Languages & Linguistics
Word Class
Word class refers to the categorization of words based on their grammatical functions and meanings within a language. Common word classes include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Understanding word classes is essential for analyzing sentence structure, syntax, and semantics in linguistics.
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eBook - PDFEnglish Words and Sentences
An Introduction
- Eva Duran Eppler, Gabriel Ozón(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
CHAPTER 2 Word Classes In this chapter . . . In this chapter we will introduce the main Word Classes: nouns, determiners, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. We said that in order to work systematically with English words and sentences, we need to analyse both the structure that lies behind words (morphology) and the organising principles according to which sentences are assembled (syntax). In accordance with this principle, we will introduce you to morpho- logical, syntactic and semantic criteria for word-class identification. We will see that word meaning is of course important for words to fit into a sentence; but their form characteristics are equally important. Each of the sections begins with a discussion of the shared properties of the Word Class under consideration. Once we have identified the typical characteristics of a Word Class, we will introduce you to different sub-types within it, if there are any. Activities on the fuzziness of different Word Classes, and on how distributional criteria allow us to shed some light on this fuzziness, will be relegated to the end of the chapter. In this chapter you will learn to work out which Word Class any word in any given sentence belongs to. 2.1 Nouns page 20 2.2 Verbs 25 2.3 Adjectives 33 2.4 Adverbs 34 2.5 Determiners 34 2.6 Prepositions 36 2.7 Conjunctions 37 2.8 Chapter summary 38 Key terms, Exercises and Further reading 38 In this chapter we are going to do a training marathon. No, actually not a marathon, rather a sprint through the seven main Word Classes of the English language. There is more than one way of classifying the words of English: some grammatical theories work with marginally fewer Word Classes, others 17 (those that wish to make more fine-grained distinctions) with a few more.
eBook - PDF- Jim Miller(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- EUP(Publisher)
Word ClassES 51 Not for distribution or resale. For personal use only. Similarly, speakers and writers pick what are called verbs when predi-cating, adjectives when adding to the information carried by a noun (that is, when they perform the speech act of modifying) and adverbs when they add to the information carried by a verb or an adjective. We end this chapter with a comment on terminology. Linguists nowa-days use the term ‘Word Classes’ and not the traditional term ‘parts of speech’. ‘Word Classes’ is neat and self-explanatory but is associated with the idea of words pinned down on the page or in the transcript of speech. ‘Parts of speech’ is not self-explanatory but it does have the merit of reminding us that we are dealing, not with dead text, but with speakers and writers doing things with language. Summary The different classes of words – for example, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions – were traditionally defined by what they denoted – people, places and things (nouns), actions (verbs) and properties (adjectives). This definition is inadequate, although meaning still has an important part to play. Reliable definitions are based on formal criteria – morphological (does a given word take inflectional suffixes or is it invariable?), morpho-syntactic (does a given word take suffixes having to do with person and number, or with case?) and syntactic (where in a phrase or clause does a given word occur?). Once formal criteria have been set up, the connection between Word Classes and meaning can be studied. This bears not just on what a given word or class of words refers to but on what speakers and writers do with it – refer, predicate or assert, modify. Exercises Exercise 1 Underline eight adjectives in the following passage. Decrepit Victorian mansions loomed out of the snowfall on the town’s sporadic hills.
eBook - PDFAdjectival Modification and Order Restrictions
The Influence of Temporariness on Prenominal Word Order
- Sven Kotowski(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter(Publisher)
Chapter 1 The Word Class ‘ adjective ’ The word as a central layer in the build-up of grammatical systems has proven indispensable for linguistic description, irrespective of theoretical frameworks and despite the notorious di ffi culty of actually deciding – cross-linguistically as well as language-speci fi cally – which structures should be regarded as words (cf. among many others Haspelmath 2011; Jacobsen 2011). The plethora of words in any given language, in turn, makes the distinction of classes among them equally indispensable – “ Word Classes, it is agreed, do [. . .] simplify our descrip-tion of the structure of the language [. . .] and are an essential stage in the construction of an adequate grammar of a language ” (Crystal 1967: 26 – 27). Thus, it is small wonder that ancient grammarians (e.g. P ā ṇ ini, Aristotle, or Dionysius Thrax) already engaged in lexical classi fi cation (cf. Baker 2003; Robins 1990). For example, Dionysius in the 2nd century BC de fi nes the word ( léxis ) in his Téchn ē grammatiké as “ the minimal unit of grammatical description ” (Robins 1990: 38) 1 and provides re fi nements of older lexical classi fi cations (in particular of the Stoics) along the lines of in fl ectional properties. 2 Crucially, however, ancient grammars tend to provide semantic content allegedly encoded by items of the morphosyntactically identi fi ed classes: in the Téchn ē , nouns signify “ a concrete or abstract entity ” and verbs “ an activity or process performed or undergone ” (ibid.: 39). This twofold perspective on parts of speech, i.e. morphosyntactic behavior and accompanying semantic contribution, informs the discussion among Word Class researchers up to this day.
