MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

Fatima, General Santos City

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Inflection and Word Class

Presented to:

Prof. Rossel Audencial

Lexicography and Lexicology

Presented by:

Abbas, Alkhahil J. Imbong, Kenneth Dan P.

Abusama, Buhary A. Makarunggala, Cypress A.
Benitez, Coleen Blanch Sta. Ana, Jackbeam L.
Calo, Jirah Lyn A. Watin, Erica Sofia C.

March 10, 2020

 Grammar, as conventionally defined as the whole system and structure of a
language or of languages in general, takes part in outlining dictionary. It is usually taken
as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections), phonology and
semantics.

In dictionary, making it is important to know and understand inflections and word

classes. It will help you guide put up an entry to the dictionary. Nordquist ( 2019) define
inflection as the process of word formation in which items are added to the base form of
a word to express grammatical meanings. The word "inflection" comes from the
Latin inflectere, meaning "to bend."

Inflections in English grammar include the genitive 's; the plural -s; the third-

person singular -s; the past tense -d, -ed, or -t; the negative particle 'nt; -ing forms of
verbs; the comparative -er; and the superlative -est. While inflections take a variety of
forms, they are most often prefixes or suffixes. 

Uses of Inflection

Inflections are used to express different grammatical categories. For example,

the inflection -s at the end of dogs shows that the noun is plural. The same inflection -
s at the end of runs shows that the subject is in the third-person singular (s/he
runs). The inflection -ed is often used to indicate the past tense,
changing walk to walked and listen to listened. In this way, inflections are used to show
grammatical categories such as tense, person, and number.

Inflections can also be used to indicate a word's part of speech. The prefix en-,
for example, transforms the noun gulf into the verb engulf. The suffix -er transforms the
verb read into the noun reader.

To be able to understand the meaning of a lexical entry in a dictionary, one must

account on the base word of the inflected word. In the book of Kim Ballard (2013), The
Frameworks of English, he stated that “when considering inflections, it can...be helpful
to use the notion of a stem. A stem is what remains of a word when any inflections are
removed from it. In other words, inflections are added to the stem of a word.
So “frogs” is made up of the stem frog and the inflection -s, while turned is made up of
the stem turn and the inflection -ed.

Inflection Rules

English words follow different rules for inflection based on their part of speech
and grammatical category. The most common rules are listed below.

Word Class Grammatical Inflection Examples

Category
Flower to Flowers
Noun Number -s -es
Glass to Glasses
Paul to Paul’s

Noun, Pronoun Case (genitive) -‘s, -‘, -s Francis to Francis’

It to Its
Him to Himself

Pronoun Aspect (reflexive) -self, -selves

Them to
Themselves
Aspect
Verb -ing Run to Running
(progressive)
Fall to (has) Fallen

Verb Aspect (perfect) -en, -ed

Finish to (has)
Finished
Verb Tense (past) -ed Open to opened
Verb Tense (present) -s Open to Opens
Degree of
Adjective Comparison -er Smarter to Smarter
(comparative)
Adjective Degree of -est Smart to Smartest
Comparative
 (superlative)

Not all English words follow the rules in this table. Some are inflected using
sound changes known as vowel alternations, the most common of which are ablauts
and umlauts. The word "teach," for example, is marked as past tense by changing its
vowel sound, producing the word "taught" (rather than "teached"). Likewise, the word
"goose" is pluralized by changing its vowel sound to produce the word "geese." Other
irregular plurals include words like "oxen," "children," and "teeth."
Some words, such as "must" and "ought," are never inflected at all, no matter the
context in which they appear. These words are considered invariant. Many animal
nouns share the same singular and plural forms, including "bison," "deer," "moose,"
"salmon," "sheep," "shrimp," and "squid."

Regular and Irregular Inflection  

What is regular inflection?

Inflection, the way we change a word’s form to reflect things like tense, plurality,
gender, etc., is usually governed by consistent, predictable rules. This is known
as regular inflection.

For example, we usually create the past simple tense of verbs by adding “-d” or “-ed”
(as in heard or walked, which also function as the verbs’ past participles), and we
normally create plurals by adding “-s” or “-es” to the ends of nouns (as in dogs, cats,
watches, etc.).

What is irregular inflection?

However, there are many instances in which the way a word is inflected doesn’t seem to
follow any rules or conventions at all—this is known as irregular inflection. For
example, the past simple tense of the verb go is went (rather than goed, as regular
inflection would suggest), and its past participle is gone.

