English Majors and Minors, year II, autumn 2009-2010

Lecture 1 1 Words and word classes

In grammar, we first need to identify the types of grammatical units, such as words and phrases, before describing the internal structure of these units, and how they combine to form larger units. Grammatical units are meaningful elements which combine with each other in a structural pattern. Essentially, grammar is the system which organizes and controls these form - meaning relationships. The types of grammatical units can be graded according to size of unit, as shown below: (discourse) 1. sentence: If I wash up all this stuff somebody else can dry it. 2. clauses: If I wash up all this stuff / somebody else can dry it. 3. phrases: if / I / wash up / all this stuff / somebody else / can dry it. 4. words: If / I / wash / up / all / this / stuff / somebody / else / can / dry / it. 5. morphemes: If / I / wash / up / all / this / stuff / some / body / else / can / dry / it. In the simplest cases, a unit consists of one or more elements on the level below: clause consists of one or more phrases. phrase consists of one or more words. word consists of one or more morphemes.

Morphemes are parts of words, i.e. stems, prefi!es, and suffi!es. "or e!ample, un + friend + ly contains three morphemes: a prefi! un-, a stem friend and a suffi! -ly. The part of grammar dealing with morphemes is morphology. The part of grammar dealing with the other types of grammatical units shown above #i.e. words, phrases, clauses, and sentences$ is %nown as synta . Grammatical units can be combined to form longer written te!ts or spo%en interaction, which is %nown as discourse. t the other e!treme, language can be analyzed in terms of its phonemes #the individual sounds which ma%e up the language$ and graphemes #the written symbols we use to communicate in language$. These are the smallest units of speech and writing, respectively. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 1

In this course of lectures we focus mainly on the three central types of unit: word, phrase, and clause. #&ote: in some grammars, the word 'sentence' is used in a sense close to 'clause' in this course.$ In general, grammatical units are described in terms of four factors: their structure, their syntactic role, their meaning, and the way they are used in discourse. ! "tructure (nits can be described in terms of their internal structure: e.g. words in terms of bases and affi!es, phrases in terms of heads and modifiers, and clauses in terms of clause elements. # $ole (nits can be described in terms of their syntactic role. "or e!ample, a phrase can have the syntactic role of ob)ect in a clause: In November, Susie won those tickets. In this e!ample, Susie is the sub)ect, in November is an adverbial. % Meaning (nits can be described in terms of meaning. "or e!ample, adverbs #a class of words$ can e!press information about time, place, and manner. & 'se (or discourse )unction* (nits can be further described in terms of how they behave in discourse. This can include their use in different registers, their fre*uency in those registers, and the factors which influence their use in speech or in written te!ts. "or e!ample, pronouns li%e it and they are often used to refer bac% to things mentioned earlier in the same discourse: Isn't indy comin!" #id she call you"

+uch pronouns are more common in speech than in written te!ts.

1+1 What are words,

,ords are generally considered to be the basic elements of language. They clearly show up in writing, and they are the items defined in dictionaries. -et the definition of 'word' is not simple. ,ords are relatively fi!ed in their internal form, but they are independent in their role in larger units. "or e!ample, insertions can usually be made between words but not within words: $here were two bi%es a!ainst the wall. $here were two &lar!e new' bi%es &standin!' a!ainst the &side' wall. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 2

&otice how, in the above e!ample, it is possible to insert words between other words to form a longer sentence without losing clarity of meaning. .n the other hand, we could not easily interrupt a word, by inserting another word or morpheme inside it, as in (pedal-&new'-bins.