- Nancy M. Sullivan(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
1 In case you did not read the introduction (I recommend that you do), let me quickly point out some of the features of this book before you get started. At the beginning of each chapter, you will see a Language Focus box, which provides an engaging, language focused context for the grammar examples and exercises. Throughout the book, you will discover “Notes on …” sections, which highlight significant issues, such as gender neutral language, Punc- tuation Patterns discussions, which point out important punctuation rules, and numerous exercises, which provide checkpoints to show where more work is needed. At the end of each chapter, you will see two critical sections that provide context for a deeper consider- ation of the grammar you are learning: Writing Matters and Language Matters. These are followed by Chapter Review exercises. The term “linguistics” is used throughout this book to refer to the study of language. As students of grammar, you are budding linguists! This chapter focuses on major Word Classifications. These classifications tradition- ally were referred to as the eight parts of speech, but they are now more commonly called Word Classes. Understanding these classifications is critical to your success in this course. Important grammatical concepts to learn in this chapter are noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Word Classes 1 Language Focus: Language and the Brain Researchers in the fields of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics investigate how languages are learned, lost, produced, understood, and stored in the brain. Some of the questions that these linguists ask include the following: How do we learn a first or second language? How do our short- and long-term memories affect language processing? What processes are involved in making the sounds that form words? Where do we store word meaning, and how do we access this information? How do we take a series of sounds and get meaning from them?
eBook - ePub- Jeanette Sakel(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
lexicon . These are all the words an individual knows, uses, or at least is able to understand. Using this underlying knowledge of the mental lexicon, creative speakers can make up their own, new terms.Exercise 4.2Try to find words that are not (yet) included in the OED. If you do not know any such words, try to look up new slang online, such as in Wiki-type dictionaries, or online wordlists. For each of the words you found, try to establish whether they are likely to ever be included in the OED. Note that even swearwords are generally considered in the OED, so that is not a reason why they would not be included.4.3 DIVIDING WORDS INTO CLASSESNow that we have explored what words are, it is time to look at the different classes to which words can belong. Most languages distinguish Word Classes such as ‘nouns’, ‘verbs’ and ‘adjectives’.3 Nouns generally refer to things (such as house), verbs to actions (such as eat), while adjectives describe qualities (such as beautiful). These Word Classes are used in different ‘places’ in sentences to refer to people or things, actions and events, attributes and more. Linguists sometimes refer to Word Classes as parts of speech .Exercise 4.3Look around you and make a list (consisting of at least ten words) of what you see.My list includes an office, a messy desk, a pen, a computer, a water-bottle, a picture, a window, my fluffy cat, a tree and my neighbour (through the window). All of these are things, living beings and places; and all of these words have in common that they are nouns or so-called noun phrases , which means combinations of nouns with other elements that give further information, such as my and fluffy. It is likely that your list will contain many noun phrases as well, as nouns are usually the easiest things to spot. It is less likely that the main words of your list are verbs (actions), for example eat or adjectives (properties) such as pretty. And it is highly unlikely that your list contains words belonging to yet other Word Classes, such as the preposition into or the filler uh
eBook - PDFA Critical Account of English Syntax
Grammar, Meaning, Text
- Keith Brown, Jim Miller(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Edinburgh University Press(Publisher)
(The latter usage is now old-fashioned.) Word ClassES: MAJOR AND MINOR A distinction is generally recognised between major and minor Word Classes. The major Word Classes are also called content words or lexical words and the minor classes are also called form words or gram-matical words. Another pair of terms is open class and closed class. The Word ClassES 269 distinction rests on the fact that some classes of words have obvious denotations or lexical meaning (=> W ORD CLASSES : SEMANTICS . ), are very large and constantly acquire new members. The traditional major Word Classes in grammars of English are noun, verb, adjective and adverb. (=> N OUNS AND NOUN PHRASES : INTRODUCTION , C LAUSE STRUCTURE : VERB PHRASES , A DJECTIVES AND A DJECTIVE P HRASES : INTRODUCTION , A DVERBS AND A DVERB P HRASES : INTRODUCTION .) The