Irregular inflection affects nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and (most commonly) verbs.
Plurals of Nouns

Although nouns are largely uninflected in English (remaining the same regardless of
case, gender, or person), we do still inflect them to indicate plurals—that is, when there
is more than one of something.

Regular plurals
As we noted above, the standard way to inflect a noun for plurality is to add “-s” or “-es.”
Occasionally we have to make a slight alteration to the spelling of the word to
accommodate this inflection (for example, when the noun ends in a “-y” and it is
preceded by a consonant, we change “y” to “i” and add “-es”), but these are still
considered regular because there is a standard rule that they follow. Here are some
examples of regular nouns and their plural counterparts:

Regular
Plural form
noun

boy Boys
book Books
box Boxes
beach Beaches
lady Ladies
city Cities

Irregular plurals
However, there are a large number of nouns that have irregular plural forms that defy
this convention. These are completely unique words that do not follow any rules or
conventions for how they are spelled. Here are some of the most common irregular
nouns:
 Irregular
Plural form
noun

person people/persons*
mouse Mice
goose Geese
child Children
foot Feet
man Men
woman Women
(*Persons is also a plural form of person, but in modern English it is usually reserved for
more formal, bureaucratic, or legal language, as in, “Any such persons found to be
guilty of shoplifting will be prosecuted.”)

There are many other unique, irregular ways that nouns are pluralized. To learn more,
go to the section on Plurals in the chapter dealing with Declension.

Adjectives

Adjectives inflect when we change them into

their comparative and superlative forms. Comparative adjectives are used
to compare a quality between two nouns, while superlative adjectives identify a noun
with the highest (or lowest) degree of an attribute among a group.

Regular adjectives
We generally form the comparative degree by adding the suffix “-er” to the end of the
adjective, or by adding the words more or less before it.

To form the superlative degree, we either add “-est” to the end of the adjective or add
the word most or least before it.
We sometimes have to change the spelling of the adjective slightly to accommodate the
addition of the suffix, but the rules for when this is necessary are straightforward and
consistent.

The shift from a basic adjective to its comparative or superlative forms is known as the
degrees of comparison. Let’s look at how this is accomplished with regular adjectives:

Adjectiv Comparative Superlative

Spelling rule
e degree degree

With one-syllable adjectives, add “-er” or “-est”

big bigger biggest and double the final consonant if preceded by
one vowel.
The final consonant is not doubled if it is
strong stronger strongest
preceded by two vowels or another consonant.
If the adjective ends in an “e,” then you only
large larger largest
need to add “-r” or “-st.”
If an adjective has one or two syllables and
happy happier happiest ends in “-y,” we replace “y” with “i” and add “-
er” or “-est.”
For adjectives that have three or more
more/less most/least syllables, or adjectives that have two syllables
beautiful
beautiful beautiful and do not end in “-y,” use the
words more/less or most/least.

Irregular adjectives
The vast majority of adjectives follow the above conventions when forming the
comparative or superlative degrees. However, there are a few adjectives that are
irregular and have unique forms that do not conform to any spelling conventions.
Because of this, they must all be memorized.

Irregular Comparative
Superlative degree
adjective degree
fun more/less fun most/least fun
bad Worse worst
well (healthy) Better best
good Better best
far farther/further farthest/furthest
little (amount) Less least
many/much More most

Adverbs

Regular adverbs
A large number of adverbs are formed from adjectives. The standard way of doing this
is by adding “-ly” to the end of the adjective. Sometimes the adjective’s spelling needs
to be altered slightly to accommodate this, but the rules of doing so are fairly
straightforward. Here are some common examples:

Adjective Regular adverb Spelling rule

beautiful Beautifully Adjective + “-ly”

enthusiasti enthusiasticall
If the adjective ends in “-ic,” it will change to “-ically.”
c y
happy Happily If the adjective ends in a “-y,” it will change to “-ily.”
If the adjective ends in “-le,” the ending is dropped and is
terrible Terribly
replaced with “-ly.”
If the adjective ends in “-ue,” the “e” on the end is
due Duly
dropped and is replaced with “-ly.”

Irregular adverbs
Although the majority of adverbs follow the above rules when they are formed from
adjectives, there are a number of irregular adverbs that go against the conventions.
Much of the time, irregular adverbs have the same spelling as their adjectival
counterparts, but there are no clues in the adjectives’ spelling as to when this is the
case; like all irregular inflections, they just have to be memorized. Below are some of
the most common irregular adverbs.
 Irregular
Adjective Sources of confusion
adverb

fast fast Last becomes lastly, but fast becomes fast.

