Parts of speech

Parts of speech. General classifications

By Eveline Podshivalova,

МБОУ «Горловская СОШ», Скопинский район Рязанской области

Parts of speech. General classifications

Plan

• The Parts of Speech Problem. Grammatical Classes of Words.

1.1. The Principles of Classification as used by Prescriptive Grammarians.

1.2. The Principles of Classification as used by Non-Structural Descriptive Grammarians.

1.3. The Principles of Classification as used by Structural Descriptive Grammarians.

1.4. The Classification of Words in Post-Structural Traditional Grammar

2. The System of Parts of Speech.

1. The Parts of Speech Problem. Grammatical Classes of Words.

The problem of word classification

The problem of word classification into part of speech still remains one of the most controversial problems in modern linguistics. The attitude of grammarians with regard to parts of speech and the basis of their classification varied a good deal at different times. Only in English grammarians have been vacillating between 3 and 13 parts of speech.

Four approaches to the problem of word classification into parts of speech

Classical, or logical inflectional , worked out by prescriptivists

Functional ,

worked out by descriptivists

Distributional,

worked out by structuralists

Complex

The principles of Classification as used by Prescriptive Grammarians

Prescriptive grammarians , who treated Latin as an ideal language , described English in terms of Latin forms and Latin grammatical constraints.

The underlying principle of classification was form , which, as can be seen from their treatment of the English noun, was not only morphologic but also syntactic.

Similar to Latin, words in English were divided into:

• declinables (nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, participles);
• indeclinables (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, articles).

The principles of Classification as used by Non-Structural Descriptive Grammaries. Henry Sweet (1845-1912)

Diveded word into:

1.Declinables:

• Noun-words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund);
• Adjective-words (adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participle);
• Verb (finite verb);
• Verbals (infinitive, gerund, participle).

2. Indeclinables (particles):

• Adverb;

• Preposition;
• Conjunction;
• Interjection.

Henry Sweet speaks of three principles of classification : form, meaning and function .

The principles of Classification as used by Structural Descriptive Grammaries

He rejected the traditional principle of classification of words into parts of speech replacing it with the methods of distributional analysis and substitution. Words that exhibit the same distribution belong to the same class. The distribution of a word is the position of a word in the sentence. To classify the words of English, Charles Fries used three sentences called substitution frames . He thought that the positions, or the slots, in the sentences were sufficient for the purpose of the classification of all the words of the English language.

Charles Fries (1887-1967 )

2. The System of Parts of Speech.

The Classification of Words in Post-Structural Traditional Grammar

In modern linguistics parts of speech are discriminated according to three criteria: semantic, formal and functional.

1. The semantic criterion presupposes the grammatical meaning of the whole class of words (general grammatical meaning).

2. The formal criterion reveals paradigmatic properties: relevant grammatical categories, the form of the words, their specific inflectional and derivational features.

3. The functional criterion concerns the syntactic function of words in the sentence and their combinability.

Division into notional and functional parts of speech

• noun; the adjective; the numeral; the verb; the adverb.
• noun;
• the adjective;
• the numeral;
• the verb;
• the adverb.

Notional parts of speech

• the preposition; the conjunction; the article; the pronoun; the particle; the modal words; the interjection.
• the preposition;
• the conjunction;
• the article;
• the pronoun;
• the particle;
• the modal words;
• the interjection.

Functional parts of speech

Notional parts of speech

Functional parts of speech

• Denote distinct lexical meaning;
• Perform independent syntactic function in the sentence;
• Have certain grammatical categories;
• Can be connected with each other directly or with help of the formal words.

• Words of incomplete nominative meaning and non-self-dependent
• Perform mediatory functions in the sentence

Distinguishing features of notional and functional parts of speech

The notional parts of speech

Name

Meaning

Noun

Substance

Derivation

Adjective

Property

Numeral

-er, -ist, -ess, -ness, etc

Grammar form

Combinability in phrases

-ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive, -ic, -ly, un-, im-.

Number

Pronoun

Gender, number, case, article determination

Another noun, verb, adjective, numeral

Degrees of comparison for qualitative adjectives

Verb

Indication

-teen, -ty, - th

Function in the sentence

Process

Some-, any-, no-

Adverb

Noun, adverb, verb

no

Subject, object, predicative, attributive, adverbial

Property of process or another property

Some categories have number, some have case

-ise, -ate, -ute, -er, -erve, etc

Statives

Noun, adverb

Attribute, predicative

Noun, adjective, verb

Different states, mostly temporary

Mood, voice, person, number, aspect, tense

-ly, -wise, --ways, --ward(s)

Attribute

Degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs

Noun, adverb, adjective, pronoun

Prefix a-

Attribute, subject, predicative, object

Verbs, adjectives

no

Predicate

Verb, noun

Various adverbial midifiers

Predicative, rarely –post-positional attributes

The functional parts of speech

Name

Grammar meaning

Preposition

Usage

Relations between things or phenomena

Conjunction

With nouns, pronouns, numerals, adjectives form objects, predicatives, modifiers, attributes

Connections between things or phenomena

Particle

Modal word

Connect any words, phrases or clauses, adding the meaning of addition, contradiction, etc

Show subjective attitude (even, only, exclusively)

Enter the part of the sentence formed by any word

Attitude of the speaker (probably, luckily)

Interjection

Show probability, evaluation, affirmation, negation

Signal of emotion

Detached position in the sentence