Word boundary
The word boundary is the beginning and / or the end of a word.
Features of the word boundary
Since the end of the 8th century, written language has by and large used the space as a marking of the word boundary and enables the definition of the graphematic word .
In spoken German, not all word boundaries can be recognized by phonological features. Immediately recognizable word boundaries are for example beginning with a vowel words by the glottal plosive which a clear formant structure dictates.
Representation of the word boundaries
Modern linguistics marks word boundaries with the sign "#" if necessary. (Example: [#zi: # is # vax #] 'she is awake'.)
Meaning of word boundaries
Word boundaries help to identify words in texts according to criteria that are as clear as possible. For example, they can be used as an aid to identify words in texts using computers. However, one must be aware that in this way words are determined differently than when they are determined phonetically / phonologically, grammatically or semantically, for example. For many purposes, however, it is sufficient to determine the words using the word boundary criterion.
swell
- Helmut Glück (Ed.), With the collaboration of Friederike Schmöe : Metzler Lexikon Sprache. 3rd, revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-476-02056-8 (keyword: “word limit”).
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl-Dieter Bünting, Henning Bergenholtz: Introduction to Syntax. 2nd, revised edition. Athenaeum, Frankfurt / M. 1989, p. 39. ISBN 3-610-02194-2 .
