.. .

-t COlllprdU"lSlt'l Eugllsh (;", m lll ll r

' rules' t hat we have g iven a re merely conclusi ons .dra,\:~ h om C H AP T E R O:SF.
t hese Iacts. II at any t in e a ru,le docs n?t c~lIlC\llc '''l~h t he
usage. it is t he rule t hat is \\'r~ng , and It will ~e t he Job 01 ( T H E P AR T S OF S P E EC H '
fu ture grammarians t o change It. T he wo rds that compo!'-t' t ile English lauguago-c-or any oth er
Ianguagc-c-can be classific..1 in var ious wa~';; :'l lud l time and
effort h as been spent in try ing t o se ttle what names should he
EXERCISES given t o t hese cat egor ies. I t seems t o us t hat t he re is little poi n t
in giving an yt h ing bu t the mos t genera l definitions of tile Parts
I From your own experience in learning English. try t~ of Speech , in the first place because it is almost im poss ible t o
explain how important you consider the study a give a defin ition which is exact and comprehensive, or w it h
grammar to be in learning a foreign language. . wh ic h every grammaria n wo uld agree ; second ly because it is
II Do you consider that u.e
st ud y of grammar . IS ,~re hard ly n ecessa ry. s ince t he concept ion o f ' Nou n", ' Verb' , e tc. ,
im rant or less important m learning English .an ,,; 1\ a lm ost ce r tai nly be fam iliar t o t he s tuden t in his own
it ~ ill learn ing you r own nat ive la nguage? Give language. It seems t o us more important t hat the st uden t
reasons for your answer , should be given e xamples of the various P a rts of Speech and
III The I nt rod uct ion t o t h is book says, on page one; sh ould sec, as he will in t he pages th at follow, e xac tly ho w
'English has changed Item a synthetic lang uage to ~ t hese word s beh ave. We have t herefore ad hered . in the main ,
analytic one'. Compare t his with wha t has 11 ~ppen t o the traditional! most familiar definitions. Un der t h is system
in -our o.... n language and aay whether you .t hlllk th is all t he words in t he English language can be grouped . according
ch1nge has made English ea ster or more difficult for t o t he work they do, int o eight daSS('S. TIl("SC are tilt' Parts of
the foreign studen t t o learn. . . spe~cll .
' . - does t he abandonment of bel ief In
1\ I n your opml0n. . ' t he They are:
grammatical r ules t end t owards a do;: t.enoTat lon In
style and quality 0 1 a langn ag,; as It IS.U&eJ III every- , (!) Words that a re the names of th ings or people or places, e.g.
day life) house. hal, iron, Mary , Russia, London, sweetness, spuch, '"
crOU'd, army .

\~orr t hat d o this wo r k a re called C,>;ouss 1
\ II. W ords that c a n be used instead of nouns. so that we can
re er t o people or t h ings without Teall}' nami ng them and being

I com pelled t o repea t t he names too frequent ly, e.g.

I Professor C. C. Frle~, t hc fu rmer Director of the English Langua ge
I Institute of t he Universily of Michigan and per ha ps t he mcee iwno-
clulie of modern gra m marians, writes;
'O n the .... bole, I beueve it wil l be found Ihat most of t he t rad itional
teuns. t hollJb oft en badly na med . correspond to real /;tcll "",d
\ dist llletions In the linguistic material. li ma)" rea!OOll&bly be doubled
whether a $.enic=ble gram mAr .... hi<;h d isf'C n_ entirely nlt h . uch
ter m. as nou n and v erb will ever be written.... To m y mind it i,not
ao much t he tradi tional t erms t hat are unacceptahl e a.s t he explana
tinns of t hem whic h are normally given:
)
4 A Comp n Jr.t Jlsivt English Grammar
H U. ,TR : L-JU r
IUtitS ! 11..t..
" \.\
p::o r
tJ~'>
LC4I- . .,

c.k\tl
,, _~ - _ _. ,

Thr H ITls of Spach

,
" Yl\ .~ \ b'""cmj ful.oI.j - t ~ "'TYOI,I.>
/lt llo/ OM A M ,

\MjI , you, tllem , who, that, hi",ul . somtont.

