In language, a word is the smallest element that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical meaning). This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own. A word may consist of a single morpheme (for example: oh!, rock, red, quick, run, expect), or several (rocks, redness, quickly, running, unexpected), whereas a morpheme may not be able to stand on its own as a word (in the words just mentioned, these are -s, -ness, -ly, -ing, un-, -ed).

A complex word will typically include a root and one or more affixes (rock-s, red-ness, quick-ly, run-ning, un-expect-ed), or more than one root in a compound (black-board, rat-race). Words can be put together to build larger elements of language, such as phrases (a red rock), clauses (I threw a rock), and sentences (He threw a rock too but he missed).

The term word may refer to a spoken word or to a written word, or sometimes to the abstract concept behind either. Spoken words are made up of units of sound called phonemes, and written words of symbols called graphemes, such as the letters of the English alphabet.

Definitions[link]

The ease or difficulty of deciphering a word depends on the language. Dictionaries categorize a language's lexicon (i.e., its vocabulary) into lemmas. These can be taken as an indication of what constitutes a "word" in the opinion of the writers of that language.

Semantic definition[link]

Leonard Bloomfield introduced the concept of "Minimal Free Forms" in 1926. Words are thought of as the smallest meaningful unit of speech that can stand by themselves.^[1] This correlates phonemes (units of sound) to lexemes (units of meaning). However, some written words are not minimal free forms, as they make no sense by themselves (for example, the and of).^[2]

Some semanticists have proposed a theory of so-called semantic primitives or semantic primes, indefinable words representing fundamental concepts that are intuitively meaningful. According to this theory, semantic primes serve as the basis for describing the meaning, without circularity, of other words and their associated conceptual denotations.^[3]

Features[link]

In the Minimalist school of theoretical syntax, words (also called lexical items in the literature) are construed as "bundles" of linguistic features that are united into a structure with form and meaning.^[4] For example, the word "bears" has semantic features (it denotes real-world objects, bears), category features (it is a noun), number features (it is plural and must agree with verbs, pronouns, and demonstratives in its domain), phonological features (it is pronounced a certain way), etc.

Word boundaries[link]

The task of defining what constitutes a "word" involves determining where one word ends and another word begins—in other words, identifying word boundaries. There are several ways to determine where the word boundaries of spoken language should be placed:

• Potential pause: A speaker is told to repeat a given sentence slowly, allowing for pauses. The speaker will tend to insert pauses at the word boundaries. However, this method is not foolproof: the speaker could easily break up polysyllabic words, or fail to separate two or more closely related words.
• Indivisibility: A speaker is told to say a sentence out loud, and then is told to say the sentence again with extra words added to it. Thus, I have lived in this village for ten years might become My family and I have lived in this little village for about ten or so years. These extra words will tend to be added in the word boundaries of the original sentence. However, some languages have infixes, which are put inside a word. Similarly, some have separable affixes; in the German sentence "Ich komme gut zu Hause an", the verb ankommen is separated.
• Phonetic boundaries: Some languages have particular rules of pronunciation that make it easy to spot where a word boundary should be. For example, in a language that regularly stresses the last syllable of a word, a word boundary is likely to fall after each stressed syllable. Another example can be seen in a language that has vowel harmony (like Turkish):^[5] the vowels within a given word share the same quality, so a word boundary is likely to occur whenever the vowel quality changes. Nevertheless, not all languages have such convenient phonetic rules, and even those that do present the occasional exceptions.
• Orthographic boundaries: See below.

Orthography[link]

In languages with a literary tradition, there is interrelation between orthography and the question of what is considered a single word. Word separators (typically spaces) are common in modern orthography of languages using alphabetic scripts, but these are (excepting isolated precedents) a relatively modern development (see also history of writing).

In English orthography, compound expressions may contain spaces. Examples are ice cream, air raid shelter, get up, and these must thus be considered as more than one word. (Ice, cream, air etc. indisputably exist as free forms, the case of get is less clear.) In contrast, brownstone is spelt as a single word and would thus be considered as such for most purposes even though brown and stone are free forms.

