Re: [Lingo] 熟語

["David J Iannucci" <jlinux@example.com>]

> Thank you all.  単語 is perfect for my needs.  I've been studying 熟語 as
> a way to broaden my 音読み and wanted something to differentiate with.

Sure... just be careful that as your Japanese improves you don't start
to believe that 単語 is the inverse of 熟語... the two words have a parallel
pattern that makes treating them as a paradigmatic pair (simple-word,
compound-word) attractive. But as has been pointed out, this is not the
case, and 単語's meaning is rather broad, quite possibly including 熟語 as a
proper subset for many native speakers, I would guess.

If your goal is to have terms to use to distinguish types of vocabulary,
my advice would be to try to learn the more specific terms that are used
by language mavens: 和語, 漢語, 擬声語, 外来語, etc. And of course 動詞, 名詞,
形容詞, 後置詞, 助詞,... and 主語, 目的語, etc, etc :-)

Dave