1+2

&i))erent senses o) the word 'word'

The notion of 'word' is comple!, and so it is useful to identify a number of slightly different senses of 'word): -rthographic words. These are the words that we are familiar within

written language, where they are separated by spaces. "or e!ample, $hey wrote us a letter contains five distinct orthographic words. /rammatical words. word falls into one grammatical word class #or 'part

of speech'$ or another. Thus the orthographic word leaves can be either of two grammatical words: a verb #the present tense -s form of leave' or a noun #the plural of leaf'. This is the basic sense of 'word' for grammatical purposes. Le emes: This is a set of grammatical words which share the same

basic meaning, similar forms, and the same word class. "or e!ample, leave, leaves, left, and leavin! are all members of the verb le!eme leave. This is the meaning of 'word' that is employed in dictionaries. Each occurrence of a word in a written or spo%en te!t is a separate to0en. "or e!ample, in the following line of conversation there are ten separate word to%ens: $he birds and the deer and who %nows what else. In contrast to word to%ens, word types are the different vocabulary items that occur in a te!t #such as you would loo% up in a wordlist$. Thus, in the sentence above, there are only eight word types &the, birds, and, deer, who, %nows, what, and else', since and and the occur twice. &otice the to%en/ type distinction applies e*ually to orthographic words, grammatical words, and le!emes.

1+1 2hree major )amilies o) words

,ords can be grouped into three families, according to their main function and their grammatical behavior: le ical words, )unction words, and inserts+ ! act. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 3 Le ical words 0e!ical words are the main carriers of information in a te!t or speech

They can be subdivided into the following word classes #or parts o)

speech*. nouns, le!ical verbs, ad)ectives, and adverbs. classes. They often have a comple! internal structure and can be composed of 0e!ical words can be heads of phrases: e.g. the noun completion is the .f all the word families, le!ical words are the most numerous, and

their number is growing all the time. In other words, they are members of open

several parts: e.g. unfriendliness * un + friend 1 li 1 ness. head #or main word$ of the noun phrase 2the completion of the tas%3. They are generally the words that are stressed most in speech. They are generally the words that remain if a sentence is compressed

in a newspaper headline: e.g. +lderly care crisis warnin!. # 3unction words "unction words can be categorized in terms of word classes such as They usually indicate meaning relationships and help us to interpret prepositions, coordinators, au!iliary verbs, and pronouns. units containing le!ical words, by showing how the units are related to each other. #rarely$ nor. of te!t. % Inserts Inserts are found mainly in spo%en language. Inserts do not form an integral part of a syntactic structure, but tend to Individual function words tend to occur fre*uently, and in almost any type "unction words belong to closed classes, which have a very limited and

fi!ed membership. "or e!ample, English has only four coordinators: and, or, but and

be inserted freely in a te!t. They are often mar%ed off by a brea% in intonation in speech, or They generally carry emotional and discoursal meanings, such as oh, ah,

by a punctuation mar% in writing: e.g. Well, we made it. wow, used to e!press a spea%er's emotional response to a situation, or yeah, no, o%ay, used to signal a response to what has )ust been said. Inserts are generally simple in form, though they often have an

atypical pronunciation #e.g. hm, uh-huh, u!h, yeah$. E!amples are: Hm hm, very !ood, Yeah, I will. B e, !heers man. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 4

Inserts are peripheral to grammar.

1+4 %losed classes and open classes

! closed class contains a limited number of members, and new members cannot be easily added. "or e!ample, it is not easy to create a new coordinator or a new pronoun, as those word classes have a fairly fi!ed set of members. The membership of open classes is indefinitely large, and can be readily e!tended by users of the language. 0e!ical classes such as nouns and ad)ectival are open classes. "or e!ample, we can easily form new nouns with the suffi! ,ee, ad)ectives with -ish, verbs with -i-e, and adverbs with -wise: !ossipee, franchisee, internee, retiree birdish, broadish, co.uettish, heathenish bureaucrati-e, mytholo!i-e, periodi-e, solubili-e crabwise, fanwise, fro!wise, starwise. In practice, the difference between open classes and closed classes is not always clear-cut. "or e!ample, new prepositions develop out of other word classes #e.g. re!ardin!$, and se*uences of orthographic words can gradually become fi!ed as a single preposition #e.g. on account of$. s a result, 'closed classes' are not completely closed, but they are e!tended only slowly, over centuries. In contrast, new nouns, verbs, ad)ectives, and adverbs - the open classes - are always being created.

