It has been suggested that the word should be defined as "any segment of a sentence bounded by successive points 'at which pausing is possible'". Even if we grant that this criterion of potential pause will in fact segment utterances into units which we should wish to regard as words, it should be considered as a procedural help to the linguist working with informants, and not as a theoretical definition.
- Lyons (2004), a pag.18-19