traditional minor classes are prepositions, determinatives and conjunctions. Determinatives (=> N OUNS AND NOUN PHRASES : DETER -MINATIVES . ) and conjunctions are clear candidates for the class of form words/grammatical words. They constitute small classes of items, the classes are almost closed and they are not usually considered as having denotations. Words with a denotation apply to people, places, things (in the broadest sense), actions, states and properties. In English they include nouns (e.g., villa , baby , idea ), verbs (e.g., buy , destroy , think ), adjec-tives (e.g., wooden , strong , abstract ), and adverbs (e.g., rapidly , hopefully ). English Word Classes that are generally recognised as grammatical are the definite and indefinite articles, the and a , the demonstrative adjec-tives this , these , that and those , the auxiliary verbs is , has , etc. (as in is reading a book , has read this book ). † Also classed as grammatical words in many accounts of English Word Classes are modal verbs such as may , could and must and prepositions such as with , from and by , but this treatment is doubtful.
eBook - PDF- Rolf Kreyer, Joybrato Mukherjee(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
the study of the ar- rangement of word forms in a linear sequence. Such issues will be discussed in more detail in chapter 10. 2.2 Word Classes 2.2.1 Open and closed classes Words (in the sense of lexemes) can be divided into two basic classes, i.e. those to which new words are or can be constantly added and those which remain sta- ble. The first are referred to as open Word Classes, the second as closed Word Classes. Another set of corresponding terms, namely 'lexical words' and 'function words', highlights a different aspect: words from open Word Classes are often 2 The tags are used to indicate the grammatical categories, i.e. 'singular noun' (NN), 'plural noun' (NNS), 'singular noun in genitive' (NN$), and 'plural noun in genitive' (NNS$). 32 Chapter 2 treated as being the true carrier of the meaning of a sentence, whereas words from closed Word Classes are usually regarded as simply fulfilling a grammatical function. The pronoun she, for instance, does not have a lot of meaning apart from 'female' and 'singular'. It is used in a text to refer back to a full noun or a noun phrase, where the lexical words convey more meaning, such as Mary, the beautiful girl, the woman living next door, etc. Within these two classes the following major Word Classes, often referred to as 'parts of speech', can be distinguished. Table 2.2: Open (lexical) and closed (function) Word Classes (cf. Quirk et al. 1985: 67). Open Word Classes Closed Word Classes noun car, book, friend preposition in, of, in spite of adjective beautiful, friendly, nice pronoun I, she, they main verb read, see, love determiner the, a, that, those adverb quite, nicely, happily conjunction and, but, although modal verb can, may, will primary verb be, have, do In between these two categories we may position a third class, namely that of numerals, e.g.
eBook - PDF- Geert E. Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan, Geert E. Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan(Authors)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
This comes back to the classical semantic question of whether concepts can be defined simply by denotation (in this case, by reference to the theory-internal definitions of verb, noun etc. as predicates over various types of logical entity given by Functional Grammar) or whether sense, as given by the system of op-positions, is also relevant: in this case, does the term verb still make sense when not used in opposition to noun , and does the too-ready use of a hierarchy like Hengeveld‘s blind us to real and interesting differences in how Tongan or Salish, for example, organize their word-class systems. Resolving this dilemma remains a major challenge for word-class typology, and the use of what we have discovered about core morphological characteristics and core lexi-cal members of the various classes will aid in the process of giving cross-linguistic denota-tional equivalence. Equally important is the factorization of the various ingredients syntactic, morphological, and semantic traditionally lumped together under the term ‘Word Class’, and the exploration of ways in which lexical classes exhibit systematic poly-semy, in construction with particular syn-tagms, in those languages with relatively fluid word-class membership. Doing this will re-quire more systematic exploration of larger sets of lexical items, and more principled dis-cussion of the semantic contribution of gram-matical frames to the interpretation of lex-emes. In addition, new techniques for studying function in discourse, and more subtle means of studying typological markedness, point to the need for methodological variety in cross-linguistic studies of word-classes, and for more attention to the interactions between lexical meaning, discourse function and syn-tactic function. Only for adjectives do we have reasonable cross-linguistic studies relat-ing word-class membership to semantic groupings; similar work needs to be done for the other major classes.
