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 "job" example words example sentences

Verb action or state (to) be, have, do, like, EnglishClub is a website. I like EnglishCl
work, sing, can, must

Noun thing or person pen, dog, work, music, This is my dog. He lives in my house. We
tოწნ, London, teacher,
John

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

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

Adverb describes a verb, quickly, silently, well, My dog eats quickly. When he is very hu
adjective or adverb badly, very, really
Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.

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

Conjunction joins clauses or and, but, when I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and d
sentences or words

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

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.