Vietnamese orthography, although using the Latin alphabet, delimits monosyllabic morphemes, not words. East Asian orthography (languages using CJK characters) also tend to delimit syllables (in the case of Chinese characters) or morae (in the case of kana) rather than full words. Hangul the Korean alphabet, delimits both syllables and words, by grouping graphemes into syllabic blocks but also adds spaces between words. Conversely, synthetic languages often combine many lexical morphemes into single words, making it difficult to boil them down to the traditional sense of words found more easily in analytic languages; this is especially difficult for polysynthetic languages, such as Inuktitut and Ubykh, where entire sentences may consist of a single word.

Morphology[link]

In synthetic languages, a single word stem (for example, love) may have a number of different forms (for example, loves, loving, and loved). However for some purposes these are not usually considered to be different words, but rather different forms of the same word. In these languages, words may be considered to be constructed from a number of morphemes. In Indo-European languages in particular, the morphemes distinguished are

• the root
• optional suffixes
• a desinence, or inflectional suffix.

Thus, the Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dhom would be analyzed as consisting of

1. *wr̥-, the zero grade of the root *wer-
2. a root-extension *-dh- (diachronically a suffix), resulting in a complex root *wr̥dh-
3. The thematic suffix *-o-
4. the neuter gender nominative or accusative singular desinence *-m.

Philosophy[link]

Philosophers have found words objects of fascination since at least the 5th century BC, with the foundation of the philosophy of language. Plato analyzed words in terms of their origins and the sounds making them up, concluding that there was some connection between sound and meaning, though words change a great deal over time. John Locke wrote that the use of words "is to be sensible marks of ideas", though they are chosen "not by any natural connexion that there is between particular articulate sounds and certain ideas, for then there would be but one language amongst all men; but by a voluntary imposition, whereby such a word is made arbitrarily the mark of such an idea".^[6] Wittgenstein's thought transitioned from a word as representation of meaning to "the meaning of a word is its use in the language."^[7]

Classes[link]

Grammar classifies a language's lexicon into several groups of words. The basic bipartite division possible for virtually every natural language is that of nouns vs. verbs.

The classification into such classes is in the tradition of Dionysius Thrax, who distinguished eight categories: noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, preposition, adverb, conjunction and interjection.

In Indian grammatical tradition, Pāṇini introduced a similar fundamental classification into a nominal (nāma, suP) and a verbal (ākhyāta, tiN) class, based on the set of desinences taken by the word.

See also[link]

• Longest words
• Utterance

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Adger, David (2003). Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924370-0. 
• Barton, David (1994). Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Blackwell Publishing. p. 96. 
• Bauer, Laurie (1983). English Word-formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28492-9. 
• Brown, Keith R. (Ed.) (2005) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed.). Elsevier. 14 vols.
• Crystal, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-40179-8. 
• Fleming, Michael et al. (2001). Meeting the Standards in Secondary English: A Guide to the ITT NC. Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 0-415-23377-1. 
• Goddard, Cliff (2002). "The search for the shared semantic core of all languages". In Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka. Meaning and Universal Grammar: Theory and Empirical Findings. Volume I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 5–40. http://www.une.edu.au/lcl/nsm/pdf/Goddard_Ch1_2002.pdf 
• Katamba, Francis (2005). English Words: Structure, History, Usage. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-29893-8. 
• Plag, Ingo (2003). Word-formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52563-2. 
• Simpson, J.A. and E.S.C. Weiner, ed. (1989). Oxford English Dictionary (2 ed.). Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-861186-2. 
• Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-870002-4. 

External links[link]

Look up word in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• What Is a Word? – a working paper by Larry Trask (see [1] for attribution), Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Sussex.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2012)

Chris Medina
Chris Medina performing in Sweden (2011)
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Edward Medina
Born	November 30, 1983 Oak Forest, IL
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist
Years active	2011–present
Website	Official Facebook Page
Notable instruments
Guitar Piano Drums

Chris Medina in Norrköping, Sweden (2011)

Christopher Edward "Chris" Medina (born November 30, 1983^[1]) is an American singer born in Oak Forest, Illinois. Medina is most notable as a former Idol contestant during the tenth season of American Idol. He released a single called "What Are Words" on February 25, 2011, the day after his elimination. His single went to #1 in Norway and Sweden and spent 19 weeks at number 1 combined. 11 in Norway and 8 in Sweden.

He made it to the top 40 out of 327 contestants. The song is about his fiancée who suffered a brain injury as the result of a car accident on Oct 2, 2009. The song debuted at #22 on the Heatseekers Songs chart,^[2] and then reached #83 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[3] It has since sold 61,000 copies.^[4] He performed the ballad on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on February 28, 2011 and on Good Morning America on March 4, 2011.

