Which statement best represents Willis's view of words and grammar?

Which statement best represents Willis's view of words and grammar?

• A. Willis's view is that words are small grammar and grammar is big words
• B. Lewis's view is that words are small grammar and grammar is big words
• C. Both believe the opposite
• D. Neither believes that

Answer: (A)

Willis views words as the basic units that carry only a small amount of grammatical information, while the system of grammar is extensive and distributed across many words and constructions. In this perspective, each word contributes a limited piece of grammar, but the full set of rules and patterns of the language emerges from how countless word combinations are used. So words are small grammar, and grammar is big words. This fits Willis’s approach, where the vast, flexible grammar comes from the lexicon and its usage rather than from each word encoding all grammatical information.

Willis views words as the basic units that carry only a small amount of grammatical information, while the system of grammar is extensive and distributed across many words and constructions. In this perspective, each word contributes a limited piece of grammar, but the full set of rules and patterns of the language emerges from how countless word combinations are used. So words are small grammar, and grammar is big words. This fits Willis’s approach, where the vast, flexible grammar comes from the lexicon and its usage rather than from each word encoding all grammatical information.