Word Classes

Major Word Classes

 Grammatical Metalanguage
• ~a language used to talk about
language.
 Three criteria for subsentential
terminologies:
1.semantic ~ meaning
2. structural ~
form/structure, position in
the sentence
3. functional ~ use/function
NOUNS
 Semantic:
• the name of a person,
place, or thing.
• e.g. Mark, Kalamansig,
notebook
 Structural:
• nouns have endings or derivational
morphemes that formally indicate
that the word is a noun, e.g. –ness,
-ment, etc.

e.g. darkness, sadness, government,

embodiment
• nouns have grammatical morphemes or
inflections for plural and possessive.
e.g. stars, Kristine’s
 
• in terms of their positions, they are frequently
preceded by determiners.

e.g. The box is empty.

Those flowers are lovely.

 Functional:
• nouns serve functionally as subjects of
verbs.
e.g. Rafael looks tired.

• nouns can function as direct object of

verbs.
e.g. He watered his lawn.
• nouns can function as subject noun predicates.
e.g. We are all learners.
 
• nouns can function as object noun predicates.
e.g. They elected John president.
 
• nouns can function as indirect objects of
verbs.
e.g. Jake gave the people confidence.
• nouns can function as appositives.
e.g. Albany, the capital of New York, is located in
the Hudson River.

• nouns can function as objects of prepositions.

e.g. Kitchie lives in Marville Homes.
 
• nouns can function as vocatives.
e.g. Let me tell you, my friend, grammar is just
plain fun.
 Other points regarding nouns:
Three types of nouns
1. common nouns ~ referring to a kind of
person, thing, or idea.
a. count nouns ~ take the plural inflection
e.g. farmers, girls
b. mass/noncount nouns ~ don’t take the
plural inflection.
e.g. air, sugar
2. proper nouns ~ names of individuals or
places.
e.g. Jim, General Santos City
 
3. collective nouns ~ they take either singular or
plural verb forms depending on the
interpretation given to a noun—that is,
whether it is seen as a unit (taken as a whole),
or as a collection of individuals.
e.g. The class is very quiet.
The class do not seem to agree with the idea.
VERBS
 Semantic:
• it is a word that denotes an
action or state of being.

e.g. Don dances gracefully.

I am happy.
 Structural:
four inflections can be used with English verbs.
• –s of third person singular present tense verbs
e.g. Eddie jogs every day.
• –ed of past tense verbs
e.g. She jogged yesterday.
• –en of the past participle
e.g. He has seen the movie three times already.
• –ing of the present participle
e.g. I am teaching two major subjects this semester.
in terms of their position, verbs follow nouns
and may be followed in turn by adjectives,
adverbs, or other nouns.

e.g.
} ___________ cautious.
The authorities } ___________ carefully.
} ___________ the plan.
 Functional:

• adding a verb to a noun is enough to

complete a sentence.

e.g. Pauline snores.

Categories of verbs according to what follows
them syntactically:
• Intransitive verbs~ take no following object.
e.g. Ian smokes.
• Transitive verbs~ require an object.
e.g. Gregory raises the flag.
• Ditransitive verbs~ take two objects (indirect
and direct).
e.g. I handed Kristel the fax.
• Linking verbs~ what follows the verb relates back
to the subject.
e.g. We are teachers.
• Complex transitive verbs~ what follows the
object relates back to the object.
e.g. They considered the project a waste of time.
Prepositional verbs~ require a prepositional phrase
to be complete.
• e.g. Edward glanced at the headlines.
ADJECTIVES
 Semantic:
• it describes or denotes the
qualities of something.

e.g. She is a beautiful girl.

 Structural:
• adjectives commonly occur between
a determiner and a noun, or after be
or other linking verbs, although they
can also follow a noun.

e.g. a nice shirt, very big house

• many adjectives have no typical form,
but certain derivational morphemes are
associated with adjectives, such as –able,
-ish, -ful, -y.
e.g. affordable, childish, thoughtful, lazy.
• some adjectives have inflectional
morphemes for comparative and
superlative forms.
e.g. happier, happiest
 Functional:
• adjectives function to modify or complement
nouns. Two types: attributive, which precede
nouns, and predicative, which follow linking
verbs.

Attributive: The old bucket is leaking.

Predicative: He became angry at the very thought.

ADVERBS
 Semantic:
• Adverbs modify verbs and contribute meanings of
various sorts to sentences. Particularly common are
adverbs of direction, location, manner, time, and
frequency.

Direction: Jake pointed there.

Location: Isabel shops locally.
Manner: The choir sang joyfully at the ordination.
Time: Soon, Mrs. Soberano will retire.
Frequency: We visit our friends in Cebu occasionally.
 Structural:
• Adverbs are quite flexible in
their location. They can occur
in a sentence finally, medially,
and initially.
 Functional:
• The primary function of adverbs is to
modify verbs, but they may also
modify a whole sentence.

e.g. Fortunately, they arrived home

before too much damage had been
done.
 Other points regarding adverbs:
Many phrases and clauses can occupy
the same position in a sentence as
single-word adverbs can and convey
the same meaning as adverbs. Due
to their function in the sentence,
these multiword constructions are
called adverbials.
• e.g.

Direction: Jake pointed at the constellation Pisces.

Location: Isabel shops at the mall.
Manner: The choir sang as if it was especially
inspired.
Time: Three years from now, Mrs. Soberano will
retire.
Frequency: We visit our friends in Cebu every once
in a while.
 Minor Word Classes
Pronouns
• replace nouns and noun phrases
within a text.
• occupy the same position as a
noun or noun phrase does.
 Kinds of Pronouns:
a) Subjective~ I, you, he, she, it, they
b) Objective~ me, you, him, her, it, us, them
c) Reflexive~ myself, yourself, himself, herself,
itself, ourselves, themselves
d) Possessive~ mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours,
theirs
e) Demonstrative~ this, that, these, those
 Determiners
• refer to that special class of words
that limit the nouns that follow
them.
• Traditional grammar does not make a
special reference to determiners,
incorporating them into the adjective
word class.
 Kinds of Determiners:
• Articles~ a, an, the
• Demonstratives~ this, that, these,
those
• Possessive Determiners~ my, your,
his, her, its, our, their
 Prepositions
• They connect words to other parts of a
sentence and have a close relationship with
the word that follows, which is usually a noun.
• Together, a preposition and noun comprise a
prepositional phrase.
• Prepositions are usually one word (in, to, at),
but sometimes can be two or three (out of, on
top of).
 Prepositions
• Prepositions can also signal the grammatical
category of case. Case depicts the role
relationship between words.
e.g.
• Dative~ Patrick gave a donation to charity.
• Ablative~ The charity received a donation from
Patrick.
 Conjunctions
• Conjunctions are words that join.

Kinds:
• Coordinating Conjunctions~ join elements that are
grammatically equal.
e.g. and, but, or
Mariane and Diane wrote this book.
Richard lives in Batangas, but his son Robert lives in
Laguna.
• Subordinating Conjunctions~ also called
adverbial subordinators, they join a
subordinate clause to a main one.

e.g. because, although

• Although Rafael and Roger live far apart,
they are still friends.
 Two other subsentential terminologies:
Clause~ any construction containing a subject-verb
relationship.
Phrase~ a group of words that function or work together.
e.g.

× The impatient/ customer was acting very/ cranky by the/

time he was served.
√ The impatient customer/ was acting very cranky/ by the
time/ he was served.
√ The impatient customer/ was acting/ very cranky/ by the
time/ he was served.
 Reference:

• Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D.

(2004). The grammar book. USA: Heinle &
Heinle Publishers.