What is a word?
This is an incremental work that clarifies foundational concepts for researchers in linguistics and related fields.
The paper addresses the lack of a clear model for defining a word in linguistics and philosophy, highlighting its impact on designing paradigms for lexical access and semantics, and provides a pedagogical outline of misconceptions and current theories.
In order to design strong paradigms for isolating lexical access and semantics, we need to know what a word is. Surprisingly few linguists and philosophers have a clear model of what a word is, even though words impact basically every aspect of human life. Researchers that regularly publish academic papers about language often rely on outdated, or inaccurate, assumptions about wordhood. This short pedagogical document outlines what the lexicon is most certainly not (though is often mistakenly taken to be), what it might be (based on current good theories), and what some implications for experimental design are.