<p>Three of the four categories are clearly part of the lexicon, one can be discussed, In detail:</p>
<ol>
<li>verbs/adjectives etc. derived from nouns (e.g. noun: lbala, verb: lbal, adj: lbalu) <strong>Yes</strong> Usual dictionaries (both monolingual and bilingual ones) have them separate</li>
<li>open compound words where there is a single English word equivalent (e.g. darosha tambu - princess) <strong>Yes</strong>, they are for sure <em>lexemes</em> but they are typically not considered words but expressions made of multiple words.</li>
<li>affixes <strong>Optional</strong>. They are typically seen as part of the grammar and not the lexicon, and they are surely not words. however there are enough dictionaries in the world that have entries for affixes as well.</li>
<li>proper nouns (I assume words such as days and months would be counted, but what about place names or organisation names?) <strong>Yes</strong>, specially if they are different in form from the usual native or international recognised form. Spanish <em>Estados Unidos</em> is different enough from <em>United States</em> to be an entry in the lexicon. Even if you only add a very predictable affix to place names (e.g. Esperanto <em>Berlino</em> for German <em>Berlin</em>) important place names should be in the dictionary. Of course, <em>Podunk</em> or <em>Kleinkleckersdorf</em> aren't worth mentioning.</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course, for the stated purpose of the question (<em>How many words ...</em>) only the first category is relevant, the second and the third aren't words at all (but still lexemes to appear in a practical dictionary), and the fourth is excluded for practical reasons (add a big thesaurus of geographical names to inflate your vocabulary? <em>Naw</em>).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-30T21:08:47.383Z
2024-12-01T23:39:54.623Z
2024-12-01T23:39:54.623Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p>I'd like to count how many words I have created so far and am wondering what I should consider a word. Is it standard practice to include, for example:</p>
<ol>
<li>verbs/adjectives etc. derived from nouns (e.g. noun: lbala, verb: lbal, adj: lbalu)</li>
<li>open compound words where there is a single English word equivalent (e.g. darosha tambu - princess)</li>
<li>affixes</li>
<li>proper nouns (I assume words such as days and months would be counted, but what about place names or organisation names?)</li>
</ol>

<vocabulary>
What counts as a word in a conlang's lexicon?
# What counts as a word in a conlang's lexicon?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-11-30)

I'd like to count how many words I have created so far and am wondering what I should consider a word. Is it standard practice to include, for example:

1. verbs/adjectives etc. derived from nouns (e.g. noun: lbala, verb: lbal, adj: lbalu)
2. open compound words where there is a single English word equivalent (e.g. darosha tambu - princess)
3. affixes
4. proper nouns (I assume words such as days and months would be counted, but what about place names or organisation names?)

**Tags:** vocabulary


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-11-30. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

Three of the four categories are clearly part of the lexicon, one can be discussed, In detail:

1. verbs/adjectives etc. derived from nouns (e.g. noun: lbala, verb: lbal, adj: lbalu) **Yes** Usual dictionaries (both monolingual and bilingual ones) have them separate
2. open compound words where there is a single English word equivalent (e.g. darosha tambu - princess) **Yes**, they are for sure *lexemes* but they are typically not considered words but expressions made of multiple words.
3. affixes **Optional**. They are typically seen as part of the grammar and not the lexicon, and they are surely not words. however there are enough dictionaries in the world that have entries for affixes as well.
4. proper nouns (I assume words such as days and months would be counted, but what about place names or organisation names?) **Yes**, specially if they are different in form from the usual native or international recognised form. Spanish *Estados Unidos* is different enough from *United States* to be an entry in the lexicon. Even if you only add a very predictable affix to place names (e.g. Esperanto *Berlino* for German *Berlin*) important place names should be in the dictionary. Of course, *Podunk* or *Kleinkleckersdorf* aren't worth mentioning.

Of course, for the stated purpose of the question (*How many words ...*) only the first category is relevant, the second and the third aren't words at all (but still lexemes to appear in a practical dictionary), and the fourth is excluded for practical reasons (add a big thesaurus of geographical names to inflate your vocabulary? *Naw*).


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