The english sentence word classes

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Words don’t only mean something; they also do something. In the English language, words are grouped into word classes based on their function, i.e. what they do in a phrase or sentence. In total, there are nine word classes in English.

Word class meaning and example

All words can be categorised into classes within a language based on their function and purpose.

An example of various word classes is ‘The cat ate a cupcake quickly.’

  • The = a determiner

  • cat = a noun

  • ate = a verb

  • a = determiner

  • cupcake = noun

  • quickly = an adverb

Word class function

The function of a word class, also known as a part of speech, is to classify words according to their grammatical properties and the roles they play in sentences. By assigning words to different word classes, we can understand how they should be used in context and how they relate to other words in a sentence.

Each word class has its own unique set of characteristics and rules for usage, and understanding the function of word classes is essential for effective communication in English. Knowing our word classes allows us to create clear and grammatically correct sentences that convey our intended meaning.

Word classes in English

In English, there are four main word classes; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These are considered lexical words, and they provide the main meaning of a phrase or sentence.

The other five word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are considered functional words, and they provide structural and relational information in a sentence or phrase.

Don’t worry if it sounds a bit confusing right now. Read ahead and you’ll be a master of the different types of word classes in no time!

All word classes Definition Examples of word classification
Noun A word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. cat, house, plant
Pronoun A word that is used in place of a noun to avoid repetition. he, she, they, it
Verb A word that expresses action, occurrence, or state of being. run, sing, grow
Adjective A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. blue, tall, happy
Adverb A word that describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. quickly, very
Preposition A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. in, on, at
Conjunction A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. and, or, but
Interjection A word that expresses strong emotions or feelings. wow, oh, ouch
Determiners A word that clarifies information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun Articles like ‘the’ and ‘an’, and quantifiers like ‘some’ and ‘all’.

The four main word classes

In the English language, there are four main word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Let’s look at all the word classes in detail.

Nouns

Nouns are the words we use to describe people, places, objects, feelings, concepts, etc. Usually, nouns are tangible (touchable) things, such as a table, a person, or a building.

However, we also have abstract nouns, which are things we can feel and describe but can’t necessarily see or touch, such as love, honour, or excitement. Proper nouns are the names we give to specific and official people, places, or things, such as England, Claire, or Hoover.

Cat

House

School

Britain

Harry

Book

Hatred

‘My sister went to school.

Verbs

Verbs are words that show action, event, feeling, or state of being. This can be a physical action or event, or it can be a feeling that is experienced.

Lexical verbs are considered one of the four main word classes, and auxiliary verbs are not. Lexical verbs are the main verb in a sentence that shows action, event, feeling, or state of being, such as walk, ran, felt, and want, whereas an auxiliary verb helps the main verb and expresses grammatical meaning, such as has, is, and do.

Run

Walk

Swim

Curse

Wish

Help

Leave

‘She wished for a sunny day.’

Adjectives

Adjectives are words used to modify nouns, usually by describing them. Adjectives describe an attribute, quality, or state of being of the noun.

Long

Short

Friendly

Broken

Loud

Embarrassed

Dull

Boring

‘The friendly woman wore a beautiful dress.’

Word class, Image of woman in dress, StudySmarterFig 1. Adjectives can describe the woman and the dress

Adverbs

Adverbs are words that work alongside verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They provide further descriptions of how, where, when, and how often something is done.

Quickly

Softly

Very

More

Too

Loudly

The music was too loud.’

All of the above examples are lexical word classes and carry most of the meaning in a sentence. They make up the majority of the words in the English language.

The other five word classes

The other five remaining word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These words are considered functional words and are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.

For example, prepositions can be used to explain where one object is in relation to another.

Prepositions

Prepositions are used to show the relationship between words in terms of place, time, direction, and agency.

In

At

On

Towards

To

Through

Into

By

With

They went through the tunnel.’

Pronouns

Pronouns take the place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence. They often refer to a noun that has already been mentioned and are commonly used to avoid repetition.

Chloe (noun) → she (pronoun)

Chloe’s dog → her dog (possessive pronoun)

There are several different types of pronouns; let’s look at some examples of each.

  • He, she, it, they — personal pronouns
  • His, hers, its, theirs, mine, ours — possessive pronouns
  • Himself, herself, myself, ourselves, themselves — reflexive pronouns
  • This, that, those, these — demonstrative pronouns
  • Anyone, somebody, everyone, anything, something — Indefinite pronouns
  • Which, what, that, who, who — Relative pronouns

She sat on the chair which was broken.’

Determiners

Determiners work alongside nouns to clarify information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun. It ‘determines’ exactly what is being referred to. Much like pronouns, there are also several different types of determiners.

  • The, a, an — articles
  • This, that, those — you might recognise these for demonstrative pronouns are also determiners
  • One, two, three etc. — cardinal numbers
  • First, second, third etc. — ordinal numbers
  • Some, most, all — quantifiers
  • Other, another — difference words

The first restaurant is better than the other.’

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that connect other words, phrases, and clauses together within a sentence. There are three main types of conjunctions;

  • Coordinating conjunctions — these link independent clauses together.

  • Subordinating conjunctions — these link dependent clauses to independent clauses.

  • Correlative conjunctions — words that work in pairs to join two parts of a sentence of equal importance.

For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so — coordinating conjunctions

After, as, because, when, while, before, if, even though — subordinating conjunctions

Either/or, neither/nor, both/and — correlative conjunctions

If it rains, I’m not going out.’

Interjections

Interjections are exclamatory words used to express an emotion or a reaction. They often stand alone from the rest of the sentence and are accompanied by an exclamation mark.

Oh

Oops!

Phew!

Ahh!

Oh, what a surprise!’

Word class: lexical classes and function classes

A helpful way to understand lexical word classes is to see them as the building blocks of sentences. If the lexical word classes are the blocks themselves, then the function word classes are the cement holding the words together and giving structure to the sentence.

Word class, lexical class, functional class, StudySmarterFig 2. Lexical and functional word classes

In this diagram, the lexical classes are in blue and the function classes are in yellow. We can see that the words in blue provide the key information, and the words in yellow bring this information together in a structured way.

Word class examples

Sometimes it can be tricky to know exactly which word class a word belongs to. Some words can function as more than one word class depending on how they are used in a sentence. For this reason, we must look at words in context, i.e. how a word works within the sentence. Take a look at the following examples of word classes to see the importance of word class categorisation.

The dog will bark if you open the door.

The tree bark was dark and rugged.

Here we can see that the same word (bark) has a different meaning and different word class in each sentence. In the first example, ‘bark’ is used as a verb, and in the second as a noun (an object in this case).

I left my sunglasses on the beach.

The horse stood on Sarah’s left foot.

In the first sentence, the word ‘left’ is used as a verb (an action), and in the second, it is used to modify the noun (foot). In this case, it is an adjective.

I run every day

I went for a run

In this example, ‘run’ can be a verb or a noun.

