研究报告（演示）范例
Research Project: Definition and Morphological Structure of the Word
Question 1: How do we define a word?
sub-question 1: Are RIGHT(direction) and RIGHT(morality) the same word?
sub-question 2: Are GO and WENT the same word?
sub-question 3: Are DOG and DOGS the same word?
Question 2: what are the constituents of the word? what are the word composed of?
sub-question: are GO and WENT allomorphs?
Question 1: How do we define a word?
According to Wang(2013:3) ，在语言中能独立、自由使用的具备完整意义的最小语言单位。
According to Zhang(2004:2), a word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function.
According to Wen&Yang(2015:38), a word is the minimal meaningful free unit of language.
example: Bill saw John.
John saw Bill.
However, these definitions can't answer sub-questions 1-3.
To solve these problems, the concept LEXEME（词位） is introduced by Bloomfield （Hu&Jiang, 2002:129）. A lexeme is the abstract entity of a word. In other words, a lexeme is the abstract entity, while a word is the concrete realization of a word.
GO and Went are the same word in terms of lexeme; but they are two words in terms of Grammar.
Conclusion: a word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function. plus, different grammatical forms of a word are concrete realization of a common lexeme.
KEY CONCEPTS：
word: a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound, meaning and syntactic function.
lexeme: the abstract entity of a word.
