What part of speech is the word because of

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The word “because” is always used as a conjunction in English texts and verbal communication.

  1. Conjunction

This word is categorized under conjunctions because it can connect two clauses to form a single sentence. In the sample sentence:

I rested because I was tired.

The word “because” is considered as a conjunction that links together the clauses “I rested” and “I was tired.”

Definition:

a. for the reason that; since

  • Example:
  • She did it because she felt it was her duty.

Table of Contents

  1. Is the word because a preposition?
  2. Is because a preposition or conjunction?
  3. Is because of grammatically correct?
  4. Is due to correct?
  5. Is due to bad English?
  6. Is due to same as Because?
  7. Can we use due to in the beginning of a sentence?
  8. What preposition is used for school?
  9. Do we say at school or in school?
  10. Can we use preposition before home?
  11. Which preposition is used after blessed?
  12. Why dont we say go to home?
  13. What is the preposition of home?

The word “because” is always used as a conjunction in English texts and verbal communication. Conjunction.

Is the word because a preposition?

Because is a preposition that is sometimes used with no complement, sometimes (in the new usage that the ADS has just recognized) with an noun phrase complement, sometimes (much more commonly) with an of-PP complement , and sometimes with a clause.

Is because a preposition or conjunction?

In Standard English, the word “because” can be used two ways. One of them is to introduce a clause, as in “Aardvark was late because he was waiting for the repairman to show up.” Used this way, “because” is a subordinating conjunction. The other is to team up with “of” to form what’s called a compound preposition.

Is because of grammatically correct?

“Due to” is an adjective, which means it can only modify pronouns and nouns according to the purest English grammar rules. “Because of” is an adverb, which means it can only modify verbs, adjectives and clauses, but not nouns and pronouns.

Is due to correct?

Usage of ‘due to’ is correct, if the sentence makes sense when ‘due to’ is replaced with ’caused by’. Use ‘because of’ to modify verbs. ‘Due to’ & ‘because of’ are not interchangeable.

Is due to bad English?

Any sentence that begins with ‘due to’ is likely to be incorrect. For example: ‘Due to our lack of data, we could not complete the research. ‘

Is due to same as Because?

The word pairs “because of” and “due to” are not interchangeable. The reason they are not is that they “grew up” differently in the language. “Because of” grew up as an adverb; “due to” grew up as an adjective. Remember that adjectives modify only nouns or pronouns, whereas adverbs usually modify verbs.

Can we use due to in the beginning of a sentence?

Yes, you can use ‘due to’ at the beginning of a sentence.

What preposition is used for school?

We actually use both in school and at school, for slightly different situations. At school means the person is literally, physically, inside the school.

Do we say at school or in school?

At school means the person is literally, physically, inside the school. “He’s at school. “In school” means the person is studying in general (usually at college or university) but not necessarily inside the school building at that moment.

Can we use preposition before home?

We do not use prepositions before home when home is used as an adverb. So clearly home can be a noun or an adverb (or an adjective but let’s forget about that).

Which preposition is used after blessed?

In 19% of cases bless by is used I truly have been blessed by all of you. Come to be blessed by God, and to bless others.

Why dont we say go to home?

This is because when you say “go home”, home is not a noun, but an adverb (an “adverb of place”). Prepositions (“to”) don’t go before adverbs. Other words that are adverbs of place include: compass directions (go west, go east)

What is the preposition of home?

Home / at home Your sentence is fine, Ilham. Home in your example is behaving like an adverb expressing direction. We do not need a preposition with home when it is used with any verb referring to direction: I shall be arriving / going / coming / leaving home late this evening.

Continue Learning about English Language Arts

Part of speech for manufacturing?

part of speech


What part of speech is the word wasn’t?

«Wasn’t» is not traditionally a part of speech at all, because
it is a contraction for «was not»; the «was» part of this
contraction is a verb, singular past tense of «to be»; «not» is an
adverb.


What part of speech is hypertension?

It is a noun because it is the name of a disease


What part of speech is uncle?

it would be a noun because it is a person


Why are the eight part of speech important?

Because without the 8 parts of speech, we would not be able to
communicate.