Word Class — Key takeaways

  • We group words into word classes based on the function they perform in a sentence.

  • The four main word classes are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These are lexical classes that give meaning to a sentence.

  • The other five word classes are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are function classes that are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.

  • It is important to look at the context of a sentence in order to work out which word class a word belongs to.

Frequently Asked Questions about Word Class

A word class is a group of words that have similar properties and play a similar role in a sentence.

Some examples of how some words can function as more than one word class include the way ‘run’ can be a verb (‘I run every day’) or a noun (‘I went for a run’). Similarly, ‘well’ can be an adverb (‘He plays the guitar well’) or an adjective (‘She’s feeling well today’). 

The nine word classes are; Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, interjections.

Categorising words into word classes helps us to understand the function the word is playing within a sentence.

Parts of speech is another term for word classes.

The different groups of word classes include lexical classes that act as the building blocks of a sentence e.g. nouns. The other word classes are function classes that act as the ‘glue’ and give grammatical information in a sentence e.g. prepositions.

The word classes for all, that, and the is:
‘All’ = determiner (quantifier)
‘That’ = pronoun and/or determiner (demonstrative pronoun)
‘The’ = determiner (article)

Final Word Class Quiz

Word Class Quiz — Teste dein Wissen

Question

A word can only belong to one type of noun. True or false?

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Answer

This is false. A word can belong to multiple categories of nouns and this may change according to the context of the word.

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Question

Name the two principal categories of nouns.

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Answer

The two principal types of nouns are ‘common nouns’ and ‘proper nouns’.

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Question

Which of the following is an example of a proper noun?

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Question

Name the 6 types of common nouns discussed in the text.

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Answer

Concrete nouns, abstract nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns, collective nouns, and compound nouns.

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Question

What is the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract noun?

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Answer

A concrete noun is a thing that physically exists. We can usually touch this thing and measure its proportions. An abstract noun, however, does not physically exist. It is a concept, idea, or feeling that only exists within the mind.

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Question

Pick out the concrete noun from the following:

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Question

Pick out the abstract noun from the following:

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Question

What is the difference between a countable and an uncountable noun? Can you think of an example for each?

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Answer

A countable noun is a thing that can be ‘counted’, i.e. it can exist in the plural. Some examples include ‘bottle’, ‘dog’ and ‘boy’. These are often concrete nouns. 

An uncountable noun is something that can not be counted, so you often cannot place a number in front of it. Examples include ‘love’, ‘joy’, and ‘milk’.

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Question

Pick out the collective noun from the following:

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Question

What is the collective noun for a group of sheep?

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Answer

The collective noun is a ‘flock’, as in ‘flock of sheep’.

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Question

The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun. True or false?

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Answer

This is true. The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun as it is made up of two separate words ‘green’ and ‘house’. These come together to form a new word.

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Question

What are the adjectives in this sentence?: ‘The little boy climbed up the big, green tree’

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Answer

The adjectives are ‘little’ and ‘big’, and ‘green’ as they describe features about the nouns.

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Question

Place the adjectives in this sentence into the correct order: the wooden blue big ship sailed across the Indian vast scary ocean.

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Answer

The big, blue, wooden ship sailed across the vast, scary, Indian ocean.

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Question

What are the 3 different positions in which an adjective can be placed?

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Answer

An adjective can be placed before a noun (pre-modification), after a noun (post-modification), or following a verb as a complement.

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Question

In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘The unicorn is angry’.

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Answer

The adjective ‘angry’ post-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.

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Question

In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘It is a scary unicorn’.

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Answer

The adjective ‘scary’ pre-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.

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Question

What kind of adjectives are ‘purple’ and ‘shiny’?

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Answer

‘Purple’ and ‘Shiny’ are qualitative adjectives as they describe a quality or feature of a noun

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Question

What kind of adjectives are ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’?

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Answer

The words ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’ are evaluative adjectives as they give a subjective opinion on the noun.

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Question

Which of the following adjectives is an absolute adjective?

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Question

Which of these adjectives is a classifying adjective?

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Question

Convert the noun ‘quick’ to its comparative form.

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Answer

The comparative form of ‘quick’ is ‘quicker’.

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Question

Convert the noun ‘slow’ to its superlative form.

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Answer

The comparative form of ‘slow’ is ‘slowest’.

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Question

What is an adjective phrase?

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Answer

An adjective phrase is a group of words that is ‘built’ around the adjective (it takes centre stage in the sentence). For example, in the phrase ‘the dog is big’ the word ‘big’ is the most important information.

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Question

Give 2 examples of suffixes that are typical of adjectives.

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Answer

Suffixes typical of adjectives include -able, -ible, -ful, -y, -less, -ous, -some, -ive, -ish, -al.

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Question

What is the difference between a main verb and an auxiliary verb?

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Answer

A main verb is a verb that can stand on its own and carries most of the meaning in a verb phrase. For example, ‘run’, ‘find’. Auxiliary verbs cannot stand alone, instead, they work alongside a main verb and ‘help’ the verb to express more grammatical information e.g. tense, mood, possibility.

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Question

What is the difference between a primary auxiliary verb and a modal auxiliary verb?

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Answer

Primary auxiliary verbs consist of the various forms of ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’ e.g. ‘had’, ‘was’, ‘done’. They help to express a verb’s tense, voice, or mood. Modal auxiliary verbs show possibility, ability, permission, or obligation. There are 9 auxiliary verbs including ‘could’, ‘will’, might’.

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Question

Which of the following are primary auxiliary verbs?

  • Is

  • Play

  • Have

  • Run

  • Does

  • Could

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Answer

The primary auxiliary verbs in this list are ‘is’, ‘have’, and ‘does’. They are all forms of the main primary auxiliary verbs ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’. ‘Play’ and ‘run’ are main verbs and ‘could’ is a modal auxiliary verb.

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Question

Name 6 out of the 9 modal auxiliary verbs.

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Answer

Answers include: Could, would, should, may, might, can, will, must, shall

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Question

‘The fairies were asleep’. In this sentence, is the verb ‘were’ a linking verb or an auxiliary verb?

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Answer

The word ‘were’ is used as a linking verb as it stands alone in the sentence. It is used to link the subject (fairies) and the adjective (asleep).

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Question

What is the difference between dynamic verbs and stative verbs?

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Answer

A dynamic verb describes an action or process done by a noun or subject. They are thought of as ‘action verbs’ e.g. ‘kick’, ‘run’, ‘eat’. Stative verbs describe the state of being of a person or thing. These are states that are not necessarily physical action e.g. ‘know’, ‘love’, ‘suppose’.

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Question

Which of the following are dynamic verbs and which are stative verbs?

  • Drink

  • Prefer

  • Talk

  • Seem

  • Understand

  • Write

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Answer

The dynamic verbs are ‘drink’, ‘talk’, and ‘write’ as they all describe an action. The stative verbs are ‘prefer’, ‘seem’, and ‘understand’ as they all describe a state of being.