1+5 Multi-word units, collocations, and le ical 6undles

! multi-word unit is a se*uence of orthographic words which functions n idiom is a multi-word unit with a meaning that cannot be li%e single grammatical unit: e.g. the preposition on top of or the adverb of course. predicted from the meanings of its constituent words#e.g. fall in love or ma%e up &one's' mind $. 4owever, the boundary between idioms and freely chosen combinations not always clear. ! collocation is the relationship between two or more independent words which commonly appear together #or co-occur$. The ad)ectives broad and wide , for e!ample, are similar in meaning, but occur in very different collocations: broad accent, broad a!reement, broad dayli!ht, broad !rin, broad shoulders, etc.5 wide appeal, wide area, wide e/perience, wide interests, wide mar!in, etc. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 5

The term le ical 6undle, is used for a se*uence of words which co-occur

very fre*uently, especially when the se*uence consists of more than two words: e.g., I don't thin% ..., 0ould you mind ... etc.

2+ Le ical word classes

Le ical words
s already noted, there are four main classes of le!ical words: nouns, le ical 7er6s, adjecti7es, and ad7er6s+ To decide what class a word belongs to, it is useful to apply tests of three %inds: higher units6 "emantic. what type#s$ of meaning does a word convey6 Morphological. what forms does a word consist of #stems and affi!es$6 "yntactic. what syntactic roles does a word play in phrases or other

2+1

8ouns

,ords such as boo%, !irl, !old, information are common nouns+ ,ords such Sarah, 1slo, and 2icrosoft #names$ are proper nouns+ &ouns have the following characteristics: ! Morphological characteristics &ouns have in)lectional su))i es )or plural num6er, and for geniti7e case: a boo% 3 two "ooks# $arah's boo%. 7any nouns, however, are uncounta6le, and cannot have a plural form #e.g. !old, information $. &ouns *uite often contain more than one morpheme: compound nouns: bomb + shell, brid!e + head, clothes + line nouns with derivational suffi!es: sin!+er, bri!ht + ness, friend + ship # "yntactic characteristics &ouns can occur as the head o) a noun phrase. 4a new "ook about the cold war5, 4the u!liest person you've ever seen5. s these e!amples show, common nouns such as boo% and person can be modified by many %inds of words both before and after them. 8roper nouns li%e Sarah, on the other hand, rarely have any modifiers. % "emantic characteristics &ouns commonly refer to concrete, physical entities #people, ob)ects, substances$: e.g. boo%, friend, iron. They can also denote abstract entities, such as *ualities and states: e.g. freedom, wish, friendship. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 6

2+2 Le ical 7er6s

,ords such as admit, build, choose, write are le ical 7er6s+ They are distinct from au iliary 7er6s li%e can and will, which we treat as function words. The primary 7er6s be, have, and do #the most common verbs in English$ occur as both le!ical verbs and au!iliaries. 0e!ical verbs are identified as follows: ! Morphological characteristics 0e!ical verbs have different forms signaling tense #present and past$, aspect #perfect, progressive$, and 7oice #active and passive$. &ote the five forms of the verb le!eme write in these e!amples: e ample $hey write about their family. 6e writes pa!e after pa!e about tiny details . $hey wrote about 7enus bein! a 8un!le paradise 6e has written to an old 8ournalist friend. / wonder if you are writin% any more son!s" . )orm base third person present # -s form$ past tense ed- participle #or past participle$ in!-participle #or present participle$

9erb le!emes *uite often have a comple! form with more than one morpheme. The following are e!amples of multi-word verbs and derived verbs: brin! up& rely on& loo% 'orward to& hyphenate, itemi(e, soften. # "yntactic characteristics 0e!ical verbs most fre*uently occur on their own, as a single-word verb phrase acting as the central part of the clause: 6e 4 writes5 pa!e after pa!e about tiny details. They also occur in the final or main 7er6 position o) 7er6 phrases. 4has written5 a letter5 4will be writin%5 tomorrow. % "emantic characteristics 0e!ical verbs denote actions, processes, and states of affairs that happen or e!ist in time. They also define the role of human and non-human participants in actions, processes, or states: 49ou5 4ate5 4 hinese food5. In this e!ample, ate e!presses the action performed by you on the food. hinese

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!djecti7es
d)ectives are

,ords such as dar%, heavy, ea!er, and !uilty are ad)ectives. identified as follows: ! Morphological characteristics

