18 What is a word?

18 WHAT IS A WORD?
EXERCISES

1. 
   Comment on the problems you encounter in determining the number of words in the following nursery rhyme. Relate your answer to the different senses in which the term 'word' is used.
   

The grand old Duke of York

He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
Then he marched them down again. When they were up, they were up. And when they were down, they were down, and when they were only half way up
they were neither up nor down.

2. Find and analyze at least three examples of advertisements that exploit the homonymy, polysemy, or homophony of words.

3. Which ones of the italicised word-forms in the following sentences belongs to the same lexeme? What difficulties, if any, have you come across in determining whether word-forms belong to the same lexeme?

a. She saw him saw through that plank of wood.

b. Bill will pay the bill.
c. I saw a farmer near your farm again this morning.
d. Jan looked pale when she walked towards the pail.
e. I am sick of your claiming to be sick all the time.
f. I was looking at the book when she booked the ticket.

4. Using at least two fresh examples, show how syncretism can be used to support the distinction between word forms and grammatical words.

5. This is the beginning of W.H. Auden's poem 'Musée des Beaux Arts".

About suffering, they were never wrong.

The Old Masters...

These lines can be paraphrased as 'The Old Masters were never wrong about suffering."

Referring to the definition of the word given in this chapter, explain why it is correct to regard suffering as a word but incorrect to treat suffering as a word.