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Question

What is an imperative verb?

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Answer

Imperative verbs are verbs used to give orders, give instructions, make a request or give warning. They tell someone to do something. For example, ‘clean your room!’.

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Question

Inflections give information about tense, person, number, mood, or voice. True or false?

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Question

What information does the inflection ‘-ing’ give for a verb?

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Answer

The inflection ‘-ing’ is often used to show that an action or state is continuous and ongoing.

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Question

How do you know if a verb is irregular?

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Answer

An irregular verb does not take the regular inflections, instead the whole word is spelt a different way. For example, begin becomes ‘began’ or ‘begun’. We can’t add the regular past tense inflection -ed as this would become ‘beginned’ which doesn’t make sense.

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Question

Suffixes can never signal what word class a word belongs to. True or false?

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Answer

False. Suffixes can signal what word class a word belongs to. For example, ‘-ify’ is a common suffix for verbs (‘identity’, ‘simplify’)

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Question

A verb phrase is built around a noun. True or false?

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Answer

False. A verb phrase is a group of words that has a main verb along with any other auxiliary verbs that ‘help’ the main verb. For example, ‘could eat’ is a verb phrase as it contains a main verb (‘could’) and an auxiliary verb (‘could’).

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Question

Which of the following are multi-word verbs? 

  • Shake

  • Rely on

  • Dancing

  • Look up to

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Answer

The verbs ‘rely on’ and ‘look up to’ are multi-word verbs as they consist of a verb that has one or more prepositions or particles linked to it.

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Question

What is the difference between a transition verb and an intransitive verb?

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Answer

Transitive verbs are verbs that require an object in order to make sense. For example, the word ‘bring’ requires an object that is brought (‘I bring news’). Intransitive verbs do not require an object to complete the meaning of the sentence e.g. ‘exist’ (‘I exist’).

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Answer

An adverb is a word that gives more information about a verb, adjective, another adverb, or a full clause.

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Question

What are the 3 ways we can use adverbs?

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Answer

We can use adverbs to modify a word (modifying adverbs), to intensify a word (intensifying adverbs), or to connect two clauses (connecting adverbs).

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Question

What are modifying adverbs?

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Answer

Modifying adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They add further information about the word.

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Question

‘Additionally’, ‘likewise’, and ‘consequently’ are examples of connecting adverbs. True or false?

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Answer

True! Connecting adverbs are words used to connect two independent clauses.

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Question

What are intensifying adverbs?

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Answer

Intensifying adverbs are words used to strengthen the meaning of an adjective, another adverb, or a verb. In other words, they ‘intensify’ another word.

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Question

Which of the following are intensifying adverbs?

  • Calmly

  • Incredibly

  • Enough

  • Greatly

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Answer

The intensifying adverbs are ‘incredibly’ and ‘greatly’. These strengthen the meaning of a word.

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Question

Name the main types of adverbs

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Answer

The main adverbs are; adverbs of place, adverbs of time, adverbs of manner, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of degree, adverbs of probability, and adverbs of purpose.

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Question

What are adverbs of time?

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Answer

Adverbs of time are the ‘when?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘when is the action done?’ e.g. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow

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Question

Which of the following are adverbs of frequency?

  • Usually

  • Patiently

  • Occasionally

  • Nowhere

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Answer

The adverbs of frequency are ‘usually’ and ‘occasionally’. They are the ‘how often?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘how often is the action done?’. 

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Question

What are adverbs of place?

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Answer

Adverbs of place are the ‘where?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘where is the action done?’. For example, ‘outside’ or ‘elsewhere’.

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Question

Which of the following are adverbs of manner?

  • Never

  • Carelessly

  • Kindly

  • Inside

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Answer

The words ‘carelessly’ and ‘kindly’ are adverbs of manner. They are the ‘how?’ adverbs that answer the question ‘how is the action done?’. 

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Words are the building blocks in any sentence. They just don’t ‘mean’ something, they ‘do’ something in every sentence. Hence words are grouped into word classes based on what they do. A word class is a group of words that have certain common features. The term “word class” is analogous to the more conventional term, “part of speech.” It is also variously named grammatical category, lexical category, and syntactic category.

  • Types of Word Classes
  • Open and Closed Word Classes
  • Open Word Classes
  • Closed Word Classes
  • How to identify the word classes in a sentence?
  • How to classify a word class?
  • What is the difference between a word class and part of speech?

Word classes can be divided into two families:

  • Lexical Classes: Also known as open classes and form classes. The lexical classes include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
  • Function Classes: Also known as closed classes and structure classes. Includes: pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections.

Open and Closed Word Classes

As previously mentioned some word classes are open, that is, the class can be expanded with the addition of new words. Take the example of the class of nouns, it is potentially infinite as the number of words in the class is increasing as new scientific and technological discoveries are made.

The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed developments in computer technology which have in turn given rise to many new nouns like the Internet, URL website, bitmap, email, etc.

On the other hand, the word classes of prepositions, determiners, or conjunctions are known as closed word classes. Words like of, the, and but come under these. They are named closed word classes because they consist of a definite set of words. These classes never expand even though the words included in the class may change their spelling.

Open Word Classes

1) Nouns

This class includes words that you frequently use in everyday life. Nouns are most commonly understood as “naming” words, that is, it performs the function of naming “people, places or things”.

  • A person – Boy, Girl, John, etc
  • A thing- House, Dog, etc
  • A place- China, America, etc

However, the use of nouns is not restricted to just names of people, places, or things. Nouns also denote abstract and intangible concepts such as an idea, quality, or state. Example: Danger, Happiness, Love, etc.

2) Verbs

The words that you use to describe an action are known as verbs. Hence verbs are generally known as “action” words. Have a look at the given example: Rahul rides a scooter. The verb in the above sentence denotes an action that Rahul performs which is the action of riding a scooter.

However, the idea of verbs as “action” words is somewhat restricted. Many verbs don’t stand for action at all as in the given instance: Rahul seems desperate. We cannot say that the verb ‘seems ‘ refer to an action.

3) Adverbs

In English, an adverb describes a word that alters the meaning of a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs in a sentence give you more information about the sentence. They are used to express how an action is fulfilled. Adverbs can broadly be categorized into Simple Adverbs, IInterrogative adverbs, and Relative Adverbs.

Remember:

  • Most adverbs end with the common ending – ly.
  • An adverb that modifies an adjective or another adverb usually goes before it.

4) Adjectives

Adjectives describe the quality of a noun. For example They stay in a beautiful house

The word beautiful indicates or refers to one of the attributes of the house that is described. Hence beautiful becomes the adjective in the above sentence.

A point to keep in mind: Some adjectives can be identified by their ending. Typical adjective endings include: able, al, ful, ic, etc.

You can even try out our other articles on How to Improve Your Vocabulary as well to expand your knowledge base.