For those interested in a little info about this site: it’s a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for — just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn’t be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary — which is now in the public domain. However, after a day’s work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary — which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it’s not properly structured for parsing. That’s when I stumbled across the UBY project — an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I’m happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).

First of all, I don’t see any object in your examples. In any of these because is followed by an adjective: happy, sad, bored.

Furthermore, you should rather think of it being an ellipse as mentioned in comments.

I don’t go to the party, because (I am) tired. [or …because of being tired]
I trust him, because (he is) honest.

Then, of course there are use cases where the verb being dropped is not to be; and because is indeed followed by something not being an adjective but by a noun. This noun may indeed be an object in a non-shortened version.

I hate it because reasons.

You can consider this an ellipse of, for example:

I hate it because of several reasons (…that I don’t want to mention, because too many).
I hate it because there are many reasons that …

So, because is actually used as because of and because of because of being a preposition, the ‘new’ because is also (and still) a preposition… because period.

In the English language, the word “about” has multiple purposes. It can be used as a preposition, an adverb, or an adjective. This word can be categorized as a preposition when it is used to indicate movement to a specific location, or, the subject of something written or spoken.

Contents

  • 1 Is about an adverb or preposition?
  • 2 What part of a sentence is about?
  • 3 Is about a preposition or a pronoun?
  • 4 Is about a prepositional phrase?
  • 5 Why is about an adverb?
  • 6 How do you use the word about?
  • 7 What part of speech is because?
  • 8 What type of parts of speech is is?
  • 9 Is to an adjective or adverb?
  • 10 How do you use the word about in a sentence?
  • 11 Is the word across a preposition?
  • 12 Are possessives prepositions?
  • 13 Is that a noun clause?
  • 14 What words are clauses?
  • 15 What is the part of speech of up?
  • 16 What kind of word is about?
  • 17 Whats about or what about?
  • 18 Is the word or a conjunction?
  • 19 Which part of speech is the word he?
  • 20 Is because a noun or a verb?

Is about an adverb or preposition?

About can be used in the following ways: as a preposition (followed by a noun): He told me about your problem. as an adverb (without a following noun): Stop rushing about. after the verb ‘to be’: Is your father about?

What part of a sentence is about?

subject
The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about, while the predicate tells something about the subject.

Is about a preposition or a pronoun?

About is a preposition or an adverb.

Is about a prepositional phrase?

Some of the most common prepositions that begin prepositional phrases are to, of, about, at, before, after, by, behind, during, for, from, in, over, under, and with.

Why is about an adverb?

The word “about” can be considered as an adverb if it is used to modify a verb or another adverb. For instance, in the sample sentence below: I saw the kid floundering about in the water. The word is categorized as an adverb because it modifies the verb “floundering.”

How do you use the word about?

About: On the Subject Of
As a preposition, the word “about” can be used to link nouns and verbs, such as when using “about” to mean “concerning” or “on the subject of”: We spoke about her neighbor’s awful choice of house paint.

Conjunction. A conjunction (also called a connective) is a word such as and, because, but, for, if, or, and when. Conjunctions are used to connect phrases, clauses, and sentences. The two main kinds are known as coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

What type of parts of speech is is?

The word “is” is always used as a verb in written and spoken English. This word is considered as a verb because it expresses existence or a state of being. It is classified under linking verbs and is a derivative of the verb “to be.” In the sample sentence: He is the most intelligent student in class.

Is to an adjective or adverb?

TO (adverb, preposition) definition and synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary.

How do you use the word about in a sentence?

[M] [T] I’m very concerned about her illness. [M] [T] She complained to him about the food. [M] [T] She has about as many stamps as I do. [M] [T] She told him all about her childhood.

Is the word across a preposition?

Across can be used in the following ways: as a preposition (followed by a noun): I walked across the road. as an adverb (without a following noun): Our host hurried across to meet us.

Are possessives prepositions?

The Possessive form is used in a sentence in context of things that belong to a person or animal. We can also use it to show a connection between things. Some of the most commonly used prepositions of Possession are of, with and to.

Is that a noun clause?

A that-clause is an example of a noun clause. It can be the subject or the object of the verb. I believe that he is innocent. Here the that-clause ‘that he is innocent’ is the object of the verb believe.

