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Lexical Functional Categories-2

This document discusses the two main categories of words: lexical/content words and functional/structural words. Lexical words have their own meanings and can change meaning based on context, while functional words contribute to overall meaning and grammatical structure. Examples of lexical words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Functional words include auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and other grammatical features like tense. The document provides examples and descriptions of the semantic, morphological, and syntactic properties of different parts of speech within these two categories.

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172 views23 pages

Lexical Functional Categories-2

This document discusses the two main categories of words: lexical/content words and functional/structural words. Lexical words have their own meanings and can change meaning based on context, while functional words contribute to overall meaning and grammatical structure. Examples of lexical words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Functional words include auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and other grammatical features like tense. The document provides examples and descriptions of the semantic, morphological, and syntactic properties of different parts of speech within these two categories.

Uploaded by

Rocio Aparicio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LEXICAL &

FUNCTIONAL
CATEGORIES
Words…
There are two big groups of words
◦ 1) lexical, content or open-set words

◦ 2) functional, structural or closed-set words

◦ This ppt accompanies the videos you must watch on your own on PARTS OF SPEECH.
LEXICAL/CONTENT
OR OPEN-SET
words
Which are they?
◦ They are those words which have meaning of their own.
◦ They can change their meaning according to context but we can see that they represent ideas,
actions, ways of doing things, etc.
◦ There can always appear new of them.
This was very clear with the world of
technology
◦ Mouse
◦ Software
◦ Hardware
◦ Pendrive
◦ Hard disk
◦ Virus
◦ Screen
◦ To email somebody
◦ To goggle something
◦ To surf the net…
FUNCTIONAL/
STRUCTURAL OR
CLOSED-SET
Words…
Which are they?
◦ They are those words which rather than have meaning of their own, contribute with meaning to the
whole. They constitute gramatical meaning which fulfils a particular function.
◦ Even if new areas of study or knowledge appear, there are no new examples of these words.
SET 1 SET2
◦ Main Verbs ◦ Auxiliary verbs
◦ Nouns ◦ Pronouns
◦ Adjectives ◦ Articles
◦ Adverbs ◦ Demonstratives
◦ Prepositions (but they are closed set) ◦ Possessives
◦ Conjunctions
◦ FUNCTIONAL FEATURES
Set 1: VERBS
◦ Semantically: They refer to actions (the largest group), events, states, instances of communication,
perception, mental or liking expressions.
◦ Morphologically: they can take the suffixes: -ed/ -ing/ -s/ or they may be irregular. (the famous three-
column list).
◦ Syntactically: TVCP: + DO or +DO & IO// TVIP: +DO+OC// IVIP: +SC// IVCP: + Neither O nor C.
Remember that they may be modified by Adjuncts.
◦ think, run, faint, hear…
Set1: NOUNS
◦ Semantically: they basically refer to objects, abstract ideas or types of activities.
◦ Morphologically: regular nouns pluralise with –s, one suffix to recognise them is –Ness and their
are irregular forms as well, eg: child-children// woman-women// deer-deer//stimulus-stimuli.
◦ Syntactically: they combine with all specifiers. They may be pre or post modified.
◦ Eg: his happiness / her smile/ swimming
Set 1: Adjectives
◦ Semantically: they are properties of people or things.
◦ Morphologically: they take the comparative (-er/ more) and the superlative (-est/the most)
◦ Syntactically: they have a fixed order and their main function is to modify nouns.
◦ the slowest the fastest
Set 1: Adverbs
◦ Semantically: they answer the questions why? How? When? Etc
◦ Morphologically: suffixes –ly/ -wards mark them as well as some others which are exceptions: well/
rather/ very/ quite
◦ Syntactically: They modify the actions expressed by verbs and they modify adjectives & other adverbs.

◦ quickly
Set 1: Prepositions
◦ Semantically: They relate objects, people or events with place, time or some figurative meaning.
◦ Morphologically: They have a fixed form, they cannot be inflected. There are some simple ones: on/
of…and compound ones: next to.
◦ Syntactically: their posiiton per excellence is before a noun or nominal construction.
◦ The ball is ON his knee/ IN the air / UNDER him/ NEXT TO his foot, etc
Set 2: They function as Specifiers

◦ Articles: a/an/the
◦ Demonstrative Adjectives: this/ that/ these/ those
◦ Possessive Adjectives: his/ her/ their/ my/ your/ our/
Set 2: Auxiliary Verbs
◦ Remember we have discussed their differences with MLV.
◦ Some properties:
◦ They operate for negation & question formation.
◦ and… primary auxiliaries (DO/HAVE/BE) differ form modals because the latter express some degree of
certainty/ possibility/ probability, etc

◦ It may/ might/ will rain tomorrow


Set 2: Pronouns
◦ Syntactically: They replace NOUNS in all their possible syntactic positions.
◦ There are:
◦ Personal P: Subjective vs Objective (WE/ US)
◦ Possessive P: MINE/ OURS
◦ Universal or Indefinite P: anything/ anybody/ anyone/
◦ Demonstrative P: These/ those/this/that
◦ Relative P: who/ that/ which/ whose/ whom
◦ Interrogative P: what/ where/ when/ how/ Why
◦ Reflexive P: myself/ herself/themselves
◦ Reciprocal P: each other / one another
Examples
Pronouns: types
Pronouns
◦ Morphologically, they change for

◦ GENDER: her/his

◦ NUMBER: he/ they

◦ PERSON: you / I

◦ CASE: I/me/my
Set 2: Conjunctions
◦ They are JOINING/ LINKING elements

◦ Coordinating: For/and/nor/But/ or/yet/so. ( both units of same syntactic rank)

◦ Subordinating: until/ if/ that/ though/ once


Examples:
Functional
features
TENSE (+T/ past/ non-past)

TO infinitive (tenseless –T/-A)

Agreement : (+A: person/


Number)

NON_Finite INFL: +ing


+ed
remember
You have constructed a mental
dictionary in your L1 when
you learnt Spanish as a child…

You are constructing a mental


dictionary of English as you
advance along the path of
learning an L2…
The storage goes on…

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