Closed Word Classes

1) Determiners

You might have often noticed that nouns are preceded by words like the, a, or an. These words are known as Determiners. They suggest the type of reference that the noun has.

  • The determiner ‘the’ is called a Definite Article. It can be placed both before singular and plural nouns. For example The Taxi, The taxis
  • The determiner a or an is known as the Indefinite Article. It is used along with a singular noun. Example: A taxi

Apart from these, many other determiners express quantity. These include ‘al’, ‘both’, ‘many’ etc.

2) Conjunctions

These are used to express connections between different words.

Example: John and David are friends. And is used as a conjunction in the given sentence.
The most familiar conjunctions in English are: and, but, and or.

Conjunctions are further divided into two:

  • Coordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions connect elements of equal syntactic structure. Example: Paul and David study together.
  • Subordinating Conjunctions: Connects elements of unequal syntactic structure. Example: I left early because I had an interview the next day.

3) Prepositions

Prepositions indicate the relation between different words. They occur before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase and indicate a direction, time, place, location, and spatial relationship. Common prepositions include across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to, under, with, without, etc.

4) Pronouns

If we did not have the pronoun word families we would have to repeat a whole lot of nouns. A word that takes the position of a noun is named as a pronoun. Pronouns can be employed as a substitute for a noun.

  • Pronouns are divided into 5 categories:
  • Personal Pronouns: I, you, she, etc
  • Demonstrative Pronouns: This, these, etc
  • Possessive Pronouns: Yours, His, etc
  • Interrogative Pronouns: Which, What, etc
  • Reflexive Pronouns: Herself, Himself, etc.
  • Reciprocal Pronouns: Each other
  • Indefinite Pronouns: Few, Nobody, etc.
  • Relative Pronouns: Which, Whom, etc.

5) Interjections

Short exclamations like Oh!, Ah! etc are known as Interjections. Even though they have no grammatical value, we often use them in daily speech. Interjections are primarily used to express emotions such as anger, surprise, etc. Given below are a few examples.

Well! That hurts
Hey! Don’t be so clumsy

Remember, an interjection is always followed by an exclamation mark.

Read More:

  • English Idioms
  • Literary Devices

FAQs on Word Classes

1. How to identify the word classes in a sentence?

A word class is a group of words that have certain common features. To find out the word classes within a sentence it is important that you familiarise yourself with the most common word classes in English. These include nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, etc.

2. How to classify a word class?

Word classes in English belong to two major categories. These are Open word classes that include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The second category is closed word classes that include: pronouns, determiners, interjections, etc.

3. What is the difference between a word class and part of speech?

The term “word class” is analogous to the more conventional term, “part of speech”. Both these terms refer to a group of words that have certain common features.

Conclusion

To understand the grammatical structures of sentences in a better way it’s best if you begin with word classes. Even though comprehending the different word classes may initially be a hectic task, once you master word classes, you will reach the exact meaning or message conveyed by a sentence.

Every word in a sentence plays a different role, refer as the parts of speech. There are the following word classes in english grammar. Word Classes are very important part in grammar. They decide different rules of grammar. More precisely every grammar rule comes out of them. They are the most basic part of a sentences. Without word classes English language would never be possible and that why these 9 words classes are the base of English language.

9 Words Classes in English Grammar

There are following word classes in English grammar.

1. Nouns

A noun is the name of a person, place, concept, or object, like Marry, John, Canada, Japan, truth, honesty, table and, knife Etc. Nouns occupy the major part of English compositions and come in a wide variety of types. They are used as the subject, direct object, indirect objects, plurals, possessive nouns, opposites and adjectives. Mostly nouns are divided into two categories: common nouns and proper nouns.

Examples:

  • Cat was under the table.
  • Sarah comes out of no where.
  • This purse does not belongs to my father.
  • Mosque was very beautiful.

List of Some Nouns: 

Banana Quill Hospital
Car School Juice
Dinner Tent Lizard
Engine Vulture Morning
France Girl Oxygen
Ambulance Pillow Hair
Belgium Restaurant Insurance
Church Spoon Knife
Dress Train Magazine
Finland Xylophone Nest
Airport Piano Guitar
Bed Refrigerator Insect
China Soccer Kite

i. Common Noun Vs. Proper Noun

Common nouns

They refer the general things, like books and football.

Proper nouns

They deal with the specific names, like David and London.

ii. Countable Nouns Vs. Uncountable Nouns

Countable Nouns

Nouns which we can count like cats, books, pens Etc.

Uncountable Nouns

Nouns that we cannot count like liquid, air, intelligence.

2. Pronouns

Pronouns are the words that substitute for nouns. For example, he, she, it, her, his you, many, who, everybody Etc. Pronouns are divided into a range of categories. personal pronoun, possessive pronoun, relative pronoun, reflexive pronoun, indefinite pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, an interrogative pronoun, intensive pronoun and reciprocal pronoun.

Examples:

  • Tom was going to Mosque, and I just followed him.
  • Tina is the friend of Sara, and I am their class fellow.
  • He is the man of a lot of sugar in his juice.

Some Pronouns are: 

he her hers
him his I
it its our
she theirs them
they us we
you your

3. Adjectives

Adjectives describe the qualities or states of nouns. Adjectives are fast, funny, engaging, well-written. There are three degrees of adjectives positive, comparative and superlative adjectives black. They also describe the quality of nouns, many, few, millions Etc.

Examples

  • Tom is a brave boy and that’s why he is in at Army.
  • My brother is a good looking actor in Germany.
  • Shimla is a coward lady of our society.

Here are some common adjectives:

dull drab doubtful
dizzy disturbed distinct
disgusted difficult different
determined depressed delightful
defiant defeated dead
dark dangerous cute
curious cruel crowded
creepy crazy courageous
cooperative confused condemned
concerned comfortable combative
colorful clumsy cloudy
clever clear clean
cheerful charming cautious
careful calm busy
bright breakable brave
brainy bored blushing
blue-eyed blue bloody
black bewildered better
beautiful bad awful
average attractive ashamed
arrogant anxious annoying
annoyed angry amused
alive alert agreeable
aggressive adventurous adorable

4. Verbs

Verbs describe specific actions, like running, winning, and amazing. There are six types of verbs.

Examples:

  • Tina was playing cricket.
  • Roma is eating bread with butter.

i. Action verbs

They describe action words a person or thing can do such as accept, ask, bake Etc.

Below are some common action verbs:

Zip Yank Write Win
Whistle Walk Turn Touch
Teach Study Solve Sneeze
Sleep Skip Sing Shout
Shop See Scream Run
Replace Read Play Plan
Paint Listen Lie Laugh
Jump Invent Imitate Exit
Enter Edit Eat Drink
Draw Describe Dance Cry
Create Cough Complete Color
Coach Buy Build Break
Arrange Approve Answer Act

ii. Transitive Verbs

If action verbs follow the direct object is called transitive verbs. Like drive, want, write, eat, clean Etc.

iii. Intransitive verb

The action verbs do not have a direct object like landed, arrived.

iv. Linking verb

The various forms of to be are the linking verbs like am, is, are, where Etc.

v. Helping Verb

Helping verbs are used with main verbs. Auxiliary and model verbs are helping verbs like am, are, do, does, shall will Etc.

vi. Static Verb

The static verb is used to express a state rather than an action. Like believe, guess, know, remember Etc.

