Grammar I

LV/JVG

Graciela Palacio
2012 (revised 2015)

LESSON 3:
WORDS AND CATEGORIES
Words can be classified into different types or categories.
The following words are nouns: book, table, water, money, envy, etc.
The following words are verbs: read, drink, build, like, want, etc.
The following words are adjectives: tall, beautiful, tired, likely, sure, happy, aware, etc.
The following words are prepositions: on, in, out of, in front of, in spite of, etc.
The following words are adverbs: beautifully, happily, maybe, perhaps, etc.
But how can we know which is which? Two criteria1 can be used to sort them out:
1. Morphological criteria and
2. Distributional criteria
What do we mean by morphological criteria? Morphology is that part of grammar that
deals with the structure of words, it describes what kind of inflections and word-formation
affixes (prefixes or suffixes) they can take. For example, when we say that (some) nouns in
English can take an -s that marks them as plural (book/ books, table/tables) but that adjectives
in English cant (*beautifuls, *talls2), we are providing morphological evidence to make a
distinction between nouns and adjectives in English.
What do we mean by distributional criteria? We look at the place in the sentence where
the word occurs. We look at the words with which it combines, horizontally. For example:
1.

Nouns follow the words the and no (the book, the water, no books, no water).
Adjectives normally dont (*the tall3, *the likely, *no tall, *no beautiful).
2. Adjectives can follow the verb seem (She seems sad. It seems likely that ). Nouns,
adverbs and prepositions cant (*It seems book. *She seems beautifully. *He seems
within.).
In this section we will consider some basic morphological and distributional criteria to
distinguish one type of word from another. The categories listed above, i.e. noun, verb,
adjective, preposition and adverb, are called lexical categories. They have descriptive or
semantic content and, with the exception of prepositions, they constitute open classes (i.e.
new ones can easily be created). They stand in opposition to another set of categories known
as functional categories. The different categories will be dealt with in greater detail as the
course goes on, once we have acquired the necessary background knowledge to distinguish
one group from the other.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES

Criterion (singular) = cf. in Spanish criterio; criteria (plural) = cf. in Spanish criterios.
The use of the asterisk is a convention to express that the element in question is not grammatical.
3
The rich, the poor are exceptions but what we mean is the rich people, the poor people. The word people
(a noun) is omitted and the phrase refers to a class. Cf. in Spanish los ricos, los pobres.
2

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NOUNS
Morphological properties
One morphological property of some nouns (i.e. countable nouns) is that they inflect for
number. By this we mean that they have a plural form:
Singular
a book
a friend
a house

Plural
two books
two friends
two houses

Some nouns also inflect for gender:

Male
god
lion
heir

Female
goddess
lioness
heiress

Distributional Properties
Nouns can be preceded by the definite article the, by the word no and by possessive
adjectives such as my, your, his, her, our, your (plural), their:
the book
no water
my house
VERBS
Morphological properties
Haegeman and Guron (1999) provide the following table with the inflections verbs can take:
Infinitive
work
wait
show
meet
go

Present Tense
3 person/ sing
work-s
wait-s
show-s
meet-s
go-es

Past Tense
work-ed
wait-ed
show-ed
met
went

Present participle
or Gerund
work-ing
wait-ing
show-ing
meet-ing
go-ing

Past participle
work-ed
wait-ed
show-n
met
gone

Distributional Properties
Distributionally, the infinitival form of the verb can be preceded by will, should, can, must,
etc (which are called modal auxiliaries) and by the word to (e.g. to work, to wait):
It
It

is
is

important
important

that you
for you

should
to

study.
study.

ADJECTIVES
Morphological Properties
In English, adjectives do not inflect for number, gender or case. In Spanish, they inflect for
number and gender:

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a tall boy
*two talls boys
a tall girl
*two talls girls

un chico alto
dos chicos altos
una chica alta
dos chicas altas

In English, adjectives inflect for the comparative and superlative degree or express the same
meaning by means of the degree words more/most:
Adjective
tall
young
important
attractive