Biography[link]

Chris Medina graduated from Columbia College Chicago.^[5]

Chris received a golden ticket to Hollywood and made it to the top 40 before getting eliminated. His dismissal on season 10 of American Idol made headlines when Jennifer Lopez was brought to tears upon revealing his fate on the show. He has been on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Live with Regis and Kelly, Good Morning America, and On-Air with Ryan Seacrest. He has also been featured in People, US Weekly, and TV Guide. In the summer of 2011, Chris has been invited to perform in countries all over the world, including Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Singapore. In Singapore he performed for the "President's Star Charity", which is done to raise money for the physically and mentally challenged. Chris Medina sang "What Are Words" in the funeral of 18-year old Monica Iselin Didriksen, one of the victims of the Norwegian terror attacks 7/22.2011. Didriksen loved that song, and her parents asked him to come and sing at her funeral.^[6]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Other charted songs[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Chris Medina's Official Facebook Page
• Chris Medina's Official Youtube Channel
• Chris Medina's Band - Division St
• Chris Medina's Band - The Able Body

Skylar Grey
Skylar Grey singing at the Tibet Talk For World Peace in July 2011
Background information
Birth name	Holly Brook Hafermann[1]
Also known as	Holly Brook[2]
Born	(1986-02-23) February 23, 1986 (age 26)
Origin	Mazomanie, Wisconsin, United States
Genres	Pop, soul, folk rock, rock, hip hop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active	2004–present
Labels	KIDinaKORNER, Interscope, Machine Shop
Website	www.skylargreymusic.com

Holly Brook Hafermann (born February 23, 1986) better known by her stage name Skylar Grey, is an five-time Grammy-nominated American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Grey was signed to Machine Shop Recordings under the name Holly Brook. She released her debut album as Holly Brook, Like Blood Like Honey, in 2006. She co-wrote the three versions of "Love the Way You Lie" (for Eminem and Rihanna) with Alex da Kid, who signed her to his Wonderland Music label. She was featured as a guest vocalist on Fort Minor's "Where'd You Go" and "Be Somebody", Diddy-Dirty Money's "Coming Home", Dr. Dre's "I Need a Doctor", Lupe Fiasco's "Words I Never Said" and Kaskade's "Room for Happiness".

Life and career[link]

2001–2010: Early life and career beginnings[link]

Grey performed professionally as a child in a folk duo with her mother called Generations.^[3] Together, (with producer/engineer Randy Green) they independently produced three albums, Dream Maker, Lift Me, and Millennial Child/Waiting For You. Grey started her first band at the age of fifteen after 'sneaking' into bars, working with jazz musicians including Jeff Eckles, Tim Whalen and Leo Sidran in Madison, Wisconsin.

In 2003, Grey moved to Los Angeles and recorded a demo as Holly Brook, which would be her stage name for several years. This demo led to her being signed in the fall of 2004 by Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson to the band's vanity label, Machine Shop Recordings; she was 18 years old. Her voice is featured on the Fort Minor songs "Where'd You Go" and "Be Somebody". Working with producer Jonathan Ingoldsby, Brook released her debut album, Like Blood Like Honey, on June 6, 2006. She landed opening spots for tours with Jamie Cullum, KD Lang, Daniel Powter, Teddy Geiger and Duncan Sheik.

In 2010, Brook lent both her song "It's Raining Again" and her image to a promotional campaign for Ciao Water.^[4] Prior to this, she has appeared on albums by other artists, including Brie Larson's Finally Out of P.E. and Fort Minor's The Rising Tied. Brook has toured with as part of Duncan Sheik's band, and appears heavily on his 2009 album Whisper House. At the beginning in 2010 she also performed in the theatrical version of "Whisper House," playing one of the two lead ghost vocalists along with David Poe.^[5] Also in 2010, she self-released the seven-song O’Dark:Thirty EP, produced by Duncan Sheik and Jon Ingoldsby.^[6] In 2009, Brook appeared as a backing vocalist on Eurovision contestant, Yohanna's debut album, Butterflies and Elvis.