Hardly (ever) is an adverb of frequency, meaning “almost
hard hard
never.”
straight straight
Lively still exists as an adverb in phrases like step lively;
lively lively however, it is more often used in the adverbial prepositional
phrase in a lively manner.
late
late Lately is a different adverb that means “recently.”
(tardy)
Adverbs of frequency that relate to units of time have the
daily daily
same form as both adjectives and adverbs.
early early
Can only be used in the adverbial prepositional phrase in a
friendly no adverb
friendly manner.
Can only be used in the adverbial prepositional phrase in a
timely no adverb
timely manner.
Well is the adverbial form of good; it can also function as
good well
a predicative adjective meaning “healthy.”

Irregular Degrees of Comparison

Just like adjectives, adverbs also have comparative and superlative degrees, which
are used to compare actions among people or things. They are formed in the same
way, by adding “-er” or more/less for comparative adverbs or “-est”
or most/least for superlative adverbs.

However, there are some adverbs that have irregular comparative and superlative
forms. We can’t rely on the irregular adverbs we looked at above, either, because many
of those adverbs are regular in how they inflect to become comparative or superlative.
As always, we just have to commit them to memory:

Irregular adverb (positive Comparative Superlative degree

 degree) degree

Badly worse worst

Early earlier earliest
Far farther/further farthest/furthest
Little less least
Well better best

Verbs

Verbs present the greatest challenge when it comes to learning about regular and
irregular inflection. A huge variety of verbs are irregular, which means they have past
simple tense and past participle forms that defy the normal conventions. That means
that every irregular verb has three unique conjugations that must be memorized. In
addition, the verb be is known as being highly irregular, because it has six irregular
conjugations in addition to its base and present participle form—eight in all!

We’ll briefly look at the rules for conjugating regular verbs and then look at some
common irregular verbs below. You can learn more by going to the section Regular
and Irregular Verbs in the chapter on Verbs in Parts of Speech.

Conjugating regular verbs

The majority of verbs take the ending “-d” or “-ed” to their base form (the infinitive of the
verb without to) to create both the past simple tense and past participle. There are
some instances in which the verb’s spelling must change slightly to accommodate this,
but these rules are straightforward and consistent. Here are some common regular verb
inflections:

Base
Past Simple Tense Past Participle
Form

play Played played

bake baked baked
listen listened listened
approach approached approached
gather gathered gathered
climb climbed climbed
chop chopped chopped
copy copied copied
panic panicked panicked

Conjugating irregular verbs

Irregular verbs do not have spelling rules that we can follow to create the past simple
tense and past participles. This means that the only way of knowing how to spell these
forms is to memorize them for each irregular verb individually. Here are a few common
examples:

Base
Past Simple Tense Past Participle
Form

see Saw seen

grow grew grown
give gave given
think thought thought
throw threw thrown
drive drove driven
ride rode ridden
run ran run
swim swam swum
sit sat sat

Conjugating be
As we mentioned above, the verb be is unique among verbs for having a huge variety of
conjugations. Not only does it have irregular inflections for the past simple tense and
past participle, but it also has specific forms depending on plurality and grammatical
person (first person, second person, and third person). The table below shows a
breakdown of all the different ways we conjugate be.

Grammatica Bas Present Presen Present Past Tense Past Past

 e Tense t Tense Participl Tense Participl
l person Singular
form Singular Plural e Plural e

n/a be Being been

first person I am we are I was we were
second
you are you are you were you were
person
he/she/it i they ar he/she/it wa they wer
third person
s e s e

Word Class

According to Nordquist (2019), in English grammar, a word class is a set of

words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and
distribution. The term "word class" is similar to the more traditional term, part of speech.
It is also variously called grammatical category, lexical category, and syntactic
category (although these terms are not wholly or universally synonymous).

The two major families of word classes are lexical (or open or form) classes
(nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and function (or closed or structure) classes
(determiners, particles, prepositions, and others).

Form Classes and Structure Classes

The distinction between lexical and grammatical meaning determines the first
division in our classification: form-class words and structure-class words. In general, the
form classes provide the primary lexical content; the structure classes explain the
grammatical or structural relationship. Think of the form-class words as the bricks of the
language and the structure words as the mortar that holds them together."
 The form classes also known as content words or open classes include: Nouns,
Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs.

NOUNS

 A noun is a part of speech that names a person, place, thing, idea, action or
quality. All nouns can be classified into two groups of nouns: common or proper.
 Proper nouns refer to the individual name of a person, place or thing. Examples
might include Barcelona, Leonardo da Vinci, or Toyota Corolla.

