What exactly are words‎?‎ Are they the things that get listed in dictionaries‎,‎ or are they the basic units of sentence structure‎?‎ Andrew Carstairs‎-McCarthy explores the implications of these different approaches to words in English‎.‎ He explains the various ways in which words are related to one another‎,‎ and shows how the history of the English language has affected word structure‎.‎ Topics include‎:‎ words‎,‎ sentences and dictionaries‎;‎ a word and its parts ‎(‎roots and affixes‎)‎‎;‎ a word and its forms ‎(‎inflection‎)‎‎;‎ a word and its relatives ‎(‎derivation‎)‎‎;‎ compound words‎;‎ word structure‎;‎ productivity‎;‎ and the historical sources of English word formation‎.‎ Features‎:‎ * presupposes no linguistic training * aimed at students of English ‎(‎literature or language‎)‎ and also provides a sound basis for further linguistic study * contains ample exercise material‎,‎ with answers and discussion‎,‎ which can serve as models for further exercises