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From: misrael@scripps.edu (Mark Israel)
Subject: Re: Article
Message-ID: <misraelE0B5Dr.M8y@netcom.com>
Sender: misrael@netcom14.netcom.com
Organization: The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA
References: <1996Nov1.145811.8652@vmsmail.gov.c <55g4q6$3fs@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> <01bbc908$e62f4700$9b8362cf@indirect.indirect.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 18:44:14 GMT
Lines: 42

In article <1996Nov1.145811.8652@vmsmail.gov.bc.ca>, totototo@mail.pacificcoast.net (Rodger Whitlock) writes:

> Words in English, compound or otherwise, do not span the word separators 
> (spaces).

  The Oxford Companion to the English Language distinguishes "eight kinds
of word":  the orthographic word, the phonological word, the morphological
word, the lexical word, the grammatical word, the onomastic word, the
lexicographical word, and the statistical word.  What Rodger has in mind 
is the orthographic word:  a visual sign with white space around it.

In article <55g4q6$3fs@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>, Ronald.J.Kimball@dartmouth.edu (Chipmunk) writes:

> You are so wrong.
> Soap opera.

   What Ronald has in mind is the lexical word, or lexeme:  a unit of
language whose full meaning cannot be understood from the meaning of its
components.  "Soap opera" contains two morphemes (which also happen to
be two orthographic words):  "soap" and "opera".  However, the meanings
of "soap" and "opera" (um, I mean the original meaning of "soap") do not 
give you the full meaning of "soap opera", so dictionaries must have an
entry for "soap opera".

   Since I can think of no other term for "orthographic word", I suggest
that we use "word" for "orthographic word" and "lexeme" for "lexical word".
So I side with Rodger, and against Ronald. 

In article <01bbc908$e62f4700$9b8362cf@indirect.indirect.com>, SteveMac@GoodNet.Com (Steve MacGregor) writes:

> If, by this, you intend to say that "soap opera" is a single compound
> word with a space in the middle, then I'll have to disagree with you. 

    "Soap opera" is a lexeme with a space in the middle.

> It is two words, both nouns, with the first modifying the second.

    Etymologically, yes.  But when a lexeme functions as a single part
of speech, why sub-parse it?

--
misrael@scripps.edu			Mark Israel