[edit] 2011: Invinsible

Brook later changed her name to Skylar Grey. She explained that “it represents the unknowns in life. People seem to be afraid of the unknowns, but I’m the complete opposite. I dive into the unknown because I feel like that’s where all your possibilities come from.”^[7] She explained to Beatweek that she chose "grey" with an e rather than an a because “I like to do things the original way" and because "it’s more masculine. I’m not a very feminine person."^[8]

She was still living in Oregon and had no recognition as Skylar Grey. Grey went to New York to meet her publisher, Jennifer Blakeman, who played Grey the song "Airplanes" by B.O.B and Hayley Williams and produced by Alex da Kid; Grey liked what she heard so Blakeman introduced her and Alex da Kid via e-mail. Alex da Kid sent Grey a few tracks he had been working on and the first song she wrote was "Love The Way You Lie".

Alex da Kid signed her to a production deal on his KIDinaKORNER imprint.^[9] She wrote the hook to all three versions of "Love the Way You Lie" by rapper Eminem and Rihanna as well as all of the lyrics and melody to versions II and III of the song. She can be heard performing the demo for all versions of the song. Grey earned a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year for her writing contributions to "Love the Way You Lie".^[10] She also co-wrote Diddy-Dirty Money's "Coming Home",^[11] along with "Castle Walls" by T.I. and Christina Aguilera.^[12] On March 10, 2011, Diddy-Dirty Money performed the single "Coming Home" with Grey and Dirty Money vocalists, Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper, live on American Idol.^[13]

She is also a writer and featured guest on "I Need a Doctor".^[14] Grey is also featured on Lupe Fiasco's third studio album Lasers, on the second single, "Words I Never Said" and was also featured in the live performance of the song, with Lupe, on The Colbert Report on May 9, 2011. Grey made her live performance debut under her new alias during the 53rd Grammy Awards, performing "I Need a Doctor" alongside Eminem and Dr. Dre. She is currently working on her solo studio album Invinsible with Alex Da Kid. She has signed to Interscope Records through Da Kid's KIDinaKORNER,^[15] and her first promotional buzz single "Dance Without You"^[16] was released on June 6, 2011, with the official music video being released on July 5.^[17] The first official single "Invisible" was released to radio on June 16. On July 9, 2011, Grey performed live at the World Peace Event in Washington, DC, appearing along with the 14th Dalai Lama.^[18][19] On 6 August, she performed at the 20th Lollapalooza festival as both a solo artist and with Eminem during the song "I Need A Doctor". The next day, while passing by the area where YouTube sensation Karmin was recording their cover of "I Need A Doctor," Grey joined the duo for an impromptu performance.^[20] She performed alongside rapper Eli Porter on the September 20, 2011 episode of Tosh.0.

Grey also featured on Kaskade's 2011 album Fire & Ice, writing and singing on two versions of the song "Room for Happiness", which became the album's third single.

It was also reported that Grey would be contributing to The Band Perry's sophomore album, which is set to be released in 2012.^[21][22]

On April 1, 2012 Grey performed the hit song Invinsible with Machine Gun Kelly at Wrestlemania XXVIII before John Cena's entrance at the main event against Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Influences[link]

Grey has listed Garbage, Joni Mitchell, Marilyn Manson, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan and Death Cab for Cutie as her influences.^[23][24]

Discography[link]

• Like Blood Like Honey (2006)
• Invinsible (2012)

EP

• Holly Brook EP (2005)
• Sony CONNECT Sets (2005)
• O'Dark:Thirty EP (2010)
• The Buried Sessions of Skylar Grey (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• skylargrey's channel on YouTube
• Skylar Grey on Facebook
• Skylar Grey on Twitter

Selah Sue
Background information
Birth name	Sanne Putseys
Born	(1989-05-03) 3 May 1989 (age 23)
Origin	Leefdaal, Belgium
Genres	Reggae, soul
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Guitar, Vocals
Website	www.selahsue.com

Selah Sue (born Sanne Putseys,^[1] 3 May 1989) is a Belgian musician and songwriter.

Her debut album, Selah Sue (2011) was a major success, selling over 400.000 copies in Europe^[2], 200.000 in France alone. Today, she has chart success with the hit singles 'Raggamuffin', 'Crazy Vibes' and 'This World'.