What words are clauses?

A clause is a group of words that contains a verb (and usually other components too). A clause may form part of a sentence or it may be a complete sentence in itself. For example: He was eating a bacon sandwich.

What is the part of speech of up?

Up is an adverb, a preposition and an adjective. Up is the opposite of down. It refers to movement to a higher level.

What kind of word is about?

About can be an adverb or a preposition.

Whats about or what about?

what’s about is grammatically wrong. “What is about your sister” is not english -> “What’s about your sister” is, if anything, highly colloquial. “What about your sister” implies having forgotten about here.

Is the word or a conjunction?

Or is a conjunction that connects two or more possibilities or alternatives. It connects words, phrases and clauses which are the same grammatical type: Which do you prefer?

Which part of speech is the word he?

pronoun
The word ‘he’ can be a pronoun, adjective, or noun. It is used as a pronoun in this sentence: He gave me his lunch money when I lost mine.

Is because a noun or a verb?

conjunction
The word because functions as a conjunction, as opposed to as a verb. A conjunction is a connecting word, and a verb is a word that shows an action or…

In English, the following parts of speech are usually distinguished: Noun Noun Adjective Noun Numeral

Classification of parts of speech in English

  • Verb (verb)
  • Noun
  • Adjective
  • Pronoun
  • Numerals
  • Adverb (adverb)

How many parts of speech are there in Russian?

There are 10 parts of speech in Russian: nouns, adjectives, numbers, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, interjections.

What part of speech is missing in English?

Article — Article.

This part of speech is not in Russian. In English, it is an official one, that is, it has no lexical meaning, but “serves” other parts of speech.

What are the interjections?

By meaning, three main categories of interjections can be distinguished:

  • emotional interjections that express joy, surprise, fear, doubt, but do not name them specifically;
  • imperative interjections express a motivation for action, command, order, prohibition, etc .;
  • expressing the norms of etiquette in speech.

What part of then speech?

Already in such, more rare variants, it is easy to make a mistake, but they can also be easily recognized due to the word order and specific beginning like hardly, scarcely or no sooner. Then, in turn, is most often an adverb. Very often this word is used when talking about a certain time in life: What can I say?

What part of speech were?

These are the forms of the verb to be (to be) — am, is, are, was, were. These verbs are needed to combine someone or something with the words that describe them. In Russian, in speech, we often release these verbs, but in English a sentence necessarily requires a verb.

What is part of speech?

Part of speech is a category of words in a language that is determined by syntactic and morphological features. In the languages ​​of the world, first of all, a name (further divided into a noun, an adjective, etc.) and a verb are opposed.

What part of speech is this?

Please note that in Russian, numerals are a separate part of speech. demonstrative — this, that, these, those. In Russian, these are demonstrative pronouns.

How many official parts of speech are there?!?

In the Russian language, in addition to the independent ones, there are also parts of speech that are called official. There are three of them — this is a particle, a union and a preposition. They are united by the absence of their own meaning, an independent role in the proposal and immutability.

What are Grade 3 Parts of Speech?

Parts of speech: noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, union. Sentence members: (subject and predicate) main members, minor members. Parts of speech are groups of words that differ in what question the words answer to, what they mean, how they can change.

How many independent and service parts of speech?

According to their role in the language, the parts are divided into independent and service ones. Independent parts of speech (basic): noun, adjective, numeral, verb, adverb, pronoun. Service parts of speech: preposition, union, particle.

When is am is are used?

Am / is / are is used in Present Simple as a linking verb. It connects the subject with the following noun or adjective and is part of the compound predicate. In such sentences, the linking verb is usually not translated into Russian.

What part of speech is because?

Union — Conjunction — service part of speech, connects sentences: and, but, because, so, that’s why, or, etc.

Who is that pronoun?

The word «who» is an independent part of speech, a pronoun, which, depending on the meaning and syntactic function, is interrogative or relative. The relative pronoun plays the role of a union word in a complex sentence.

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When you start breaking it down, the English language is pretty complicated—especially if you’re trying to learn it from scratch! One of the most important English words to understand is the.