9 Word Classes in English Grammar with ESL Infographics

5. Adverbs

An adverb describes an adjective, a verb, or another adverb. For example, quickly, slowly, happily Etc. There are five different kinds of adverbs.

Examples:

  • Tina was cutting the bread carefully.
  • Sara was acting nervously in front of her parents.

i. Adverb of Manner

Adverbs that are use to tell manner: Nicely, beautifully, etc. Adverbs can be negative or positive. Below are some adverbs.

Positive

Negative

+Ve/-Ve

Carefully

Nervously Badly
Justly Angrily

Hastily

Politely

Cruelly Angrily
Boldly Hungrily

Awkwardly

Powerfully

Hastily Anxiously

Kindly

Anxiously Blindly
Calmly Rudely

Loudly

Openly Blindly

Hungrily

Quickly

Sadly Noisily
Bravely Roughly

Lazily

Promptly

Painfully

Frantically
Neatly Greedily

Carelessly

Perfectly

Carelessly

Inadequately

Easily

Selfishly

Madly

ii. Adverb of Time

Adverb of time is related to time. Examples of adverbs of time are: Today, Yesterday, etc.

iii. Adverb of Place

Adverb of place is related to place. Examples of adverbs of place are: Here, There, Nowhere, etc.

iv. Adverb of Degree

Adverb of degree is related to degree of something or some action. Examples of adverbs of degree are: So, Very, almost, etc.

v. Adverb of Frequency

Adverb of frequency is related to how may time an action has been repeated. Examples of adverbs of frequency are: Always, Never, etc.

6. Prepositions

Prepositions explain the relationship between the words in a sentence. It indicates direction, time, location and space Etc. Examples are above, behind, in, off, Etc.

Examples:

  • Cat was over the roof.
  • Tina is in the opposite side of the mosque.

Some Prepositions are:

over outside opposite onto
on off of near
minus like into inside
in from for following
excluding excepting except during
down despite considering concerning
by but beyond between
besides beside beneath below
behind before at as
around anti among amid
along against after across
above about aboard

7. Conjunctions

Conjunctions make it possible to build complex sentences that express multiple ideas like coordinating conjunction, subordinating conjunction and correlative conjunction.

Examples:

  • I will dance rather than playing cricket.
  • Because Tina is my girlfriend, she will not talk to you anymore.

Here are some most used conjunction:

Provided Rather than Even though
In order that Now when As if
Even If then for
Although Because and

8. Interjections

A word that express feelings and emotions in called as interjection. Interjection is somehow very important in grammar. It is very important parts of speech in English grammar. Some common interjection words are oh!, Ah! Yum!, Phooey!, Boo!, etc.

Examples:

  • Yeah! I have seen a small cat.
  • Oh God! He is under the table.
  • Hurrah! We played well and won the game.

9. Articles

There are two categories of articles: definite and indefinite articles. A, an is the indefinite article, and the is the definite article. Articles play an important role in English grammar. They adds to the beauty of English grammar. It is very important to learn these three articles and how to use them. They have some simple rules that we have to follow to use them clearly and correctly.

Examples:

  • The Pakistan is our beloved country.
  • A cat was going into his room.
  • An apple just falls off the table.

10. Determiner

A word placed before a noun provides information about quantity, ownership and specificity. It covers articles, demonstratives possessives and quantifiers, such as a, an, the, this, that, my, his, some, six, Etc.

Examples:

  • This chair is made of wood.
  • That was the ball, Raina was suppose to use in his home.

In a nutshell, we have discussed commonly used classes and examples of parts of speech.

About Author

Simi

Meet Simeron Khan, an experienced ESL teacher with a passion for guiding students towards fluency in English. With a knack for making even the most complex grammar rules accessible and enjoyable, Simeron has helped countless learners achieve their language goals.

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).

Examples and Observations

  • «When linguists began to look closely at English grammatical structure in the 1940s and 1950s, they encountered so many problems of identification and definition that the term part of speech soon fell out of favor, word class being introduced instead. Word classes are equivalent to parts of speech, but defined according to strict linguistic criteria.» (David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003)
  • «There is no single correct way of analyzing words into word classes…Grammarians disagree about the boundaries between the word classes (see gradience), and it is not always clear whether to lump subcategories together or to split them. For example, in some grammars…pronouns are classed as nouns, whereas in other frameworks…they are treated as a separate word class.» (Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker, Edmund Weiner, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2014)

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
  • Adverbs

The structure classes, also known as function words or closed classes, include:

  • Determiners
  • Pronouns
  • Auxiliaries
  • Conjunctions
  • Qualifiers
  • Interrogatives
  • Prepositions
  • Expletives
  • Particles

«Probably 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.» (Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar. Allyn and Bacon, 1998)

One Word, Multiple Classes

«Items may belong to more than one class. In most instances, we can only assign a word to a word class when we encounter it in context. Looks is a verb in ‘It looks good,’ but a noun in ‘She has good looks‘; that is a conjunction in ‘I know that they are abroad,’ but a pronoun in ‘I know that‘ and a determiner in ‘I know that man’; one is a generic pronoun in ‘One must be careful not to offend them,’ but a numeral in ‘Give me one good reason.'» (Sidney Greenbaum, Oxford English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1996)

Suffixes as Signals

«We recognize the class of a word by its use in context. Some words have suffixes (endings added to words to form new words) that help to signal the class they belong to. These suffixes are not necessarily sufficient in themselves to identify the class of a word. For example, -ly is a typical suffix for adverbs (slowly, proudly), but we also find this suffix in adjectives: cowardly, homely, manly. And we can sometimes convert words from one class to another even though they have suffixes that are typical of their original class: an engineer, to engineer; a negative response, a negative(Sidney Greenbaum and Gerald Nelson, An Introduction to English Grammar, 3rd ed. Pearson, 2009)

A Matter of Degree

«[N]ot all the members of a class will necessarily have all the identifying properties. Membership in a particular class is really a matter of degree. In this regard, grammar is not so different from the real world. There are prototypical sports like ‘football’ and not so sporty sports like ‘darts.’ There are exemplary mammals like ‘dogs’ and freakish ones like the ‘platypus.’ Similarly, there are good examples of verbs like watch and lousy examples like beware; exemplary nouns like chair that display all the features of a typical noun and some not so good ones like Kenny (Kersti Börjars and Kate Burridge, Introducing English Grammar, 2nd ed. Hodder, 2010)

1.Introduction

Look at the different kinds of word in this sentence.

I have an important conference at work tomorrow so I am rather busy.