In 2011, Selah Sue won an European Border Breakers Award (EBBA).^[3] In January 2012 during the EBBA award ceremony she was presented with the EBBA Public Choice Award.^[4]

Background[link]

Sanne Putseys was born in Leuven,^[1] but originates from the nearby Belgian town Leefdaal. At the age of fifteen, Sanne Putseys learned to play the acoustic guitar and started to write her own songs as well. When she was seventeen a Belgian producer asked her to sing some demo's of his songs, after which Universal offered her a contract. She refused, because she wanted to sing her own songs. At the same time she performed as the youngest and only female artist at the open-song contest Open Mic-avond at Het Depot in Leuven. Organizer and singer Milow (born Jonathan Vandenbroeck) had noticed her talents and asked her to perform in his supporting programme. Initially, Sanne Putseys managed to work out her musical career path while studying psychology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. According to her, studying psychology helped her to understand more about human emotions, which also is something that she has to deal with in her musical activities. Eventually, she continued doing warm-up performances in collaboration with artists such as Jamie Lidell in London and Paris. Furthermore, she played with the Belgian band Novastar at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.^[5]

Her first EP was released in 2008, under the title Black Part Love.^[6] It contains five songs

Selah Sue in concert

From September 2008 until August 2009, Selah Sue received some curricular guidance from the Belgian musical theater Ancienne Belgique. The programme, in which she was involved there, has been set up to support promising artists who aren't associated with any record company or other kinds of managing assistance.

Selah Sue often covers songs of Erykah Badu and The Zutons, but she does appear to assemble a whole range of her own songs. Two of her well-known songs are "Mommy" and "Black part love", both of which are carried out acoustically. She says to be influenced by artists such as Lauryn Hill, M.I.A. and Erykah Badu.

In 2009, Selah Sue attended the stages of the North Sea Jazz Festival and that of the Lowlands.^[7] Additionally, she regularly appears on TV shows such as De Wereld Draait Door on Dutch television and several other Flemish TV shows.^[8]

In 2010, she played most of the biggest festivals in Belgium, including Les Nuits Botanique, Les Ardentes, Dour, Lokerse Feesten, Couleur Café and Pukkelpop. But also outside her native country in big festivals such as Lowlands (Netherlands), Les Eurockéennes de Belfort (France) and Sziget Festival (Hungary). On November 8, 2010 she played a support appearance for Prince on his Sportpaleis concert.^[9] She then went on a mostly sold out headlining show in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, presenting her forthcoming debut album.

On March 4, 2011, Selah Sue released her eponymous debut album, called Selah Sue. The album has peaked to number 1 on the Belgium Albums Chart, it has also charted in the Netherlands, France and Switzerland.^[10]

Besides several hits singles, such as 'This World' and 'Crazy Vibes', the album also contains a duet with Cee Lo Green, called "Please".^[11]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Extended plays[link]

• 2008: Black Part Love
• 2010: Raggamuffin

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Selah Sue

• Official website
• Myspace (English)

Bette Porter is a fictional character on the Showtime television network series The L Word, played by Jennifer Beals. While she is portrayed as the one true love of Tina Kennard, she is shown to be rather promiscuous and has had countless affairs with other women, whether or not she is with Tina.

Fictional character biography[link]

Back story[link]

Bette is introduced as an affluent, Ivy League-educated lesbian of African-American and Caucasian heritage. She grew up in Philadelphia and was an art history major at Yale, where she had sex with a gay man (Coleman) who at the time was her boyfriend, but she realized she had no interest in men through her crush on her art history professor named Danica Palmer (Lifesize: 306). Eventually, she came out as a lesbian.

Also while in Yale as a graduate student, Bette befriended heterosexual undergrad Kelly. Bette soon became romantically obsessed with her, and when Kelly rejected her advances, as observed later by Bette's half-sister Kit, Bette grew depressed to the brink of suicide. After graduation, Bette would move on and lose touch with Kelly.

Before Bette met Tina Kennard, she dated Alice Pieszecki for six weeks. Bette and Alice once secretly had sex while they were at the opera Lakmé (during The Flower Duet).

Tina met Bette when her then-boyfriend Eric took her to the Bette Porter Gallery. Tina found Bette to be smart, tough, incredibly beautiful, warm, and gracious. Bette noticed Tina's right earring had fallen off, and Tina supposedly put it back on.

Later that night, Tina returned to the gallery to retrieve the lost earring. Bette had kept it for her. While Tina was picking it from her hand, Bette kissed her for the first time.