But what part of speech is the word the, and when should it be used in a sentence? Is the word the a preposition? Is the a pronoun? Or is the word the considered a different part of speech?

To help you learn exactly how the word the works in the English language, we’re going to do the following in this article:

  • Answer the question, «What part of speech is the
  • Explain how to use the correctly in sentences, with examples
  • Provide a full list of other words that are classified as the same part of speech as the in the English language

Okay, let’s get started learning about the word the!

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In the English language the word the is classified as an article, which is a word used to define a noun. (More on that a little later.)

But an article isn’t one of the eight parts of speech. Articles are considered a type of adjective, so «the» is technically an adjective as well. However, «the» can also sometimes function as an adverb in certain instances, too.

In short, the word «the» is an article that functions as both an adjective and an adverb, depending on how it’s being used. Having said that, the is most commonly used as an article in the English language. So, if you were wondering, «Is the a pronoun, preposition, or conjunction,» the answer is no: it’s an article, adjective, and an adverb!

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While we might think of an article as a story that appears in a newspaper or website, in English grammar, articles are words that help specify nouns.

The as an Article

So what are «articles» in the English language? Articles are words that identify nouns in order to demonstrate whether the noun is specific or nonspecific. Nouns (a person, place, thing, or idea) can be identified by two different types of articles in the English language: definite articles identify specific nouns, and indefinite articles identify nonspecific nouns.

The word the is considered a definite article because it defines the meaning of a noun as one particular thing. It’s an article that gives a noun a definite meaning: a definite article. Generally, definite articles are used to identify nouns that the audience already knows about. Here’s a few examples of how «the» works as a definite article:

We went to the rodeo on Saturday. Did you see the cowboy get trampled by the bull?

This (grisly!) sentence has three instances of «the» functioning as a definite article: the rodeo, the cowboy, and the bull. Notice that in each instance, the comes directly before the noun. That’s because it’s an article’s job to identify nouns.

In each of these three instances, the refers to a specific (or definite) person, place, or thing. When the speaker says the rodeo, they’re talking about one specific rodeo that happened at a certain place and time. The same goes for the cowboy and the bull: these are two specific people/animals that had one kinda terrible thing happen to them!

It can be a bit easier to see how definite articles work if you see them in the same sentence as an indefinite article (a or an). This sentence makes the difference a lot more clear:

A bat flew into the restaurant and made people panic.

Okay. This sentence has two articles in it: a and the. So what’s the difference? Well, you use a when you’re referring to a general, non-specific person, place, or thing because its an indefinite article. So in this case, using a tells us this isn’t a specific bat. It’s just a random bat from the wild that decided to go on an adventure.

Notice that in the example, the writer uses the to refer to the restaurant. That’s because the event happened at a specific time and at a specific place. A bat flew into one particular restaurant to cause havoc, which is why it’s referred to as the restaurant in the sentence.

The last thing to keep in mind is that the is the only definite article in the English language, and it can be used with both singular and plural nouns. This is probably one reason why people make the mistake of asking, «Is the a pronoun?» Since articles, including the, define the meaning of nouns, it seems like they could also be combined with pronouns. But that’s not the case. Just remember: articles only modify nouns.

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Adjectives are words that help describe nouns. Because «the» can describe whether a noun is a specific object or not, «the» is also considered an adjective.

The as an Adjective

You know now that the is classified as a definite article and that the is used to refer to a specific person, place, or thing. But defining what part of speech articles are is a little bit tricky.

There are eight parts of speech in the English language: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. The thing about these eight parts of speech in English is that they contain smaller categories of types of words and phrases in the English language. Articles are considered a type of determiner, which is a type of adjective.

Let’s break down how articles fall under the umbrella of «determiners,» which fall under the umbrella of adjectives. In English, the category of «determiners» includes all words and phrases in the English language that are combined with a noun to express an aspect of what the noun is referring to. Some examples of determiners are the, a, an, this, that, my, their, many, few, several, each, and any. The is used in front of a noun to express that the noun refers to a specific thing, right? So that’s why «the» can be considered a determiner.

And here’s how determiners—including the article the—can be considered adjectives. Articles and other determiners are sometimes classified as adjectives because they describe the nouns that they precede. Technically, the describes the noun it precedes by communicating specificity and directness. When you say, «the duck,» you’re describing the noun «duck» as referring to a specific duck. This is different than saying a duck, which could mean any one duck anywhere in the world!