that do this are called PROl" OU ~ S .
, Words that qualify a noun by mak ing its meaning
Words like t hese ar4 n ERJECTfOXS J
'1 ",I I"
.j'" _
- - I ( j . I..\ S S I H C \1/ 0 S
_owuvIY OJ, ! 'f dowl
-. xC.Tl12>--
. ...... Wory'y ~
c.o~ t: ~
c earer, fuller, or more exact. Examplt s:
a. bad egg, a biue dress, the book is nttt'.
..,.(1 It is most important to remember that words are classified
into l'a rl ~ of speech accord ing 10 tlu-ir run ct tcn. that is
Words that do this are ca1led{ ADJI::CT I\I::: S ;),".r~' ~ .. ncconlmg to thr work t hat they do and not according to their
There are a number of words of vkribt;; types that are form. There are in fact a grsar many words that can be two
sometimes grouped as adjectives. words, for example, like
three or even more parts of speech arrording to the work they
4(n). Me. SotlU, tach, no, 11114(11, etc. Th ese are discussed in the do. Take for example these sentences.
section Determinatives. (Chapter Ten .)

a
M1tJwords t hat express the idea of action or being. t.hat
t hat a person or t hing is, dots or suffers someth ing.
-( I f lie came by a Yery k ISt train.
-f~ ~ William ran very l p sl, -
~3j. They are going to 7,:!!/ for t hree days; during that time
EX02mples: t hey won 't eat a nything.
Th e boys pla),ed foot hall.
..(4)- At the end of his three day lfEl he will have a very
He is hungry. light meal.
The enemy was dt/ f alld.
Words of this kind are called {YERBS) In (r) f ast is an adjective, in (2) it is nn a,I\'('rl1, in (3) a verb,
G?:\ Words t hat we can add t o a verb to make its meaning
and in (4) a noun .
Or note th e differing uses of wal, h in:
clearer. fuller or more exact. Exampu s:
~ly fat her gave me a watch fo r my birrh.ln y
He ran quickly . I saw him )'eslerday .
I am going to waf,h a football ma tch .
Words like these ar~ ", uH R BS . ) Hex is a geed Tcnfdl dog.
tvnWords that art: used WIth nou ns or pronouns (generally ,
bu't4t;t always, being placed in front or them] and shew-the Or of spring in:
relat ionship between the noun ?r pr~n oun and another word , The sP,illg of my watch is broken.
often expressing abstract relat ionship of case or of t ime or The dog tried to sp ring ever the gate
place. Examples: t Jove sp,i n~ flowers.
I sent the parcel to him ; it went by air mail. The smoke went w ords like drink, look , smoke, ~as/', ~wim , J, i,,( . I,)' are alj-
up t he chimney , The desk was nea r the window. generally used as verbs, bu t . especially in familiar ccnvcrsa-
Words that do work like this arelPR EPOsITJO~SJ tion , we pu t ' hI!l'( a' before t hem ('h:\\"e a drink. look, t ry,
u:II\ Words that are used t o join words, phrases or
etc.'), and t hey become nouns. Words like shoulder, head,
Jingtr, eye, elbow. hand , etc.. arc generally nouns: but we can
sentences, Exa mples: 'shoulder our way' , 'head a football or a procession', 'fillger an
J ack and Jill; a boy with a dirty lace but a pleasan t smile, object', 'tye a person ' , 'tlb<nc someone else aside' or 'hand him
He worked hard bu4ust he wan ted to succeed. a cu p of tea'. And then these words are all verbs.
\ ...'ords like this are(coq usCnOl's J ! e.tl;,.;
' VIIU Words that express a sudden feeling or emotiorr' E XEUCI SES
These words do not enter into the syn tact ical construc tion of I Use the following words as (a ) 110l1 nS, and (b) verbs:
the sentence. Examples: .- - 'l'~ 1;"(..> house, iron, crowd. tie , sm okt , dreu , ai r. boo:', step.
c- ~ .-- l~ ..;, ~_ I ... LP , L,lt:.... ",: .;, LoP
hcrroly - hl-(,,"a ~ " _ / b,/A.h.1'l
t ?-:,,:'-
~ .- .
L,.... J
 6 A Compreh," ISiu E"gli5h (.,"'dm UUl T
II Use the follo'lnng as (a) n o uns. and (b) verbs. and
r h,' Parts Qj Spud,
7
indicat e the change in p ronunciation : \ ' r ).[:lk.., sc.. u teuc es !lsill!> eac h of t he jullo \\ ll1 l: words as
objet" p reu'lt, rerord, p odwce. confiia, cOM ,"l, h \ " di fieren t parts of spcoech (not n c.;o:;,..<;,;. ri l\ in tbc
ih5trt , UI"Ud. perottit. same M'nlefl(e i: 3m' $3 , ' wha t rarl~ o f ~r...,....,:h l hc\" a re;
.-\dd to the list of such words. A lIglU I (""Glu l); (l /ttTll<ltt ; fllIIwk; ".;...I i.J ; ..1Ull f;
III Substitu t e pronouns fo:r the nc une a nd nou n ph rues f"qU#tU.
underl ined in the fo llo....i ng sentences. wh ich are [X. ll.- ), Iolrk wllere the stre,,-~ fa lls in each exampte.]
im possi ble or inelegan t as th e)" ~ U.n,l: VII P ick ou t t he verbs in th is 1"'''-'l.a lle and dassifv t hem