Season one[link]

Bette and Tina's relationship appears to their friends as very strong. Tina confirms to their closest friends that Bette is her "first, last, and forever" love. However, from the very beginning they seem to have problems, and even as they attempt to start a family, it is revealed that they no longer make love. Although they seem to move past this problem as the series progresses, Bette's career in the California Arts Center is shown to come between them, with Bette frequently not having time to spend with Tina.

At Bette's urging, Tina gave up her own career in order to have a child, leaving Bette as the sole breadwinner. Bette has a difficult family life, with her father Melvin only barely tolerating her relationship with Tina, and flatly refusing to acknowledge Tina's baby as his grandchild. Bette is also shown to be very bossy and domineering with Tina and everyone else. Throughout the entire series, Bette has a reputation for throwing fits and tantrums in public and private when things do not go her way.

In addition, Bette at first has a difficult relationship with her older half-sister Kit, a recovering alcoholic who has often let her down. As the series progresses, however, Bette begins to support Kit's attempts to turn her life around, and their relationship is shown to improve.

Tina's miscarriage takes a toll on Bette, and when her partner decides to become involved in a charitable organization, Bette finds that their careers make it almost impossible for them to spend any time together. At the same time, she finds herself attracted to Candace Jewell, who is working as a carpenter at the CAC. Bette tries to resist this attraction at first, to the point that she attempts to have sex with a brick wall while imagining it to be Candace, but is unable to do so, and subsequently begins an affair with Candace to fulfil her desires. When Tina discovers what is going on, she flies into a rage. In the ensuing argument, Bette attempts to force Tina into emotional submission, refusing to allow Tina to control of or end the relationship. What ensues is what appears to be the beginning of an attempted rape, with Bette aggressively holding Tina down, while Tina struggles and protests, shouting 'no'. However, eventually Tina not only submits but takes an active part in this dysfunctional sex. The issue of sexual coercion, domestic violence, and attempted-rape are not touched on again.

Season two[link]

In the second season, Bette is desperate to make amends for her betrayal, and finds that her break-up with Tina is disrupting all other elements of her life. Her job becomes an increasing pressure, especially when Tina's new lover, Helena Peabody, is added to the Board of Governors, and her boss hires another curator who threatens Bette's elevated position.

At first, Bette feels isolated from Alice (who accuses Bette of being a "sex-addict") and the others, who she feels have mainly taken Tina's side in their argument. Although Shane and Jenny are both supportive of her (mostly because of both Shane and Jenny, also both promiscuous, having cheated on their lovers as well), it takes a while for Bette to feel on good terms with Alice again. After Tina begins to see Helena, however, the group appear to rally around Bette, who is now aware that Tina is pregnant again and has a great desire to raise their child together.

Matters are further complicated when it is revealed that Bette's father Melvin is dying from advanced prostate cancer, and is refusing treatment. A distraught Bette brings him home to die, so that he will not be trapped in a hospital, but this difficult experience leads her to reach out to Tina. Tina, who by now feels trapped by her relationship with Helena, grows closer to Bette again, and although Melvin never really blesses his daughter's homosexual relationship, he does once refer to Tina as 'Tina' rather than 'Miss Kennard' before he dies. His death is a great blow to Bette, who receives news of the loss of her job at Melvin's funeral.

Though upset and furious, Bette continues to derive comfort from her improved relationship with Tina. Bette's relationship with Kit is also vastly improved in this season, with Kit being her main source of comfort at the beginning of the season. She helps Kit to take over The Planet cafe, and begins actively involving herself in Kit's life. Eventually Tina chooses Bette over Helena, and the end of the season shows Tina asking to move back in with Bette. Tina's labor is surprisingly difficult, but their daughter Angelica is eventually born, and the end of the season shows Bette as calm and happy in her new family.

Season three[link]

Six months later, Bette and Tina are feeling the stress of raising Angelica, Bette's unemployment and Tina going back to work for Helena at her film studio. The relationship ends yet again due to Tina's renewed interest in men. She becomes involved with a divorced father, Henry Young, and Bette has her move out. Tina moves into her own place. Bette fears Tina will take Angelica away from her by starting a family with Henry. Bette becomes a Buddhist and goes on a silent retreat, but leaves it. After seeing Angelica being raised in Tina's "white, privileged, heterosexual world", she hires the same lawyer who tried to seduce Tina last season in a custody fight. Bette retaliates by seeking sole custody of Angelica on the basis that Tina is unequipped to raise a biracial child.