Comparative
taller
younger
more important
more attractive

Superlative
tallest
youngest
most important
most attractive

Distributional Properties
Adjectives may occupy the blank space in the following contexts:
The . book
My . friend
He is
It seems..
In the first two cases (the new book/ my old friend) the adjective is modifying a noun. In the
other two cases (He is tired/ It seems likely that) the adjective follows the verb be and the
verb seem.
PREPOSITIONS
Morphological Properties
Morphologically, they are invariant (i.e. they do not take inflections).
Distributional Properties
With respect to their distribution, they can be followed by the string the + noun, e.g.:
After
In

the lesson
the garden

ADVERBS
Morphological Properties
Some adverbs, such as carefully, are morphologically related to adjectives since they are
derived from the adjective by the addition of the suffix -ly. Some others, such as fast (e.g. He
drives fast), are identical in form to adjectives (e.g. a fast driver). The adverbs that are
identical in form with adjectives can inflect for the comparative and superlative degree:
He drives faster than I do.
Who drove the fastest of the three?
Distributional Properties

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Adverbs can modify verbs (He drives fast), adjectives (He is very tall) or other adverbs (He
drives very fast). Very is called an adverb of degree.
TO SUM UP:
The lexical categories described so far are:
1. the noun (N)
2. the verb (V)
3. the adjective (A)
4. the preposition (P)
PHRASAL CATEGORIES
All the categories listed above can expand to form phrases. For example, when a verb such as
kill combines with a noun such as Bill, as in kill Bill, we say that we have a verb phrase
(VP). The verb kill functions as the head of the phrase and gives the phrase its name. When a
noun such as destruction combines with a prepositional phrase such as of the city, as in
destruction of the city, we speak of a noun phrase (NP). Again the word destruction
functions as the head of the phrase and gives the phrase its name 4. When an adjective such as
fond combines with a prepositional phrase such as of dogs, as in fond of dogs, we have an
adjectival phrase (AP), the head of which is the adjective fond. The phrase derives its name
from the head. When a preposition such as at combines with a noun such as home, as in at
home, we speak of a prepositional phrase (PP). The head of the prepositional phrase is the
preposition.
TO SUM UP:
The phrasal categories described so far are:
5. the noun phrase (NP): destruction of the city
6. the verb phrase (VP): kill Bill
7. the adjectival phrase (AP): fond of cats
8. the prepositional phrase (PP): at home
Lesson 3 Activity 1:
Be ready to answer the following questions in class:
1) What do we mean by morphological criteria to sort words out?
2) What do we mean by distributional criteria to sort words out?
3) Which are the morphological properties that help us identify nouns?
4) Mention the distributional properties that help us identify nouns.
5) Mention a distributional property of verbs.
6) In what way do adjectives in English differ from adjectives in Spanish?
7) Mention the distributional properties that help us identify adjectives.
8) Mention a distributional property that would justify categorizing likely as an adjective.
9) What categories can adverbs modify?
10) Provide other examples of adverbs that are identical in form to adjectives.
Lesson 3 Activity 2: (to be discussed in class)
State the category of the words in italics. Mention what kind of criteria you have used to
decide what type of word they are:
1. This is a weekly magazine.
2. That magazine is published weekly.
4

Notice that when destruction of the city combines with the, it becomes a determiner phrase, made up of a
determiner + a noun phrase.

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3. People there are very friendly.

4. Im a coward.
5. It was a cowardly attack.
Lesson 3 Activity 3: (to be discussed in class)
Describe the following words morphologically using the information from lesson 1 and 2:
boys, cleans, bigger, arrival, careful, postman, teacher, daydream, looked.5
For example: boys is a noun. The word is made up of two morphemes: a free morpheme (boy)
and a bound inflectional morpheme (-s).
Notice that without a context we cannot tell whether the word daydream is a noun or a verb.
Can you state the category of the word taking into account the following contexts?
She stared out of the window, lost in a daydream. Here it is a
He daydreamed about a car of his own. Here it is a
Lesson 3 Activity 4: (To be handed in as Assignment 3)
State the category of the words in italics. Mention what kind of criteria you have used to
decide what type of word they are. For example:
John seems sad. In this sentence the word sad is an adjective. It follows the verb seem. I
have used a distributional criterion.
1.
2.
3.
4.

John drives carefully.

He walked down the long corridor.
He longed for Pat to phone.
It seems likely that it will rain this evening.

REFERENCES:
Haegeman, L. & J. Guron (1999) English Grammar: A Generative Perspective, Blackwell.

This assignment has been included to assess your basic understanding of the term
morpheme. Things, however, are not as simple as they seem. A deeper discussion of the
problem will be presented later.

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