2. What kind of word?

There are eight different kinds of word in English. They are called ‘word classes’ or ‘parts of speech’. Here are some examples from conversations in the café.

The numbers after the examples tell you which units in the books give you more imformation.

  1. Verb: have, am, is, would, like, come, are, sitting, look
  2. Noun: comference, work, coffee, party, Saturday, Jessica, driends, corner
  3. Adjective: important, busy, good, cheap.
  4. Adverb: tomorrow, rather, really, here
  5. Preposition: at, to, on, in
  6. Determiner: an, this, our, the
  7. Pronoun: I, it, you
  8. Linking word: so, and

Words in sentences

Some words can belong to different classes depending on how they are used in a sentence.

VERBS

            Can I look at your photos?

            We work on Saturday morning.

NOUNS

            I like the look of that coat.

           I’ll be at work tomorrow.

What is an adverb? What is a preposition? What is a…?

These are questions that students sometimes ask when a teacher is explaining a grammar point.

The different parts of speech (or all of those “grammar words” as some students call them) are important to know when learning English, or any other language.

In order to help solve doubts about what the different parts of speech are and what functions they have, I created a summary chart and a video explaining the main differences between each one.

Parts of Speech in English – ESL Video

In our ESL video, we look at the eight parts of speech in traditional English grammar.
These parts of speech, sometimes called word classes, include:
Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections.

We give an explanation of how each word class is used and have included example sentences. For some of the parts of speech we also look at sub-classes such as subject pronouns and possessive pronouns, the different types of adverbs such as adverbs of manner, adverbs of frequency, etc.

In the final section we talk about how some teachers sometimes include a 9th part of speech which can be either Articles or Determiners. Again, we include examples.

This ESL video to ideal to give students a general overview of the different parts of speech in English.

Summary Chart

Parts of Speech in English - Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections.

English Teacher Resource

We have created the following summary charts that can be used in the classroom or for homeschooling:
English Parts of Speech Charts - Word Classes



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Описание презентации по отдельным слайдам:

  • Word Classes in GrammarLecture 3

    1 слайд

    Word Classes in Grammar
    Lecture 3

  • Outline:Traditional parts of speech 
Criteria for their distinguishing.
The s...

    2 слайд

    Outline:
    Traditional parts of speech
    Criteria for their distinguishing.
    The system of parts of speech in English.
    Notional and formal words.
    Other classifications

  • Parts of speech

  • Tradional and conventional term
    part    

   speech 

  language
?

    4 слайд

    Tradional and conventional term

    part

    speech

    language

    ?

  • Origin of the termAncient Greece  - 2nd century B.C.

    5 слайд

    Origin of the term
    Ancient Greece — 2nd century B.C.

  • Parts of 
speechNAdjAdvVPronNum

    6 слайд

    Parts of
    speech
    N
    Adj
    Adv
    V
    Pron
    Num

  • A word class is a group of words, which, from a grammatical point of view, be...

    7 слайд

    A word class is a group of words, which, from a grammatical point of view, behave in the same way.
    (D. Crystal, 1995)

  • A part of speech is a type of word differing from other types in some grammat...

    8 слайд

    A part of speech is a type of word differing from other types in some grammatical point. (B.A.Ilyish, 1971)

    V vs. N => tense is a distinctive feature
    *What is the past tense of the word ‘city’ ?

  • Three Criteria for Distinguishing Parts of Speechsemanticssyntaxmorphologyfor...

    9 слайд

    Three Criteria for Distinguishing Parts of Speech
    semantics
    syntax
    morphology
    form
    meaning
    function,
    position

  • Part of speech criteriaO. Jespersen (1933, 2007).
Three criteria from Russian...

    10 слайд

    Part of speech criteria
    O. Jespersen (1933, 2007).
    Three criteria from Russian linguistics:
    V.V. Vinogradov,
    L.V. Scherba
    A.I. Smirnitsky
    B.A. Ilyish
    Interrelated criteria (E.Kubryakova 1979)

  • Part of Speech CriteriaSemantic – conceptual categorial aspect, generalized a...

    11 слайд

    Part of Speech Criteria
    Semantic – conceptual categorial aspect, generalized abstract meaning common to a class of words:
    noun — substance
    adjective – property, quality
    verb– process /action / state
    adverb – aspect of quality, action or state

    Generalized grammatical meaning is based on lexical meanings of words.

  • Part of speech criteria2.  Morphological – every part of speech has its own s...

    12 слайд

    Part of speech criteria
    2. Morphological – every part of speech has its own system of grammar forms:
    noun – common and possessive case, singular and plural number
    verb – mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive), tense and aspect, voice (active-passive), person, number
    adjective – degrees of comparison
    adverb — indeclinable

    Formal criterion provides for the exposition of the paradigmatic inflectional and specific derivational features of the class.

  • Part of speech criteria3. Syntactical  - function as part of a sentence and p...

    13 слайд

    Part of speech criteria
    3. Syntactical — function as part of a sentence and position in the sentence :
    noun — subject (SV)
    — object (VO)
    verb – predicate (primarily)
    adjective – attribute (Adj + N)
    adverb – adverbial modifier
    The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence typical of a part of speech and word combinability.

  • e.g., nounSemantic criterion:    
Morphological criterion: 



Syntactical cr...

    14 слайд

    e.g., noun
    Semantic criterion:
    Morphological criterion:

    Syntactical criterion:
    Substance, thingness
    Singular –plural
    common – possessive case
    Suffixes: -ness, -tion, -er…
    Functions: Subject, object, predicative
    Modification by an adj

  • adjective1. Semantic criterion:  
  
2.  Morphological criterion: 


3. Synta...

    15 слайд

    adjective
    1. Semantic criterion:

    2. Morphological criterion:

    3. Syntactical criterion:

    Property (qualitative and relative)
    Degrees of comparison (for qualitative adj)
    Suffixes: -al, -y, -ish
    Function: attribute, predicative
    Adj + N

  • verbSemantic criterion:    
Morphological criterion: 


Syntactical criterion...

    16 слайд

    verb
    Semantic criterion:
    Morphological criterion:

    Syntactical criterion:

    Process
    Mood, tense, aspect, voice, person, number
    Finite- non-finite forms
    Suffixes: -ize, -ate
    Predicate for finite forms; mixed (V + N/Adj) for verbals
    V + Adv

  • adverb1. Semantic criterion:   

 
2. Morphological criterion: 

3. Syntactic...

    17 слайд

    adverb
    1. Semantic criterion:

    2. Morphological criterion:

    3. Syntactical criterion:

    Secondary property (property of a process or another property)degrees of comparison for qualitative adv
    Suffix: -ly
    Adverbial modifier
    Adv+V; Adv+Adj

  • interjection1. Semantic criterion:   

 2. Morphological criterion: 

3. Synt...

    18 слайд

    interjection
    1. Semantic criterion:

    2. Morphological criterion:

    3. Syntactical criterion:

    Express feelings

    Invariable

    Parenthesis

  • pronounSemantic criterion:    


Morphological criterion: 

Syntactical crite...