At Shane and Carmen's wedding, Bette begins to have second thoughts about this, but when Tina gets the lawyer's letter and digs in her heels, Bette kidnaps the baby without anyone knowing.

Season four[link]

Bette returns Angelica to Tina, who doesn't press charges. Soon after, she becomes the dean of art at a university. Her boss, Phyllis Kroll, confesses to her that she is a lesbian. Later on, Phyllis starts dating Alice, which makes Bette feel uncomfortable due to what might happen later in the relationship.

While working at the California University School of the Arts as a dean, she begins an affair with one of her graduate students, Nadia, but soon breaks off the relationship because she realizes it's inappropriate. Then, she begins a sexual relationship with Jodi Lerner, a sculptor who has begun lecturing at the university. Tina and Bette's relationship has had some rough patches, but they become closer and friendlier with each other. Tina confesses to Bette that she still loves her and that she misses her life as a lesbian; when she meets Jodi, Tina realizes how much she wants Bette back and begins to regret ending her relationship with Bette.

Tina learns of an affair between Angus (Kit's boyfriend) and Tina's nanny, Hazel, and she informs Bette. This causes major stress to their relationship, as Bette wants to keep this information from her sister and Tina disagrees. Things become even more complicated after a disastrous dinner party, thrown by Bette for Jodi, where she learns Kit—a recovering alcoholic—is drinking again to deal with Angus's infidelity. Because of Bette's reaction to her sister's drinking, Bette and Jodi get into a heated argument. As a result of the argument, Jodi realizes that Bette's controlling ways are too much for her and takes a job offer in New York. In the season finale, Bette, with Alice and Shane's help, steals a sign from an old building in hopes of getting Jodi back, as Jodi had once told her that she believed it would make a great art piece. It was after speaking with Tina about her feelings for Jodi that made Bette decide to get the sign, which reads '17 reasons why'.

Season five[link]

At the beginning of L Word, Season Five, Bette and Jodi's relationship seems very loving to their friends. However, it doesn't take long before the problems begin to show. When Jodi insists on bringing Bette on her yearly vacation with her close friends, Bette finds herself annoyed and upset with Jodi and her friend's activities.

Though Bette continues her relationship with Jodi, she longs for the life she shared with Tina. Bette and Tina soon begin an affair, though they both claim to be unsure if they want anything more than their sexual reconnection. So Tina begins a flirtation with Sam, a woman who works on the set of Lez Girls. Due to her own jealousy, Bette becomes angry with Jodi when Jodi decides to have a dinner party and invites Tina and Sam. When Jodi confronts Bette about their distance emotionally and sexually, Bette chickens out of telling Jodi the real reason: she is in love with Tina. During rolling blackouts, Bette and Tina are trapped in an elevator on the way to their couples therapy session. During their time in the elevator, Bette and Tina discuss their fears about their relationship and (of course) end up making love, during which Bette tells Tina she loves her. Bette also reveals to Tina she wants to tell Jodi about their reunion after the Subaru Pink Ride.

Meanwhile, Jodi sees Bette is moody and upset about something but is not sure. By this time, Jodi has resigned from California University after one of her students held a realistic-looking gun made of soapstone to his head in front of the class as a form of art. While on their Subaru Pink Ride, Jodi learns of the affair during a game of 'I Never' when Alice begins calling Bette a "giant and 'gi-normous' cheater" for having cheated on Tina and on Alice herself when they were dating. This statement leads Jodi to jokingly ask if Bette is cheating on her. When Bette doesn't respond and Tina runs away from the group, Jodi finally realizes that Bette is cheating on her and most likely never truly loved her from the start.

After the truth is revealed, Jodi returns to Bette and completely brushes off Tina. Bette takes Jodi to her house trying to talk things over and nearly loses herself in Jodi's attempt to seduce her back. They agree to clarify things in Bette's office. It is here that Bette tells Jodi that their relationship will not work because Tina is her true love. Jodi concedes and leaves without further fight. She retrieves her personal items from Bette's place and leaves Bette an early birthday present. At the end of that eventful day, Bette joins Tina and takes both Angelica and Tina back home.

