论词汇单位及其长度

On Lexical Units and Their Length

本文指出,汉语的词汇单位包括字、词、仂语、熟语等,并讨论各单位的长度。字的长度无需深论。词的长度较为复杂,典型格式是双字格,次典型格式是三字格。仂语和熟语一般以四字为常。惯用语、歇后语、谚语的长度则不那么规整。讨论词汇单位的长度,不仅有助于将各级各类词汇单位分清,对词典编纂亦有一定的参考价值。

This paper classifies lexical units into characters, words, phrases and sayings, and discusses their length. The typical length of a word is two characters and the atypical one is three.Phrases and idioms usually measure four characters in length while proverbs and popular sayings are irrgular in length. This study is supposed to shed light on the hierachy of lexical units and be of help to dictionary compiling.