I I . Joh n looked a t ~ Iary . but Mary was look inl:

a t )tary in th e looking' l;!ass.-
a. If you don' t want the paper. give I t to ~ person
as ex pressi ng (i) action, (ii) a sla te.
J oh n was late. H e h ur ried down to brea kfast ,
.

said somet hin g t o h is fa t her. wh ich t he la tter d id

I who does .
no t seem to unders tand. glan ced at the clock. got
eve n more worned a nd r ushed out of t he I,OUse. He
J . The speaker looked hi s q uest ioner in th e eye ; doubted whe the r he would e ver become m anager.
t hen the s peaker gave his questioner his for he had been repr im a nded t oe oft en for not bein g
a nswer. punctual.
4. Oxford (Oxford is fa mous lor its un iversity) VI II Pic k o ut fo ur prepositions a nd three conju nct ions
is now becoming indus trialized . from the passage in question VI I.
IV(a) I nsert s uitable adjec tives where the d ashes s tand: IX R epla ce t he <lashes by s uit a ble in terjec tio ns or ex-
I. , ...re didn ' t see each other agiJ.n for a - t ime. clam a tions:
2. I n spit e of h is - streng th l,1.e ...as - to (ttl - , I eliel no t s ucceed! (b) _ , whe re ha"e yo u
s wim across the - - river, as til e cu rren t was been all t t~ is t im e ? (e). - no, I really could n't! (dl
t oo - . - t here $ a car coming! (..) - -. 1 k'I" II' that wo ukl
J. The car t urned t he corner a t - - speed ha ppen!
4. The - - cat la y sl~ping in th e - - sunshine. X Arran g:e t he ....ords in the following passage in colu mn s
5. The door is - bu t t he windows a re -. eccc rd mg to the parh of speech wbic h t hey are;
I V (b) I nsert suitable adverbs where tile d-ashes stand ; It m us t no t be imagined tha t a walking tour. a;.
I I . I t ....as _ gettin g da.rk w hen we began t o some wou ld h ave us fa.ocy, is me rely a bet te r or
....o rse way of seeing the coun t ry. There a re m an"
I climb t he - - rising incline.
'1 . The men were not _ - - a wake. wa ys of seeing lan dsca pe q uite as good: and none
I J. H e was - - accused of the crime and - more vi vid, in sp ite of can ti ng el ile ttan tes. t ha n Irom
acq uitted. a r.ailway t rain. B ut la ndsc ape en 3 walk ing tour is
4. I - have eggs a nd bacon fo r brea kfas t, but q urt e accessory. H e wh o is ind eed of t he brotherhood
- - I tak e fish . does :n o~ voyage in quest of t he p ic t uresq ue. bu t of
S' Ha ve you - - been to the Zoo ? Yes, I - go certain Jolly h umours-c-of t he hope and spirit ....ith
t here . wh ic h t he march begi ns at morllinl=:, a nd t he peace
\' N a me t he parts of speech of t he words und erlined in a nd spirit ual repletion of th e e\"en ing-'s res t . . . .'
t he follow ing sen tences: R o ber t I.ouis Stevenson, lVallr ing T out's.
J . It'. hard wo rk , but I know you can work hud . X I Exp lain, a nd ill us tra t e in sentences. two senses in
a. He'."'ikid keen t o get on, bu t now th at his-;;;;t winch t he re new1.ng words can be used . N a m e t he
part of speech of each:
friend"i'Sdead, he is finding li'ie"deadlv mono:
(1) sound. (2) oil. (3) m aster. (,,) clear . (S) s peed.
t onOU5. MOOotony is nea rly a !wa,'s a~ l v_ (6) w a ter. (7) deal. (8) b utter, (9) ring. (10) police .
J . He struck low. Cli m b hill"h. T he ncwers look XU Defi ne t he func tions of the eight parts of speech and
nke. Cu t th;5i"K; (!$ t hin .- give two examples of each ....'ith words no t al ready
used in chapter I .