With her real admiration for Jodi, Bette introduces Jodi at the public exhibition of a new Jodi Lerner piece, entitled "Core." It turns out to be Jodi's revenge against Bette for using her: a series of videos of a single Bette saying "I love you", as well as things like "Leave me alone", "Go without me", "Stop", and "Fuck me", ridiculing Bette for her apparent promiscuity and her will to use anyone she pleases to quench her thirst for sex if not with Tina. After the shocking public humiliation, Bette returns to find solace in Tina. Later, Bette and Tina go to Lez Girls wrap party where their reunion and display of affection is admired by closest friends.

Season six[link]

Bette moves back in with Tina, and they decide to adopt a second child using a surrogate mother. In preparation, they begin to add an expensive extension to their house.

The pair finally meet their chosen surrogate Marci in Nevada, an underprivileged caucasian woman expecting a half African-American son. Despite the fact that Marci's family rejects the notion of giving the child to a lesbian couple, Marci agrees to give Tina and Bette her child. However, this transaction is threatened when Joyce Wishnea informs the pair that Nevada law does not permit adoption to same sex couples. A solution is reached when Bette and Tina agree to board Marci during her pregnancy, but when they arrive to the Los Angeles bus station to meet her, Marci is not on the bus, having for some reason backed out on the deal.

Meanwhile, when Bette tries to force her employee and ex-lover Jodi—who embarrassed her with a personal, accusatory art exhibit— to resign, the matter is brought before Phyllis. Jodi refuses to resign and threatens legal action not only against Bette, but against the entire university should anyone fire her. Phyllis privately tries to convince Bette that Bette herself should resign instead. Phyllis informs Bette that she had already helped cover up a potential scandal involving Bette's brief fling with her graduate student assistant, and that any potential sexual harassment proceedings from Jodi would further endanger the university's reputation. Immediately afterwards, Phyllis makes a pass at Bette at a bar, claiming she was always strongly attracted to her and could pursue a relationship with her now that Bette was no longer her employee, even if it meant leaving Joyce. A disgusted Bette quickly rejects Phyllis' advances and submits her resignation from the university.

Also in this season, Bette reconnects with her heterosexual college crush Kelly Wentworth (Elizabeth Berkley), and the pair open an art gallery together. While Bette had strong feelings for Kelly in college to the point where she was on the brink of suicide when Kelly rejected her, she now seems quite capable of remaining committed to Tina despite the newly-divorced Kelly's constant flirtations with her. When a drunken Kelly finally makes a pass at Bette in Bette's house, Bette soundly rejects her, but the pair remain on friendly terms. Then Kelly accidentally breaks a glass, and Bette helps her pick up the shards. An on-looking Jenny mistakes this activity for a sexual moment between the pair, and captures it on her cellphone camera. Later, an angry Jenny threatens Bette that she will expose the footage to Tina if Bette does not first confess her "umpteenth indiscretion" to Tina.

When Tina gets a job offer in New York, she and Bette decide to relocate there and start a new life. Bette is more than happy to do this, partially to escape from the claustrophobic bubble of Los Angeles lesbian intrigue and partially to escape Jenny. She confides all of this to Kit, including Jenny's misconception.

At Bette and Tina's going away party in their home, Kit threatens Jenny to back off and is in turn shown the incriminating cellphone footage. Kit next confronts Bette, believing the footage to be a valid display of infidelity. Learning about the footage, and knowing that her previous straying will only convince Tina of Bette's supposed infidelity, Bette finally approaches Jenny with a clear, furious warning to back off. This confrontation is held near a banister with an unfinished railing, and it is the last time Jenny is shown alive. Her body is discovered in the pool shortly afterward. The series ends with Bette and all her friends being interrogated by police, and the truth of Jenny's death unexplained.

The Interrogation Tapes[link]

Several weeks after the television series ends, footage of Bette's police interrogation appears on Showtime's L Word website ("The Interrogation Tapes"). For some reason, this footage leaked onto YouTube first.^[1] Although she does not divulge any information regarding Jenny's death, Bette confesses to being secretly angry and devastated by the fact that Tina never asked her to carry their second child.^[2]

References[link]

• Kera Bolonik, The L Word: Welcome to Our Planet. New York: Fireside. 2006: 64 - 68

External links[link]

• L Word Wiki Character Page