Well-formedness

In linguistics, well-formedness is the quality of a clause, word, or other linguistic element that conforms to the grammar of the language of which it is a part. Well-formed words or phrases are grammatical, meaning they obey all relevant rules of grammar. In contrast, a form that violates some grammar rule is ill-formed and does not constitute part of the language.

A word may be phonologically well-formed, meaning it conforms to the sound pattern of the language. For example, the nonce word wug coined by Jean Berko Gleason is phonologically well-formed, so informants are able to pluralize it regularly.[1] A word, phrase, clause, or utterance may be grammatically well-formed, meaning it obeys the rules of morphology and syntax. A semantically well-formed utterance or sentence is one that is meaningful. Grammatical well-formedness and semantic well-formedness do not always coincide. For example, the following sentence is grammatically well-formed, but has no clear meaning.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.[2]

The concept of well-formedness was developed in generative grammar during the twentieth century.[3] Sometimes native speakers of a language do not agree whether a particular word, phrase, or clause is well-formed. This problem of gradient well-formedness, uncertainty about the well-formedness of a particular example, is a problem for generative linguistics, which assumes that grammar follows some universal patterns that should not vary among speakers.

  1. ^ Breiss, Canaan (2021). "Inside the wug-test: phonological well-formedness and processing costs" (PDF). Retrieved 21 September 2023. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Chomsky, Noam (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague/Paris: Mouton. p. 15. ISBN 3-11-017279-8.
  3. ^ Lyons, John (1996). Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521438772.