    19 слайд

    pronoun
    Semantic criterion:

    Morphological criterion:

    Syntactical criterion:

    Indication (deixis) (pointing to things or properties without naming them)
    Some – number, case, person
    Substantival and adjectival functions

  • Linguistics abroad:pronounnounadj

    20 слайд

    Linguistics abroad:
    pronoun
    noun
    adj

  • numeral1. Semantic criterion:  
  
2. Morphological criterion: 

3. Syntactic...

    21 слайд

    numeral
    1. Semantic criterion:

    2. Morphological criterion:

    3. Syntactical criterion:

    Number (cardinal) or place in a series (ordinal)
    Invariable
    -teen, -ty; -th
    Numerical attribute or numerical substantive
    Num+N

  • Criticism of parts of speechUnevenness of the classificatory criteria
Transit...

    22 слайд

    Criticism of parts of speech
    Unevenness of the classificatory criteria
    Transition of parts of speech
    Homophony
    No universal categories within a class

  • Unevenness of the classificatory criteriaThe criteria are partially contradic...

    23 слайд

    Unevenness of the classificatory criteria
    The criteria are partially contradictory and overlapping
    E.g., numeral: meaning = quantity

    thousands of people => noun
    many people => pronoun

  • Adjective is a word modifying a noun....

    24 слайд

    Adjective is a word modifying a noun.
    N
    Here is a toy car. ?
    Adj

  • Adverb  - indeclinable
well – better – best
a catch-all class that includes w...

    25 слайд

    Adverb — indeclinable
    well – better – best
    a catch-all class that includes words with many different functions
    -ly is an adverb marker, but early, friendly, ugly are adjectives;
    tomorrow, fast, crosswise = adv

  • Not all three criteria are applicable to all parts of speech. Some of them ma...

    26 слайд

    Not all three criteria are applicable to all parts of speech. Some of them may fail.

    E.g. , semantic:
    N vs. V = substance : process
    We had a walk.

  • Transition of parts of speechConversion:
Water, break, outlaw, laser, microwa...

    27 слайд

    Transition of parts of speech
    Conversion:
    Water, break, outlaw, laser, microwave and telephone

    N or V ?
    We must look to the hows and not just the whys.

  • HomophonyI hear a loud sound.
They sound like bells.
I have a sound reason.

    28 слайд

    Homophony
    I hear a loud sound.
    They sound like bells.
    I have a sound reason.

  • No universality within a classNot all nouns have possessive case
Not all verb...

    29 слайд

    No universality within a class
    Not all nouns have possessive case
    Not all verbs have a passive voice form
    Not all adjectives have comparison forms

  • Are there English words that are not included in any part of speech?

Yes. No.

    30 слайд

    Are there English words that are not included in any part of speech?

    Yes. No.

  • Classifications of parts of speech

    31 слайд

    Classifications of parts of speech

  • traditionalParts of speech are lexico-grammatical (A.Smirnitsky) classes that...

    32 слайд

    traditional
    Parts of speech are lexico-grammatical (A.Smirnitsky) classes that differ by their general semantic features, morphological forms, and syntactical functions.

  • Traditional classificationEight major classes of words (Plato & Aristotle, Di...

    33 слайд

    Traditional classification
    Eight major classes of words (Plato & Aristotle, Dionysius Thrax; 18th century):
    noun
    verb
    adjective
    adverb
    interjection
    preposition
    conjunction
    pronoun

  • Russian linguists (B.A. Ilyish, V. Zhigadlo, I. Ivanova, L. Iofik) add: 
nume...

    34 слайд

    Russian linguists (B.A. Ilyish, V. Zhigadlo, I. Ivanova, L. Iofik) add:
    numerals,
    statives,
    modal words, and
    particles.

    not distinguished
    internationally

  • Stative: asleep, afire, afraid or Adj?1. Semantic criterion:   
 
2. Morpholo...

    35 слайд

    Stative: asleep, afire, afraid or Adj?
    1. Semantic criterion:

    2. Morphological criterion:

    3. Syntactical criterion:

    State (not property)

    Invariable
    Prefix a-

    Predicative, attrib.
    Be+Stative; N+S (a man asleep in his chair)

  • Particles: only, even, just (or Adv?)1. Semantic criterion:   

 
2. Morpholo...

    36 слайд

    Particles: only, even, just (or Adv?)
    1. Semantic criterion:

    2. Morphological criterion:

    3. Syntactical criterion:

    Subjective emphasis or limitation

    Invariable

    Combine with any part of speech
    No syntactic function

  • Modal words: perhaps, possibly (or Adv?)1. Semantic criterion:   

 
2. Morph...

    37 слайд

    Modal words: perhaps, possibly (or Adv?)
    1. Semantic criterion:

    2. Morphological criterion:

    3. Syntactical criterion:

    The speker’s evaluation of the relation btw an action & reality
    Invariable

    Parenthesis

  • Notional and functional parts of speech

    38 слайд

    Notional and functional
    parts of speech

  • Parts of speech

notional
= part of a sentence.
Less frequent
 She turned ro...

    39 слайд

    Parts of speech

    notional

    = part of a sentence.
    Less frequent

    She turned round.
    functional

    ≠ part of a sentence
    = analytical form of a part of the sentence.
    More frequent

    She turned round the house.

  • Parts of speech

notional
= part of a sentence She turned round. functional...

    40 слайд

    Parts of speech

    notional

    = part of a sentence
    She turned round.
    functional

    ≠ part of a sentence
    = analytical form of a part of the sentence

    She turned round the house.
    deictic

  • Notional parts of speech are words  with lexical meaning; they have nominativ...

    41 слайд

    Notional parts of speech are words with lexical meaning; they have nominative function.
    notional
    noun
    adjective
    verb
    adverb

    pronoun
    numeral

  • Functional (formal, structural) parts of speech serve to show relations betwe...

    42 слайд

    Functional (formal, structural) parts of speech serve to show relations between notional words.
    functional
    preposition
    conjunction
    article
    particle

    interjection
    Modal word

  • Functional (formal, structural) parts of speechSyntactic 
functionsPrepositio...

    43 слайд

    Functional (formal, structural) parts of speech
    Syntactic
    functions
    Prepositions
    Conjuctions

    Morphological
    functions
    Articles
    Auxiliary verbs

  • Functional parts of speech (form)Invariable
Phonetically weak

    44 слайд

    Functional parts of speech (form)
    Invariable
    Phonetically weak

  • Functional parts of speech (meaning)The book  is on the desk.
The book is und...

    45 слайд

    Functional parts of speech (meaning)
    The book is on the desk.
    The book is under the desk.

    She did not speak because she was tired.
    She did not speak though she was tired.

    E. Kubryakova (1979): function words also have a nominative function = relating to an extra-linguistic element. They reveal place of objects and actions in time and space.