7any ad)ectives can ta%e the inflectional suffi!es -er #comparative$ and -est #superlative$: dar% 3 dar%er 3 dar%est. d)ectives can be comple! in morphology: derived ad)ectives #with suffi!es in bold$: accepta"le, for!et'ul, influential compound ad)ectives: colour-blind, home-made, ice-cold. # "yntactic characteristics d)ectives can occur as the head of an adjecti7e phrase. 4very dark5, 4ea%er to help5, 4%uilt of a serious crime5. the verb in clauses: modifier: $omorrow could be 4a sunn day5. predicative: It's nice and warm in here. It)s sunn . % "emantic characteristics d)ectives describe the *ualities of people, things, and abstractions: a heavy bo/, he is %uilt & the situation is serious+ 7any ad)ectives are grada6le+ That is, they can be compared and modified for the degree or level of the *uality: heavier, very heavy, e/tremely serious. d)ectives and ad)ective phrases are most commonly used as modi)iers preceding the head of a noun phrase, or as predicati7es following

2+4 !d7er6s
,ords such as now, there, usually, and finally are adverbs. word class, with the following characteristics: ! Morphological characteristics 7any adverbs are formed from ad)ectives by adding the suffi! -ly: clearly, ea!erly. .thers have no such ending: however, 8ust. few adverbs allow comparative and superlative forms li%e those for ad)ectives: soon3 sooner 3 soonest: fast3 faster 3 fastest. # "yntactic characteristics dverbs occur as head o) ad7er6 phrases. 4very noisil 5, 4more slowl than I had e/pected5. dverbs, with or without their own modifiers, are often used as modi)iers soon. .therwise, they can act as of an ad)ective or another adverb: reall old, )er ad7er6ials in the clause: I)ll see you a%ain soon+ dverbs are a varied

Anca Cehan autumn 2009

% "emantic characteristics s modifiers, adverbs most often e!press the degree of a following ad)ective or adverb: totall wron!, ri%ht now. s elements of clauses #adverbials$, adverbs and adverb phrases have a wide range of meanings: : They can modify an action, process, or state, by e!pressing such notions

as time, place, and manner: So I learned ;erman .uite *uickl . She was here earlier today+ : They can convey the spea%er's or writer's attitude towards the information in the rest of the clause: $urel that child's not mine" : They can e!press a connection with what was said earlier: It must be beautiful, thou%h+

2+5 %omparing le ical word classes in use

There are interesting similarities and contrasts in the use of the le!ical word classes across the registers. ;egisters can be described in terms of their style by comparing their use of the le!ical classes. s and verbs are clearly the most common types of word overall. <onversation has a high density of verbs, unli%e informative writing such as &oun

news and academic prose, which has a high density of nouns. d)ectives are lin%ed to nouns, because they most fre*uently modify nouns.

+o informative writing, which has the highest density of nouns, also has the highest density of ad)ectives. : dverbs are lin%ed to verbs. They typically describe circumstances

relating to actions, processes, and states that are denoted by verbs. +o conversation and fiction writing, which have the highest density of verbs, also have the highest density of adverbs.

2+9 #orderline cases in classi)ying words

The categories people operate with in the real world are not clear-cut. The category of 'furniture=, for e!ample, includes clear cases, li%e tables and chairs, but also less clear or borderline cases, such as television sets, coo%ers, and electric heaters. The same is true of word classes in grammar. "or e!ample, nouns can be more or less 'nouny'. typical noun #e.g. boy, car$ has singular, plural, and genitive forms 9 Anca Cehan autumn 2009

#e.g. boy, boys, boy's$. It can be preceded by a or the, and it refers to a class of people, things, or other entities. -et in the class of nouns we find many words which have only some of these 'nouny' features: e.g. research, which has no plural or genitive, cannot be preceded by a, and refers to something abstract and intangible. s some words may be more 'borderline' than others within a word class, it is not surprising that the boundaries between two word classes may also be unclear. The words ending with -in! are an e!ample of borderline cases in le!ical word classes. lmost all of these words have a verb base, so it is easy to assume that alll words ending in -in! are verbs. In fact, these words can belong to any of three different classes: verb #sometimes called the in!-participle$, noun, or ad)ective #sometimes called participial ad)ective$. &ormally the following tests can be applied to determine the word class: overni!ht. &ouns ending in -in! can sometimes have a plural form #e.g. paintin!s$, and can usually be a head noun after a, the, or some other determiner: e.g. 2the "annin% of some chemicals3, 2her dancin%3 d)ectives ending in -in! can appear before a noun, and can also occur 9erbs ending in -in! can act as the main verb of a verb phrase, and

