The word classes or parts of speech in

The word classes or parts of speech in English Lecture 4

Lecture outline Parts of speech: a historical perspective Traditional approaches based on various criteria Debatable issues

The word A meaningful, expressive, nominative unit of language; Belongs to a particular language level; Consists of form and meaning (signified and signifier).

Groups of words in lexicology Semantic classification of words: synonyms and antonyms; etymologically: words of native origin and borrowing; stylistically: neutral or stylistically marked; frequency: active and passive, etc.

Classes of words in grammar Grammar organizes the words into a comparatively small number of classes: grammatically relevant classes; traditionally – parts of speech (from Ancient Greece, rather confusing); the system of the parts of speech is historically variable.

Lexical and grammatical properties of the word A word has a certain lexical meaning: the individual meaning of the word (chair – a definite piece of furniture); it also possesses a more general and abstract meaning – grammatical meaning, the meaning of the whole class or subclass of words (thingness, countableness of ‘chair’).

The grammatical meaning is a generalized, abstract meaning, which unites big sets or classes of words and is expressed with the help of characteristic formal markers or their absence.

The historical perspective Prescriptive grammars Latin grammars; declinables (nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, participles) and indeclinables (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, articles); the number of parts of speech varied from author to author: for instance, nouns and adjectives formed one part of speech.

The historical perspective Non-structural descriptive grammars Henry Sweet: declinables and indiclinables (based on form, meaning, and function): Declinables: • noun-words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund), adjective-words (adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participle), verb (finite verb), verbals (infinitive, gerund, participle). Indeclinables: • adverb, • preposition, • conjunction, • interjection.

The historical perspective Non-structural descriptive grammars Otto Jespersen (form and function) • substantives, • adjectives, • pronouns, • verbs, • and particles (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections). Otto Jespersen (function in a sentence): primary, secondary, tertiary word. A happily laughing child (3) (2) (1)

The historical perspective Structural Descriptive Grammarians Charles Fries , syntactic and distributional analysis (the combinability tested by substitution) Words that exhibit the same distribution (which is the set of contexts, i. e. immediate linguistic environments, in which a word can appear) belong to the same class. Frame A: The concert was good. Frame B: The clerk remembered the tax. Frame C: The team went there. Class 1 words (all words that can take the position of the words ‘concert, clerk, tax, team. Class 2 words (was, remembered and went). Class 3 words (good). Class 4 words (there). 15 groups of function words: Group A (determiners), Group B (modal verbs, Group C (the negative particle ‘not’), etc.

Modern traditional approaches The criteria: (generalized meaning) semantic – meaning; • formal (inflexional an derivation features) – form; • functional (syntactic role) – function. •

Modern traditional approaches (1) Notional (having independent lexical meaning): noun, adjective, numeral, pronoun, verb, adverb. Functional (deprived of independent lexical meaning): article, preposition, conjunction, particle, modal word, interjection.

Modern traditional approaches The Noun • meaning: ‘thingness’; • form: the changeable forms of number and case (dog’s, dogs) and suffixal forms of derivation (happi. NESS, child. HOOD, etc. ); • function: subject, object, substantival predicative, preposition connections, modification by an adjective.

The Noun (function) Subject: The boy is very happy. Object: She saw the boy. Substantival predicative: This is a boy. Prepositional connections: He came up to the boy. Modification by an adjective: He was a clever boy.

Functional words The preposition expresses the dependencies and interdependencies of referents. The article expresses the specific limitation of the substantive function.

Subclasses: the noun Proper and common (the Danube vs. a girl; Animate and inanimate (a man vs. a chair); Countable and uncountable ( a dog vs. information).

Modern traditional approaches (2) A part of speech is a class of words characterized by: 1) Its lexico-grammatical meaning; 2) Its lexico-grammatical morphemes; 3) Its grammatical categories or its paradigms; 4) Its combinability; 5) Its function in a sentence.

Modern traditional approaches (2) lexico-grammatical meaning: nouns ‘substance’, verbs ‘action’, etc. ; lexico-grammatical morphemes: -ness, ist, -ism; -ize, -ify; -ful, -less, -ish, etc. ; grammatical categories of paradigms: case and number for nouns (dog vs. dog’s, dog vs. dogs); tense, mood, voice, etc, for verbs (walk, walked, is walking, has walked, etc. ).

Modern traditional approaches (2) combinability (the power of words to form combinations of definite patterns with word of certain classes): nouns+ prepositions, but * preposition+ adverb (*for loudly); function in a sentence. The words often lack one or more features.

Modern traditional approaches (2) Nouns, adjective, pronouns, numerals, verbs, adlinks (the category of state: seem, look), modal words, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, interjections, articles, response words (yes, no); • notional vs. semi-notional. •

Semi-notional parts of speech very general and comparatively weak lexical meaning (rare or no substitutes); unilateral or bilateral combinability (1) articles; 2) preposition); the functions of linking or specifying.

The latest approach (form and function) “A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language”; word classes are the most general categories to which lexical items can be appropriately assigned (state further subclassification).

The latest approach Closed classed (only exceptionally extended by the creation of additional members); Open classes (indefinitely extendable); Numerals (between open-class and closedclass items); interjections (a closed class – fully institutionalized and few in number, but are grammatically peripheral); a small number of words of unique function.

The latest approach Closed classes: preposition – of, at, in, without, in spite of; pronoun – he, they, anybody, one, which; determiner – the, a, that, every, some; conjunction –and, that, when, although; modal verb – can, must, will, could; primary verb – be, have, do); Open classes: noun – John, room, answer, play, adjective – happy, steady, new, large, round, full verb – search, grow, play, adverb – steadily, completely, really; Numerals – two, three; first, second, third; Interjections – oh, ah, wow etc; words of unique function – the negative particle not and the infinitive marker to.

Disputable points in the parts of speech classification Nouns, verbs and their properties are agreed upon by most scientists vs. particles, modal word are more problematic; Adverbs (a dustbin (F. Palmer), мусорная куча (V. Vinogradov): perfectly vs, again; after all, anyway, actually, etc.

The theory of field structure of the parts of speech (V. Admoni) Each part of speech has units (words) possessing all the features typical of that parts of speech – the centre of the field; there are unit which have some features only (periphery).

Conclusion Parts of speech are lexico-grammatical classes of words. The classification can be based on various criteria: formal, semantic, functional, or all of them together. Part of speech are historical variable. There are problematic points which require solving.