THE THEORY OF

PARTS OF SPEECH
 PARTS OF SPEECH
1. The notion of parts of speech. The
criteria of the classification
2. Henry Sweet’s theory
3. Otto Jespersen’s theory
4. Charles Fries’s theory
5. Traditional approach
 The notion of parts of speech. The
criteria of the classification
 lexico-grammatical classes
 L.V. Sherba:
- lexical meaning,
- morphological form,
- syntactic function
 Henry Sweet’s theory
 declinable parts of  Indeclinable parts of
speech: speech:
nouns, adverbs,
adjectives, prepositions,
verbs conjunctions,
interjections
 Henry Sweet’s theory
Another grouping based on the syntactical
function
 noun-words: nouns proper, noun-pronouns,

noun-numerals, the infinitive and the gerund.

 adjective-words: adjectives, adjective-
pronouns, adjective-numerals, participles
 verb group: finite verbs and verbals
 Otto Jespersen’s theory
(Philisophy of Grammar, Modern English Grammar)
The theory of three ranks
 Primary: the head word of a phrase or the

subject of a sentence,
 Secondary: immediately qualifying the

primary
 Tertiary: subordinated to the secondary.
 Otto Jespersen’s theory
a furiously barking dog

tertiary secondary primary

 Charles Fries’s theory
(The Structure of English, 1956)
250000 word entries, 50 hours of talk
 FRAME A
The concert was good (always)
 FRAME B
The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly)
 FRAME C
The team went there.
 Charles Fries’s theory
Class 1 words.
 FRAME A
The concert was good.
food
coffee
taste, etc.
 FRAME B FRAME C
The clerk remembered the tax. The team went there.
husband food husband
woman coffee woman
 Charles Fries’s theory
Words of Class 2:
FRAME A:
Class 1 Class 2
(the) -- is/was good
-- are/were good
seems/seemed
seem
feels/felt
feel, etc.
 Charles Fries’s theory
Words of Class 3:

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3

--- is/was good
---s are/were large, foreign,
etc.
 Words of Class 4:
FRAME A:
Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4
--- is/was --- there
---s are/were --- here
always, etc.
 Charles Fries’s theory
 Woggles ugged diggles.

 Uggs woggled digs.

 Woggs diggled uggles.

 Traditional approach

Notional words: Form words or

functional words:
words denoting words denoting
things, relations and
connections between
actions
the notional
other words
extralinguistic
phenomena
 THE NOUN
 General characteristics
 The category of number

 The category of case. Theories of

case.
 The problem of gender

 The article
 General characteristics
 The categorial meaning of “substance” or
“thingness”
 The main nominative part of speech
 Morphological categories:
1. number
2. case
 Syntactic properties of the noun
 The most characteristic substantive function:
the subject in the sentence
 The function of the object – typical
 Types of combinability:
1. prepositional combinability:
N + prp + N: an entrance to the house
V+ prp + N: to turn round the corner
Adv + prp + N: far from the destination
 Syntactic properties of the noun
2. The contact-group N + N (a cannon ball, a
stone wall): a specific word group with
intermediary features.
The isolability test:
a cannon ball > a ball for a cannon;
a stone wall > a wall of stone.

But: fireplace > a place where fire is made;

story-teller > teller of stories, etc.
 CLASSES OF NOUNS
 1) proper : : common
(type of nomination)
 2) animate : : inanimate
(form of existence)
 3) human : : non-human
(personal quality)
 4) countable : : uncountable
(quantitative structure)
 5) concrete : : abstract
(less explicite and rigorous)
 Jack’s love of music.
not *The cattle’s love of music

 The poor old man was laming.

not *The tree was laming
 The Category of Number
The opposition:
 plural form :: singular form.

(+) (-)
–(e)s [-z, -s, -iz] Ø

 non-productive ways of expressing number:

vowel interchange, the archaic suffix –en,
individual suffixes (formula – formulae, phenomenon
– phenomena).
 Semantics of the plural form
1. three houses : 3 separate objects existing side by side;
and three hours: a continuous period of time mesured by a
certain agreed unit of duration.

2. a) waters, snows, - picteresqueness

b) eyes of a face - a definite set;
c) various type of the referent (teas, wines);
d) intensity of presentation (years and years; thousands upon
thousands).