eBook - PDF- R. M. W. Dixon(Author)
- 1972(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
3 Word Classes For Dyirbal the following Word Classes, with mutually exclusive membership, can be set up: noun ) . Y nominal adjective J pronoun verb ) , - , u A verbal adverbalj time qualifier particle interjection Noun, adjective, verb, adverbal and time qualifier are open classes (the adverbal class is rather limited - a lexicon of three thousand words contained only about two dozen adverbals); adverbals modify verbs exactly as adjectives modify nouns. There are also 'noun markers' and 'verb markers' (3.2.2, 3.4.5, 6.5); these are, however, more in the nature of 'secondary categories' [Jespersen, 1924] and are not here treated as Word Classes. This chapter first outlines the semantic content of each major Word Class; it then deals with the nominal inflections of nouns, adjectives and noun markers, the rather different inflections of pronouns, the tense inflections of verbs and adverbals, and the inflections of time qualifiers. Particles show little or no inflection; like time qualifiers they qualify a complete sentence - 4.15. Interjections are listed in 4.17. 3.1 Semantic content of the open Word Classes NOUNS include terms referring to flora and fauna; to parts of the bodies of humans and of other animals, parts of trees, and so on; to mineral and other environmental phenomena ('stone', 'earth', 'water', 'fire' and so on); to geographical formations ('mountain', 'forest'), [ 3 9 ] 40 J.I Semantic content of the open Word Classes meteorological phenomena ('wind', 'cloud') and celestial bodies; to noises ('whistle', 'bang'), song-styles and language; to artefacts ('boomerang', 'dilly bag', 'cooking frame') and institutionalised parts of the environment ('camping site', 'fighting ground', 'track'); to age/sex groups ('baby', 'girl past puberty', 'newly-initiated man'); to relations (' father's elder brother',' maternal grandmother'); to particular people and places (proper names) and to spirits.
eBook - PDF- Sebastian Fedden(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
Chapter 3 Word Classes and grammatical relations 3.0. Introduction Nouns, adjectives, and verbs constitute open Word Classes. While the classes of nouns and adjectives readily accept loans from Tok Pisin or English, verbal loans from Tok Pisin or English cannot be inflected like native Mian verbs, but rather such loans have to be followed by the function verb ke ‘do’ in a function verb construction. Mian is typically Papuan in that it makes a very clear formal distinction between nouns and verbs (Himmelmann 2005: 126-131). All other Word Classes are closed, and with the exception of verbs rather small. The closed Word Classes comprise the following parts of speech: Articles Prenominal modifiers Adverbs Pronouns Directionals Postpositions Quantifiers Conjunctions Ideophones Particles In order to determine the defining features of a given Word Class, a combination of morphosyntactic and distributional criteria will be employed. 3.1. Nouns Nouns are by far the largest Word Class in Mian. Tok Pisin or English loans are readily accommodated into the noun vocabulary of the language. Nouns are used to refer to objects (persons, cultural or natural objects, substances), locations, and abstract notions which are important components of the world inhabited by the Mianmin. 86 3. Word Classes and grammatical relations Apart from common nouns, the class of nouns has the following subclasses: proper names and kin nouns (3.1.7), dyads (3.1.8), temporal nouns (3.1.9), and verbal nouns (3.1.10 and 8.7.2). 3.1.1. Properties common to all nouns Suprasegmentally, all nouns are lexically specified for one out of five tonal melodies (i.e. L, H, LH, LHL, and HL), whose domain is the prosodic word as a whole. Nouns with a complex tonal melody (i.e. LH, LHL, and HL) also have one accent which is the association point for the tonal melody.
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