦ Why are they also referred to as open-class words and closed-class words?
◦ What are the major categories of words in each class?
Question 3
◦ What is the difference between a lemma and a lexeme? For the following
lemmas, create a list of their related lexemes: hand, foot, talk, speak.

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What is the Phonology
of Word Forms?
Dual nature of words
◦ Semantic representation
◦ Label for a concept (meaning)
◦ Phonological form
◦ Phonemes à Syllables à Word
Phonemes
◦ ”v” in video
◦ vs. syllables: vi-de-o

Source
13
◦ Initial consonantal ◦ Vowel (nucleus) &
portion final consonantal
portion (coda)

◦ Match onsets to
alliterate: ◦ Match rimes to
rhyme:
◦ Kim's kid kept
kicking like ◦ cash, dash,
crazy. stash; chase,
place, race

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What is the Phonology of Word Forms?
Words uttered in isolation composed of one or more syllables
◦ In isolation: It’s; an; elephant
◦ How many syllables per word in the example above?

Within utterances, phonemes regroup to form syllables across word

boundaries
◦ In utterance: It-sa-NEL-e-phant

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What is the Phonology of Word Forms?
Phonology of word forms: Try pronouncing these
◦ Phonotactic rules nonwords:
• Glunt
◦ Language-specific rules for • Obligrate
combining phonemes into • Thessily
syllables to form words • Tsbub
• Kherthub
• Dletter

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Phonotactic Rules
Distinguish between:
◦ Possible nonwords: treb, fleen, gorp
◦ Impossible nonwords: tber, fneel, gpor

Vary from language to language

◦ tski legal in Japanese (means “moon”), but not English
◦ street not legal in Japanese, but it is in English

***Allowed us to appreciate the made up English!

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What are Words?
Dual nature of words
◦ Phonological form
◦ Semantic representation

Words are symbols

◦ But where does the meaning of a symbol (word) come from?

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Where does the meaning of a symbol
(word) come from?
Symbol grounding problem

Traditional cognitive approach

◦ Symbols acquire meaning through relationships with other
symbols
◦ “Doctor” as “doctor – nurse”

◦ Dictionaries define words with other words

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Example of definition
lam·baste
/lamˈbāst,lamˈbast/
Source
verb
verb: lambast
criticize (someone or something) harshly.

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Example of definition
Bachelor: un-married, adult, male

Source

21
Symbol Grounding Problem
Unless symbols (words) are grounded in some set of
representations outside of the symbol system, the
symbols cannot be assigned meaning
◦“Doctor” as “doctor – nurse” is meaningless
◦WHY?!?!?!

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Symbol Grounding Problem
Chinese room argument (Searle, 1980)
◦ Philosophical demonstration that meaning cannot arise solely from
relationships among symbols

◦ At least some of the words we use must be grounded in real-world

experience

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Searle’s Chinese Room Argument
Thought Experiment

English
Speaker

Source

24
Searle’s Chinese Room Argument

Source

25
Searle’s Chinese Room Argument

Source

26
Searle’s Chinese Room Argument

Source

27
Searle’s Chinese Room Argument

Source

28
DAVID LUDDEN - THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
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Symbol Grounding Problem
Until we ground symbols in something other than
more symbols, they have no semantic content and
hence, no meaning

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Symbol Grounding Solution?
Embodied representation
◦ Motor and perceptual experiences give symbols (words) meaning
◦ Helps us make the abstract concrete!
◦ E.g.: when you hear cat
◦ †₣₴₾⌂ + sensory & motor experiences

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Example – Bouba-Kiki Effect

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Embodied Cognition and Metaphor
◦ Concrete concepts (e.g., apples & cats) understood in terms of
sensorimotor experiences

◦ Abstract concepts understood in terms of metaphors based on

sensorimotor experiences
◦ The temperature’s rising.
◦ RISE = MOTION + UP; MOTION suggests CHANGE; UP suggests HOT

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Is there neurological evidence to support
the relationship between word
processing and the motor system?

34
Motor System
Parts of brain that control leg, face,
and hand movement are distinct

If meaning is obtained from motor

system, should we see activation in
motor areas to movement related
words?

35
fMRI Studies
Examined activity of:
◦ words which refer to movement
vs.

◦ actual movement

◦ Different kinds of words

produced different patterns of Increased activity in brain areas
activation in motor system that are active when subjects
moved corresponding body part

36
So, where does meaning
come from?
SYMBOLS/ CONCEPTS
 What about Sound
Symbolism?
Sound symbolism
◦ *Phonemes (sound) à meaning

Arbitrariness of the sign (Hockett, 1960)

◦ Sound ≠ meaning
◦ ***Words: arbitrary symbols for concepts

Source
What about Sound Symbolism?
Systematic sound symbol patterns are frequent, so NOT always
arbitrary
◦ English onset gl (“light”): glow, gleam, glitter, glisten, glossy, glare

***MORE apparent for grammar than semantics

◦ Feminine (-a) vs. masculine (-o) nouns in Spanish
◦ Word form patterns are used to organize words into grammatical
categories

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What about Sound Symbolism?
Onomatopoeia
◦ Word that represents a sound – thud, bang, animal noises
◦ Sound words vary widely from language to language
◦ Why Do Animals Make Different Sounds in Different Languages?
◦ Pigs say oink in English but bubu in Japanese

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Review
Question 4
◦ What is the symbol grounding problem?
◦ What is the traditional cognitive approach to the problem? (Hint: Doctor-
Nurse)
◦ How does the Chinese Room argument demonstrate the weakness of this
approach?
◦ Explain the embodied representation approaches to solving this problem.

Question 5
◦ What is meant by the expression “arbitrariness of the sign”?
◦ In what ways do languages make use of sound symbolism?
◦ In what sense is onomatopoeia arbitrary?

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