may be followed by a noun or an ad)ective: e.g. is eatin% lunch: "ecomin% misty

after verbs such as be and become: e.g. the tra)ellin% public5 it was &very' con'usin%. They are very often gradable, and can be preceded by degree adverbs such as very, so, and too: )er for!ivin!, so interestin!, too borin!. >ut these criteria cannot always be clearly applied. Typical borderline case include the following: ! 8ouns and 7er6s The biggest problem here is the so-called na%ed in!-form occurring after a verb, as in: $he matter needed chec%in!. In this e!ample the final word chec%in! could be a verb. If one added an adverb, it would be a verb: $he matter needed chec%in! carefully. In other similar cases, this form could be functioning as a noun. If it were preceded by a modifying ad)ective, it would clearly be a noun: $he matter needed careful chec%in!. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 10

+ince neither of these clues is present in the original e!ample, the word class of chec%in! is left unclear. # 8ouns and adjecti7es The biggest problem here is where the in! -form modifies a following noun. <ompare: noun : noun li)in% standards adjecti7e : noun

li)in% creatures, dancin! classes, the dancin% children workin% conditions a workin% mother >oth nouns and ad)ectives can modify a noun, so the only way to tell the difference here is to apply a 'paraphrase test': i.e. to try to e!press the same idea in different ways. If a paraphrase can be found where the in!-form clearly has a noun-li%e character, the construction consists of noun 1 noun. "or e!ample, if a paraphrase which uses a prepositional phrase is appropriate, the construction must consist of an in!-noun 1 noun: livin! standards ? standards of living5 dancin! classes ? classes for dancing. In contrast, a paraphrase with a relative clause #using that, which, or who$ shows that the construction consists of in!-ad)ective 1 noun: livin! creatures ? creatures which are #still$ living5 dancin! children ? children who are dancing. % ;er6s and adjecti7es >orderline cases between these categories occur where the in!-form follows the verb be without other modifiers. <onsider, for e!ample: It was embarrassin!. If the in!-word can ta%e an ob)ect #i.e. a following noun phrase$, then it is a verb: It w as em barrassin! &m e'. In contrast, if the in! -word is gradable and can be modified by very , it is an ad)ective: It was &very' embarrassin!. In some cases #li%e this one with embarrassin!$, both tests apply, and there is no single correct analysis. >ut the second analysis #ad)ective$ is more li%ely. ,ord classes, li%e virtually all grammatical categories, have uncertain boundaries5 but this does not undermine their value as categories. ;ather, grammar needs fle!ibility in its categories to enable people to communicate fle!ibly. In the large ma)ority of actual instances, however, there is little ambiguity. Anca Cehan autumn 2009 11

#i6liography.
>iber @., <onrad +., 0eech G. #ABBA$ <on!man Student ;rammar of Spo%en and 0ritten +n!lish, 0ongman @owning #ABBC$ +n!lish ;rammar. = >niversity ourse, ;outledge Greenbaum +., Duir% ;. #EFFB$ = Student)s ;rammar of the +n!lish <an!ua!e, 0ongman 4uddleston ;., 8ullum G., et al. #ABBA$ The ambrid!e ;rammar of the +n!lish <an!ua!e, <(8, 0eech G. #EFGF$ =n = , ? of +n!lish ;rammar and >sa!e, &elson, Duir%, ;., Greenbaum +., 0eech G., +vartvi% H. #EFIA$ = ;rammar of ontemporary +n!lish, 0ongman <elce-7urcia 7., 0arsen-"reeman @. #EFFF$ $he ;rammar @oo%, 4einle and 4einle 9ereJ G., <ehan ., ndriescu I. #EFFG$ = #ictionary of +n!lish ;rammar, 8olirom

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