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When «the» comes directly before a word that’s not a noun, then it’s operating as an adverb instead of an adjective.

The as an Adverb

Finally, we mentioned that the can also be used as an adverb, which is one of the eight main parts of speech we outlined above. Adverbs modify or describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, but never modify nouns.

Sometimes, the can be used to modify adverbs or adjectives that occur in the comparative degree. Adverbs or adjectives that compare the amounts or intensity of a feeling, state of being, or action characterizing two or more things are in the comparative degree. Sometimes the appears before these adverbs or adjectives to help convey the comparison!

Here’s an example where the functions as an adverb instead of an article/adjective:

Lainey believes the most outrageous things.

Okay. We know that when the is functioning as an adjective, it comes before a noun in order to clarify whether it’s specific or non-specific. In this case, however, the precedes the word most, which isn’t a noun—it’s an adjective. And since an adverb modifies an adjective, adverb, or verb, that means the functions as an adverb in this sentence.

We know that can be a little complicated, so let’s dig into another example together:

Giovanni’s is the best pizza place in Montana.

The trick to figuring out whether the article the is functioning as an adjective or an adverb is pretty simple: just look at the word directly after the and figure out its part of speech. If that word is a noun, then the is functioning as an adjective. If that word isn’t a noun, then the is functioning like an adverb.

Now, reread the second example. The word the comes before the word best. Is best a noun? No, it isn’t. Best is an adjective, so we know that the is working like an adverb in this sentence.

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How to Use The Correctly in Sentences

An important part of answering the question, «What part of speech is the word the?» includes explaining how to use the correctly in a sentence. Articles like the are some of the most common words used in the English language. So you need to know how and when to use it! And since using the as an adverb is less common, we’ll provide examples of how the can be used as an adverb as well.

Using The as an Article

In general, it is correct and appropriate to use the in front of a noun of any kind when you want to convey specificity. It’s often assumed that you use the to refer to a specific person, place, or thing that the person you’re speaking to will already be aware of. Oftentimes, this shared awareness of who, what, or where «the» is referring to is created by things already said in the conversation, or by context clues in a given social situation.

Let’s look at an example here:

Say you’re visiting a friend who just had a baby. You’re sitting in the kitchen at your friend’s house while your friend makes coffee. The baby, who has been peacefully dozing in a bassinet in the living room, begins crying. Your friend turns to you and asks, «Can you hold the baby while I finish doing this?»

Now, because of all of the context surrounding the social situation, you know which baby your friend is referring to when they say, the baby. There’s no need for further clarification, because in this case, the gives enough direct and specific meaning to the noun baby for you to know what to do!

In many cases, using the to define a noun requires less or no awareness of an immediate social situation because people have a shared common knowledge of the noun that the is referring to. Here are two examples:

Are you going to watch the eclipse tomorrow?

Did you hear what the President said this morning?

In the first example, the speaker is referring to a natural phenomenon that most people are aware of—eclipses are cool and rare! When there’s going to be an eclipse, everyone knows about it. If you started a conversation with someone by saying, «Are you going to watch the eclipse tomorrow?» it’s pretty likely they’d know which eclipse the is referring to.

In the second example, if an American speaking to another American mentions what the President said, the other American is likely going to assume that the refers to the President of the United States. Conversely, if two Canadians said this to one another, they would likely assume they’re talking about the Canadian prime minister!

So in many situations, using the before a noun gives that noun specific meaning in the context of a particular social situation.

Using The as an Adverb

Now let’s look at an example of how «the» can be used as an adverb. Take a look at this sample sentence:

The tornado warning made it all the more likely that the game would be canceled.

Remember how we explained that the can be combined with adverbs that are making a comparison of levels or amounts of something between two entities? The example above shows how the can be combined with an adverb in such a situation. The is combined with more and likely to form an adverbial phrase.

So how do you figure this out? Well, if the words immediately after the are adverbs, then the is functioning as an adverb, too!

Here’s another example of how the can be used as an adverb:

I had the worst day ever.

