What is a dummy word?

A dummy word is a grammatical unit that has no meaning, but completes a sentence to make it grammatical.

• It is raining.
• Does he know?

• What is a word?

Crystal 1985 102–103

Hartmann and Stork 1972 81

Pei and Gaynor 1954 70

Mish 1991 437

Context for this page:

• Concept module: dummy word
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): D
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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