 The lexicalization of the pl form:

colours (banner) – to serve under colours of liberty; attentions –
wooing.
Singularia Tantum. Pluralia Tantum
Countable and uncountable nouns
 Countable: nouns which denote discrete
(separate) objects, creatures, phenomena,
emotions and their manifestations: girl, storm,
breakfast, departure, illness, wish.
 2 subclasses of uncountable nouns: singularia
tantum ( singular only) and pluralia tantum
(plural only).
 Singularia Tantum (absolute
singular)
 abstract nouns (peace, love, courage,
friendship, etc.);
 the names of the branches of professional
activity (chemistry, architecture, mathematics,
linguistics, etc.);
 the names of mass material (water, snow, steel,
hair, etc.);
 the names of collective inanimate objects
(foliage, fruit, furniture, machinery, etc.).
 The absolute sg with countable
nouns
 Waltz is a lovely dance.
 There was dead desert all around them.
 Shall we have chicken for the second course?
Generic use of the singular:
 The badger builds the most complicated
burrow.
 Man has conqered nature.
 Pluralia Tantum (absolute plural)
uncountable nouns denoting:
 objects consisting of two halves (trousers,
scissors, tongs, spectacles, etc.);
 collective meaning, both concrete and abstract
(supplies, outskirts, clothes, parings, contents,
politics, police, cattle, poultry, etc.);
 Diseases, some abnormal states of the body
and mind (measles, mumps, creeps, hysterics,
etc.).
 Oppositional reduсtion
The absolute pl can be represented in
1) countable nouns having the form of the sg;

2) uncountable nouns having the form of the pl;

3) countable nouns having the form of the pl.

 Oppositional reduсtion
1. Collective nouns - nouns of multitude:
The family were seated round the table.
The jury were divided concerning the verdict.
2. Stylistic marking of nouns - expressive
transposition (descriptive uncountable
plural):
the sands of the desert, the horrors of the
war, the wines of Armenia, the snows of
Kilimanjaro.
 Oppositional reduсtion
Countable nouns in repetition groups:
the indefinitely large quantity intensly
presented (either sg or pl):

 There were trees and trees all around us.

 I lit cigarette after cigarette.

 The category of case
Modern English:
2 cases: - common case
- possessive (genetive) case

The opposition:
common : : possessive
(-) (+)
 Theories of case
The theory of positional cases
(J.C. Nesfield, M. Deutschbein, M. Bryant)
 NOMINATIVE: Rain falls.
 VOCATIVE: Are you coming, my friend?
 DATIVE: I gave John a penny.
 ACCUSATIVE: The man killed a rat. The
earth is moistened by rain.
 The theory of prepositional cases
(G. Curme)
 DATIVE: to + N; for + N

 GENETIVE: of + N

The prepositions are inflexional prepositions,

i.e. grammatical inflexions
 The limited case theory
(H. Sweet, O. Jespersen, A.I. Smirnitsky, L.S.
Barkhudarov)
L.S. Barkhudarov:
 a limited inflexion system of two cases

 the category of case is an opposition of the two

forms, the function mark is the morpheme ’s.