 Common nouns are more generalized by comparison, and they can be further

divided into abstract, collective, compound, countable concrete, uncountable
concrete and verbal.

VERBS

 Verbs are the action words in a sentence that describe what the subject is
doing. 

ADJECTIVES

 Adjectives are words that describe the qualities or states of being of nouns

ADVERB

 An adverb is a word that is used to change, modify or qualify several types of

words including an adjective, a verb, a clause, another adverb, or any other
type of word or phrase, with the exception of determiners and adjectives, that
directly modify nouns.

The structure classes, also known as function words or closed classes, include:
Determiners, Pronouns, Auxiliaries, Conjunctions, Qualifiers, Interrogatives,
Prepositions, Expletives and Particles
DETERMINERS

Determiners are words placed in front of a noun to make it clear what the noun refers to.
Use the pages in this section to help you use English determiners correctly.

DETERMINERS IN ENGLISH

 Definite article : the

 Indefinite articles : a, an
 Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
 Pronouns and possessive determiners : my, your, his, her, its, our, their
 Quantifiers : a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any, enough
 Numbers : one, ten, thirty
 Distributives : all, both, half, either, neither, each, every
 Difference words : other, another
 Pre-determiners : such, what, rather, quite

PRONOUNS

 A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun (or a noun phrase).

For most of us, the pronouns that leap to mind upon hearing "pronoun" are the personal
pronouns (e.g., I, you, he, she, they), but these are just one type of pronoun. There are
nine types:

 Personal pronouns (e.g., he, they)

 Possessive pronouns (e.g., his, theirs)
 Relative pronouns (e.g., which, where)
 Demonstrative pronouns (e.g., this, these)
 Emphatic pronouns (e.g., itself, himself)
 Reflexive pronouns (e.g., itself, himself)
 Indefinite pronouns (e.g., none, several)
 Interrogative pronouns (e.g., which, who)
  Reciprocal pronouns (e.g., each other, one another)

AUXILIARIES

 Auxiliary (or Helping) verbs are used together with a main verb to show
the verb’s tense or to form a negative or question.
There are just three common auxiliary verbs:

 Have
 Do
 Be

CONJUNCTIONS

 Conjunctions are words that link other words, phrases, or clauses

together.

List of Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions

 for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

Correlative Conjunctions

 both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but, whether/or

Some Subordinating Conjunctions

after, although, as, as if, as long as, as much as, as soon as, as though, because,
before, by the time, even if, even though, if, in order that, in case, in the event that, lest ,
now that, once, only, only if, provided that, since, so, supposing, that, than, though, till,
unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, whether or not, while 

QUALIFIERS

 A qualifier is a word that limits or enhances another word’s meaning.

Qualifiers affect the certainty and specificity of a statement. 

INTERROGATIVES

 is a word that introduces a question which can't be simply answered

with yes or no. Also known as an interrogative word.

PREPOSITIONS

 Prepositions tell us where or when something is in relation to something else. 

 Prepositions are short words (on, in, to) that usually stand in front of nouns
(sometimes also in front of gerund verbs).

EXPLETIVES

 : a syllable, word, or phrase inserted to fill a vacancy (as in a sentence or a

metrical line) without adding to the sense
 especially : a word (such as it in "make it clear which you prefer") that
occupies the position of the subject or object of a verb in normal English
word order and anticipates a subsequent word or phrase that supplies the
needed meaningful content
 Nordquist (2019) cited Martha Kolln and Robert Funk (1998) on his blog about
world classes. Accordingly, the most striking difference between the form classes and
the structure classes is characterized by their numbers. Of the half million or more
words in our language, the structure words—with some notable exceptions—can be
counted in the hundreds. The form classes, however, are large, open classes; new
nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs regularly enter the language as new
technology and new ideas require them.

PARTICLES

 which are perhaps best described as those words that don't fit into any of the
other parts of speech, but their use is of the utmost importance. 
 The infinitive 'to' in 'to fly' is an example of a particle, although it can also act
as a preposition, e.g. 'I'm going to Spain next week'.

References

Ballard, K. (2013). The Frameworks of English. Retrieved

from http://gardbook.blogspot.com/2014/11/download-pdf-frameworks-of-
english.html?m=1

Nordquist, R. (2019). Inflection Definition and Examples in English Grammar. Retrieved

from https://www.thoughtco.com/inflection-grammar-term-1691168

Nordquist, R. (2019). Word Class in English Grammar. Retrieved

from https://www.thoughtco.com/word-class-grammar-1692608