  • Functional parts of speech Article
Preposition
Conjunction
Particle

Modal wo...

    46 слайд

    Functional parts of speech
    Article
    Preposition
    Conjunction
    Particle

    Modal words
    Interjections

    Expresses specific limitation of the substantive function
    Expresses (inter)dependencies of substantive referents
    Expresses connections of phenomena
    Unites functional words of specifying or limiting meaning
    Expresses the attitude of the speaker
    Signal emotions

    Part of speech
    Role (meaning) in the sentence

  • Disputable: notional or functional?Modal verbs
Auxiliary verbs

I.P. Ivanova...

    47 слайд

    Disputable: notional or functional?
    Modal verbs
    Auxiliary verbs

    I.P. Ivanova (1981):
    Functional parts of speech vs. functional words

  • Disputable: notional or functional?Modal verbs
Auxiliary verbs

I.P. Ivanova...

    48 слайд

    Disputable: notional or functional?
    Modal verbs
    Auxiliary verbs

    I.P. Ivanova (1981):
    Functonal parts of speech vs. functional words

  • I.P. Ivanova:

Functional words are notional words that have lost, under cert...

    49 слайд

    I.P. Ivanova:

    Functional words are notional words that have lost, under certain conditions, their lexical meaning and have maintained only grammatical function.

    Cf. I have a new TV set.
    I have lost my gloves.

  • Deictic function of pronounsTake it away!Where is the sales assistant who sol...

    50 слайд

    Deictic function of pronouns
    Take it away!
    Where is the sales assistant who sold me these shoes?
    Deictic
    (situational)
    Anaphoric
    (contextual)

  • Deictic wordsDeictic  words (Grk. deixis “indicate”) refer to the personal, t...

    51 слайд

    Deictic words
    Deictic words (Grk. deixis “indicate”) refer to the personal, temporal, or spacial aspect of an utterance act. Their designation is, therefore, dependent on the context of the speech situation.–
    pronouns
    adverbs

  • Other classifications

    52 слайд

    Other classifications

  • Morphological classificationH.Sweet: 
declinables (nouns, adj, verbs) 
Indecl...

    53 слайд

    Morphological classification
    H.Sweet:
    declinables (nouns, adj, verbs)
    Indeclinables (adverbs, prepositions, conjuncts, interjections)

  • Enlarging classesConnectors  (W. Plotkin) / connectives (L.Barkhudarov & D. S...

    54 слайд

    Enlarging classes
    Connectors (W. Plotkin) / connectives (L.Barkhudarov & D. Shteling) / conjuncts (D.Crystal):
    Prepositions
    Conjunctions
    Determinatives (L.Barkhudarov & D. Shteling), determiners (D.Crystal, CGE)
    Adjectives
    Articles
    Pronouns

  • Open and closed classes(R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, J. Svartvik, 1972,...

    55 слайд

    Open and closed classes
    (R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, J. Svartvik, 1972, 1982)
    N
    Adj
    Adv
    V
    Article
    Pronouns
    Prepositions
    Conjunctions
    Interjections

    Open classes
    Closed classes (ab. 150)

  • Narrower principle of identificationSyntactico-distributional classification...

    56 слайд

    Narrower principle of identification
    Syntactico-distributional classification (L. Bloomfield, Z. Harris, Ch. Fries)
    No criterion of meaning (Woggles ugged diggles.)
    Study of word combinability by means of substitution testing
    4 main positional (notional) classes (frames): N, V, A(dj), D (adv)
    Words outside the “positions” are functional – 15 groups:
    Specifiers of nouns, verbs, adj, adv.
    Relation determiners (prep, conj)
    Referring to the sentence as a whole (how, which; lets, please; attention-getters; yes, no; introductory it & there)

  • Field theory (V. Admoni, 1968; G.Schur, 1974, 2007)Nuclear (words possessing...

    57 слайд

    Field theory
    (V. Admoni, 1968; G.Schur, 1974, 2007)
    Nuclear (words possessing all the properties of a certain part of speech) and periphery
    E.g., nouns with the meaning of process (walk, run) are in the margin of the noun field, in the overlapping sector with the verb field.
    There is no strict borderline between parts of speech, they are able to converge.

  • Three little words you often seeAre ARTICLES: a, an, and the.A NOUN's the...

    58 слайд

    Three little words you often see
    Are ARTICLES: a, an, and the.

    A NOUN’s the name of anything,
    As: school or garden, toy, or swing.

    ADJECTIVES tell the kind of noun,
    As: great, small, pretty, white, or brown.

    VERBS tell of something being done:
    To read, write, count, sing, jump, or run.

    How things are done the ADVERBS tell,
    As: slowly, quickly, badly, well.

    CONJUNCTIONS join the words together,
    As: men and women, wind or weather.

    The PREPOSITION stands before
    A noun as: in or through a door.

    The INTERJECTION shows surprise
    As: Oh, how pretty! Ah! how wise!

    The whole are called the PARTS of SPEECH,
    Which reading, writing, speaking teach.

  • Адмони В.Г.  Полевая структура частей речи // Вопросы теории частей речи. Л.,...

    59 слайд

    Адмони В.Г. Полевая структура частей речи // Вопросы теории частей речи. Л., 1968, с. 98-106
    Бархударов Л.С., Штелинг Д.А. Грамматика АЯ. — М.: ВШ, 1973
    Блох М.Я. Теоретическая грамматика АЯ. – М.,1983.
    Есперсен О. Философия грамматики. — М.: УРСС, 2002.
    Иванова И.П., Бурлакова В.В., Почепцов Г.Г. Теоретическая грамматика современного АЯ. – М., 1981.
    Иофик Л.Л., Чахоян Л.П. Хрестоматия по теоретической грамматике АЯ. – Л.: Просвещение, 1972
    Ильиш Б.А. Строй современного английского языка. – Л., 1971.
    Кубрякова Е.С. Части речи в ономасиологическом освещении. – М.: Наука. 1978
    Плоткин В.Я. Строй английского языка. – М.: ВШ, 1989
    Смирницкий А.И. Морфология АЯ. – М., 1959.
    Щерба Л.В. Языковая система и речевая деятельность. – Л.: Наука, 1974
    Щур Г.С. Теории поля в лигвистике. Изд. 2-е. –М.: Изд-во ЛКИ, 2007

    Literature

  • LiteratureCGE = Carter R., McCarthy M. Cambridge Grammar of English. – CUP, 2...

    60 слайд

    Literature
    CGE = Carter R., McCarthy M. Cambridge Grammar of English. – CUP, 2006
    Crystal D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. – CUP, 1995
    Fries Ch. The structure of English. New York, 1952.
    Quirk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G., Svartvik J. A University Grammar of English. – Moscow: Vyssaja Skola, Longman, 1982..
    Sweet H. A New English grammar. Logical and historical. Oxford, 1940. Part 1 & 2.

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