 the opposition is effected in full with animate

nouns, a restricted number of inanimate nouns

(denoting time and space)
The semantic content of the genetive
case form
7 groups:
1. Possessive Genitive.
Transformations:
John’s car > John has a car.
My friend’s room > My friend has a room.
The bird’s nest > The bird has a nest.
Bill’s beard etc.
The dog’s tail
 2. Subjective Genitive.
‘s-noun is the subject to the other noun
Transformations:
The doctor’s advice > The doctor advised.
The husband’s arrival > The husband arrived.
Mary’s happiness > Mary is happy.
Paul’s denial etc.
My uncle’s death
 3. Objective Genitive
–‘s-noun is the direct object:
Transformations:
John’s surprise > John was surprised <
X surprised John
The man’s release etc.
Robinson’s trial
 4. Adverbial Genitive
the 1st element denotes a time unit
Transformations:
 Two hour’s work > X worked for two hours.
 A month’ leave ………………
 A week’s absence
 An hour’s drive
 5. Equational Genitive
the 1st element is a unit of distance:
Transformations:
 A mile’s distance > the distance is a mile;
 An arm’s length > the length is an arm.
6. Genitive of destination (Descriptive
Genitive)
the 1st element is a plural noun
Transformations:
 Children’s books > The books are for
children.
 Ladies garments > The garments are for
ladies.
 Group 7
 my aunt’s letter (Genitive of authorship)
 John’s words
 Father’s generation
 Nick’s school
 Yesterday’s paper
 The morning’s news
 The theory of possessive postposition
(Postpositional theory)
(G.N. Vorontsova, Ilyish, D.A. Shteling,
L.S. Barkhudarov)
 The English noun has completely lost the category
of case. Reasoning:
1. The postpositional element is but loosely connected
with the noun:
somebody else’s daughter,
the girl I danced with’s hat,
King of England’s speech.
2. Parallelism of functions between the
possessive postpositional constructions and
the prepositional constructions:
the daughter of somebody else,
the hat of the girl I danced with,
the speech of the King of England.
More arguements for the recognition of
grammatical case
1. The broader phrasal uses of the postpositional –s’
display a clearly expressed stylistic colouring,
which proves their transpositional nature.

2. The –s’ sign differs from ordinary functional words:

- it is morpheme-like by its phonetical properties;
- it is strictly postpositional unlike the
prepositions; - semantically it is by far a more
bound element than a preposition.
 Summary
 A two-case declension of nouns should be
recognized in English:
- The common case as a “direct” case,
- Its genetive case as the only oblique case.
 It is based on a particle expression.
 The element –s’ is a particle: it is added in
postposition.
 The problem of gender
 no morphological means of expressing gender
in English
 lexical or semantic means of expressing

biological sex in English:

boy – girl; cock – hen, bull – cow; waiter –
waitress, lion – lioness, he-goat – she-goat, etc
 M.A. Ganshina, N.M. Vasileva:

the determinators of gender are personal

pronouns he, she, it
 The problem of gender
 Nouns of “common gender”:
person, parent, friend, cousin, doctor, president, etc.
E.g. The president of our Medical society isn’t going to
be happy about the suggested way of cure. In general
she insists on quite another kind of treatment in cases
like that.
 Other indicators of sex:

girl-friend, boy-friend, man-producer, woman-

producer, landlord, landlady, actor, actress, waiter-
waitress, etc.
 The article
A (an), the, Ø
E.g.
 1) Will you give me this pen?

 Will you give me the pen?

 2)Some woman called you in your absence.

 A woman called while you were out.

 The article
The linguist’s questions:
 1) the article is purely an auxiliary element of

the specific grammar form of the noun,

functioning as a component of a certain
morphological category,
or
 2) the article is a separate word, a lexical unit

in the line of other determiners, but more

abstract.
 The semantics of the article
 The expresses identification of the referent. A
determined object is given in its concrete,
individual quality:
The water is hot.
Look at the apple-tree.
 A(an) expresses classifying generalization of
the referent:
We saw a flower. (not a strawberry)
 The semantics of the article
Ø may be of two types:
 1 – stylistic in telegrams, titles, notes:

= Telegram received = room reserved for =

weekend
= Big red bus rushes food to strikers
 2 – in fixed word-combinations:

On fire, in debt, man and wife, day by day, etc.

 Semantic absence of the article
1. Absolute generalazation (before the countable
noun in the sg) :
Law begins with the beginning of human society.
2. Relative and absolute generalization (before
the uncountable noun):
Coffee or tea, please? (relative)
Coffee stimulates the function of the heart.
(absolute)
 Semantic absence of the article
 Relative and absolute generalization (before
countable nouns in pl.)
Stars, planets and comets are different
celestrial bodies. (relative)
Wars should be eliminated as means of
deciding international problems. (absolute)
 Oppositional article determination
of the noun
The opposition of the higher level
(+) the (-) a(n), 0
identification: non-identification:
The train hooted. A train hooted.
I’m afraid the oxygen
is out. Oxygen is necessary
for life.
 Oppositional article determination
of the noun
The opposition of the lower level
Generalization
+ a(n), Ø1 - Ø2
relative generalization absolute generalization
(classification)
(abstraction)
This is a house. Scientific information is
These are houses. given systematically in this
This is snow. journal.