no
/nō/
adverb
- Used to express refusal, denial, disbelief, emphasis, or disagreement. No, I'm not going. No, you're wrong.
- Not at all; not by any degree. Often used with the comparative. no better; no more.
- Not. whether or no.
Strictly speaking, words themselves are meaningless -- that is, they have no intrinsic meaning.1 However, they refer to things that do -- the ideas and concepts in our minds.2 Which is to say that words are meaningful inasmuch as they describe the ideas we are trying to communicate.
For example, you have your idea of number 2 and I have my own, though very similar, idea of that same thing. And at some point we both have learned an English word referring to those ideas -- "two". So, when you say "two apples", I combine (in my mind) my idea of number 2 and my idea of an apple, and this way I understand what you are talking about.
1 That why it's impossible to define language with language without creating circular references -- every dictionary has them.
2 In this sense, words and language are not unlike another confusing concept -- money. It too has no intrinsic value. However, money is a record of something that has (it’s is IOU — at least it should be).
Answer from Yuri Zavorotny on Stack ExchangeStrictly speaking, words themselves are meaningless -- that is, they have no intrinsic meaning.1 However, they refer to things that do -- the ideas and concepts in our minds.2 Which is to say that words are meaningful inasmuch as they describe the ideas we are trying to communicate.
For example, you have your idea of number 2 and I have my own, though very similar, idea of that same thing. And at some point we both have learned an English word referring to those ideas -- "two". So, when you say "two apples", I combine (in my mind) my idea of number 2 and my idea of an apple, and this way I understand what you are talking about.
1 That why it's impossible to define language with language without creating circular references -- every dictionary has them.
2 In this sense, words and language are not unlike another confusing concept -- money. It too has no intrinsic value. However, money is a record of something that has (it’s is IOU — at least it should be).
Yes, words, by definition, have meanings. But some expressions may have no meanings, even though they are considered words. This is because the definition of "word" is broader than the definition of "meaning." For example...
That
It
This
Here
There
Now
These expressions all refer to something, but they do not have a specific meaning. This is because they can be used to refer to different things in different contexts.
Like expression "that" can be used to refer to a person, a place, a thing, or an idea. The expression "it" can be used to refer to a situation, a feeling, or an object etc etc
Strictly speaking, words themselves are meaningless -- that is, they have no intrinsic meaning.1 However, they refer to things that do -- the ideas and concepts in our minds.2 Which is to say that words are meaningful inasmuch as they describe the ideas we are trying to communicate.
For example, you have your idea of number 2 and I have my own, though very similar, idea of that same thing. And at some point we both have learned an English word referring to those ideas -- "two". So, when you say "two apples", I combine (in my mind) my idea of number 2 and my idea of an apple, and this way I understand what you are talking about.
1 That why it's impossible to define language with language without creating circular references -- every dictionary has them.
2 In this sense, words and language are not unlike another confusing concept -- money. It too has no intrinsic value. However, money is a record of something that has (it’s is IOU — at least it should be).
Answer from Yuri Zavorotny on Stack ExchangeI'm looking for words that have no meaning. In the past I recall looking at a phrase or sentence and thinking that a particular word in the phrase has no particular meaning in that context, that somehow the idiom has just led to that way of saying something. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything like this now that I want to.
The only thing I can think of now is interjections, but there are others. Can anyone think of some?
I'm new to the study of linguistics and to the subreddit, so forgive if this has been asked before. (I did a search on the subreddit but didn't find anything)
One general term would be function words; these are words that do not carry any lexical meaning, but are used to link content words together and clarify their relationships (eg in the case of prepositions or conjunctions).
It is indeed difficult to see exactly what you have in mind without any examples; other possibilities would be particle, which is eg used in Japanese to mark certain grammatical features (such as 'direct object').
Some people use the term empty verb for the auxiliary in phrases like to have/take a shower, where you could just use to shower directly; here you can add the tense feature to the auxiliary as in She had/took a shower.
As an aside: there are no words that "carry no meaning". If a word has no meaning, it is redundant, and would not be there at all. In linguistics you distinguish between lexical meaning and functional/grammatical meaning: the former you would find in a dictionary definition, whereas the latter is not always easy to put into words, as it describes relationships between elements in and structure of a sentence.
Update after example: Hard to say. A particle usually doesn't change its form (at least in English and most other natural languages I know), so the fact that the marker -to is attached to it would rule that possibility out in my view. That would leave empty verb as the most likely option, but then it is not really necessary when the marker is not used. I guess it would still be my preference, though.
I am not aware of a generic term covering all instances of function words without meaning, but only some specific cases. The pronoun it in phrases like It's raining or It seems that ... is called a dummy pronoun, pleonastic pronoun, or expletive pronoun.
Extending from this example one may call the particle ta in the question a dummy verb.