What exactly are words? Are they the things that get listed in
dictionaries, or are they the basic units of sentence structure? Andrew
Carstairs-McCarthy explores the implications of these different
approaches to words in English. He explains the various ways in which
words are related to one another, and shows how the history of the
English language has affected word structure.Topics include: words,
sentences and dictionaries; a word and its parts (roots and affixes); a
word and its forms (inflection); a word and its relatives (derivation);
compound words; word structure; productivity; and the historical sources
of English word formation. Features: * presupposes no linguistic
training * aimed at students of English (literature or language) and
also provides a sound basis for further linguistic study * contains
ample exercise material, with answers and discussion, which can serve as
models for further exercises