Unit 4

Word Classes
The words of language, depending on various formal and semantic
features are divided into grammatically relevant sets of classes. The
traditional grammatical classes of words are called parts of speech. Some
scholars refer to parts of speech as lexical and grammatical series of words,
or as lexical and grammatical categories.

The boundaries between the word classes are not absolutely fixed. Many
word classes share characteristics with others, and there is considerable
overlap between some of the classes. We recognize 9 Major word classes:

part of speech function or example words example sentences

"job"

Verb action or (to) be, have, EnglishClub is a website. I like

state do, like, work,
sing, can, must

Noun thing or pen, dog, work, This is my dog. He lives in my

person music, tოწნ,
London, teacher,
John

Adjective describes a good, big, red, My dogs are big. I like big dog
noun well, interesting

Determiner limits or a/an, the, 2, I have two dogs and some rabb
"determines" some, many
a noun

Adverb describes a quickly, silently, My dog eats quickly. Wh

verb, well, badly, very, eats really quickly.
adjective or really
adverb

Pronoun replaces a I, you, he, she, Tara is Indian. She is beautiful

 noun some

Preposition links a noun to, at, after, on, We went to school on Monday.
to another but
word

Conjunction joins clauses and, but, when I like dogs and I like cats.
or sentences dogs but I don't like cats.
or words

Interjection short oh!, ouch!, hi!, Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are
exclamation, well
sometimes
inserted into
a sentence

Words with More Than One Function

• verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjunction!

word part of speech example

work noun My work is easy.

verb I work in London.

but conjunction John came but Mary didn't

preposition Everyone came but Mary.

well adjective Are you well?

adverb She speaks well.

 interjection Well! That's expensive!

afternoon noun We ate in the afternoon.

noun acting as We had afternoon tea.

adjective

In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of

the three criteria: semantic, formal and functional.

Using the criterion of meaning (semantic criterion) we generalize about the

kind of meanings that words convey. For example, we could group together
the words brother and car, as well as David, house, and London, on the basis
that they all refer to people, places or things. In fact, this has traditionally
been a popular approach to determining members of the class of nouns. It
has also been applied to verbs, by saying that they denote some kind of
"action", like cook, drive, eat, run, etc.

The semantic criterion presupposes the evaluation of the generalized

meaning. This meaning is understood as the categorical meaning of the
part of speech.

The formal criterion provides for the exposition of the specific inflectional
and derivational (word-building) features of all the lexemic subsets of a part
of speech.

Some words can be assigned to a word class on the basis of their form
or "Shape". For example, many nouns have a characteristic - tion ending:
action, condition, demonstration, repetition. Similarly, many adjectives end
in - able or - ible: acceptable, credible, miserable, responsible.

Many words also take what are called inflections, that is, regular
changes in their form under certain conditions. For example nouns can take
a plural inflection, usually by adding – s at the end: car – cars, book –
books.

The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the

sentence typical of a part of speech.
The said three factors of categorical characterization of words are
conventionally referred to as, respectively, meaning, form and
function.

Open and Closed Word Classes

Some word classes are open, that is, new words can be added to the class
as the need arises. In the late twentieth century for example, developments
in computer technology have given rise to many new nouns: Internet,
website, email, modem, multimedia. New verbs have also been introduced:
download, upload, right –click.

On the other hand, we never invent new prepositions, determiners or

conjunctions. These classes include words like of, the, and but. They are
called closed word classes because they are made up of finite sets of words
which are never expanded. The subclass of pronouns, within the open noun
class, is also closed.

Words in an open class are known as open - class items. Words in a closed
class are known as closed - class – items.

The words classes are divided into:

1. Notional words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, numerals,

which can be used independently in a sentence, i.e. as a subject, object,
predicate, attribute, adverbial; they can act as heads in word - groups; most
of them constitute open classes of words and change morphologically.

2. Form - words (function - words); prepositions, conjunctions, articles -

being formal markers of notional words, they do not function independently
in a sentence; they do not inflect and make up closed lists of words.

3. Sentence - words: interjections, modal words, the words yes/no -

constitute closed lists of words capable of forming sentences by themselves.

To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun,
the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb. The notional
parts of speech perform certain functions in the sentence: the functions of
subject, predicate, attribute, object, or adverbial modifier.
 As it has been mentioned above, sentence - words: interjections, modal
words, the words yes/no - constitute closed lists of words and are capable of
forming sentences by themselves.

The modal word, occupying in the sentence a more pronounced or less

pronounced detached position, expresses the attitude of the speaker to the
reflected situation and its parts. Here belong the functional words of
probability (probably, perhaps, etc) of qualitative evolution (fortunately,
luckily etc.) and also of affirmation and negation. The interjection,
occupying a detached position in the sentence, is a signal of emotions.

Each part of speech after its identification is further subdivided into subseries
according to its various particular semantic, functional and formal features of
the constituent words. This subdivision is sometimes called
subcategorization of parts of speech.

Thus, nouns are subcategorized into proper and common, animate and
inanimate, countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract, etc.

Verbs are subcategorized into fully predicative and partially predicative,

transitive and intransitive, actional and statal , etc.

Adjectives are subcategorized into qualitative and relative, of constant

feature and temporary feature, etc.

The adverb, the numeral, the pronoun are also subject to the corresponding
sub categorizations

Comprehension Exercises:
a. Answer the questions according to the unit material:
1. What are the words divided into?

2.How many Major word classes are there?

3. How are word classes discriminated?

4.What is the difference between the open and closed word classes?
5. What are the word classes divided into?

b. Read the statements below and find whether they are

true or false

1.Parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the four criteria. T

/ F

2. Words are divided into notional, function and sentence words.

T/ F

3.Notional words constitute closed classes of words.

T/F

4.Form-words inflect and make up open lists of words.

T/F

5.Sentence-words constitute closed lists of words forming sentences

by themselves.
T /F

c. Read the words given below and group them into

notional or structural parts of speech and sentence
words
Tall, reader, forty, fast, lion, some, if, generosity, hardly, behind, everyone,
no, childish, kindness, asked, better, himself, below, eh, well, narrow, reads,
importance, argued, sixth, sandwich, perhaps, nobody, also, hundred,
bravo, yes, simple, who, much, interesting, but, actor, runs, which, rather,
brave, developed, sweet, probably, second, in, ah, seldom, childhood,
before, our, ancient, till, first, along, at, often, every, so, and, just, until, too.