LEXICOLOGY IS THE MAIN BRANCH OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

What does it mean to know a word? Various linguists have different answers to this very subjective question. To know a word is to enrich one’s vocabulary, which in of itself constitutes two major categories: receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary. The former refers to words that a reader is able to recognize upon encountering them in texts or conversations, while the latter relates to the ability to correctly apply these words in specific contexts such as conversations and writing. Therein lies the aforementioned conflict: is receptive vocabulary sufficient in the context of word knowledge, or does a user also need to attain productive vocabulary in order to claim to know a word?