OT: is this real?

Geckomlis · #1 December 24th, 2003, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
What aspects of being a word do they not qualify for? They are properly constructed strings of letters that have a real, functional meaning.

word
meaningful unit of language sounds: a meaningful sound or combination of sounds that is a unit of language or its representation in a text.

Fyron · #2 December 24th, 2003, 06:55 PM

Which again is what those words are. They are quite meaningful units of language sounds.

Fyron · #3 December 24th, 2003, 06:57 PM

Would you consider "tetrachloride" a word?

narf poit chez BOOM · #4 December 24th, 2003, 10:07 PM

Quote:

"a word is a unit of speech or writing that symbolizes or communicates a meaning. "

it doesn't say 'that has been used to'. so what i posted is a word.

now, if you limited the arguement to words in common usage...

DavidG · #5 December 26th, 2003, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:

quote:

"a word is a unit of speech or writing that symbolizes or communicates a meaning. "

it doesn't say 'that has been used to'. so what i posted is a word.

I dispute the fact that these words 'communicate a meaning' You think a single person in the world can read or hear those words and get the specific meaning from them? and before anyone mentions it I think it is pretty clear that 'communicate a meaning' means to another human being. (else you could write the word out in binary and call it a long word)

intersting side note. The Guiness people also have a record for the longest 'real' word. (thus of course implying that they don't think DNA is a real word)

Fyron · #6 December 26th, 2003, 04:24 AM

Lets try this again. Is tetrachloride a "word"?

Puke · #7 December 26th, 2003, 06:54 AM

I consider "tetrachloride" to be a word. I do NOT consider the chemical representation of tetrachloride, "Cl4", to be a word. Thus, I do not consider ACGTTACGG to be a word, even though it does convey meaning.

I am hard pressed to come up with a strict definition, but it would probably involve being a component of language which can be used to construct a sentence or phrase. the simple ability to convey meaning is too broad, and my definition above is too poor. someone else will have to do better, but i think my first paragraph sums up the opinion of those arguing against Fyron.