In this case, the is being combined with the adverb worst to compare the speaker’s day to the other days. Compared to all the other days ever, this person’s was the worst…period. Some other examples of adverbs that you might see the combined with include all the better, the best, the bigger, the shorter, and all the sooner.

One thing that can help clarify which adverbs the can be combined with is to check out a list of comparative and superlative adverbs and think about which ones the makes sense with!

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3 Articles in the English Language

Now that we’ve answered the question, «What part of speech is the?», you know that the is classified as an article. To help you gain a better understanding of what articles are and how they function in the English language, here’s a handy list of 3 words in the English language that are also categorized as articles.

Article

Type of Article

What It Does

Example Sentence

The

Definite Article

Modifies nouns by giving them a specific meaning

Please fold the laundry.

Do you want to go to the concert?

A

Indefinite Article

Modifies a noun that refers to a general idea; appears before nouns that begin with a consonant.

Do you want to go to a concert?

An

Indefinite Article

Modifies a noun that refers to a general idea; appears before nouns that begin with a vowel.

Do you want to go to an arcade?

Let’s get an iguana.

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What’s Next?

If you’re looking for more grammar resources, be sure to check out our guides on every grammar rule you need to know to ace the SAT (or the ACT)!

Learning more about English grammar can be really helpful when you’re studying a foreign language, too. We highly recommend that you study a foreign language in high school—not only is it great for you, it looks great on college applications, too. If you’re not sure which language to study, check out this helpful article that will make your decision a lot easier.

Speaking of applying for college…one of the most important parts of your application packet is your essay. Check out this expert guide to writing college essays that will help you get into your dream school.

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About the Author

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

The words
of language, depending on various formal and semantic features, are
divided into classes. The traditional grammatical classes of words
are called “parts of speech”, since the word is distinguished not
only by grammatical, but also by semantico-lexemic properties, some
scholars also refer to parts of speech as lexico-grammatical
categories (Смирницкий).

It should
be noted that the term “parts of speech” is purely traditional
and conventional. This name was introduced in the grammatical
teaching of Ancient Greece, where no strict differenciation was drawn
between the word as a vocabulary unit and the word as a functional
element of the sentence.

In modern
linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the
three criteria: “semantic, formal and functional” (Щерба).

The
semantic criterion presupposes (предполагать,
заключать
в
себя)
the generalized meaning, which is characteristic of all the words
constituting (составлять)
a given part of speech. This meaning is understood as the categorical
meaning of the part of speech.

The formal
criterion exposes (выставлять
на
показ)
the specific inflexional and derivational (word-building) features of
part a part of speech.

The
functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the
sentence, typical of a part of speech.

These
three factors of categorical characterization of words are referred
to as ‘meaning’, form and function.

The
three-criteria characterization of parts of speech was developed and
applied to practice in Soviet linguistics. Three names are especially
notable for the elaboration of these criteria: V.V. Vinogradov
in connection with the study of Russian Grammar, A.I. Smirnitskyand
B.A. Ilyish in connection with their study of English Grammar.

Alongside
of the three-criteria principle of dividing the words into
grammatical classes modern linguistics has developed another,
narrower principle based on syntactic featuring of words only.

On
the material of Russian, the principle of syntactic approach to the
classification of word-stock were outlined in the works of A.M.
Peshkovsky. The principles of syntactic classification of English
words were worked out by L. Bloomfield and his followers L. Harris
and especially Ch. Fries.

Here
is how Ch. Fries presents his scheme of English word-classes.

For
his materials he chooses tape-recorded spontaneous conversations
which last 50 hours.

The
three typical sentences are:

Frames:

A.
The concert was good (always).

B.
The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly).

C.
The team went there.

As
a result he divides the words into 4 classes: class I, II, III, IV,
which correspond to the traditional nouns, verbs, adjectives and
adverbs.

Thus,
class I includes all words which can be used in the position of the
words ‘concert’ (frame A), clerk and tax (frame B), team (frame C),
i.e. in the position of subject and object.

Class
II includes the words which have the position of the words ‘was’,
‘remembered’, ‘went’ in the given frames, i.e. in the position of the
predicate or part of the predicate.

Class
III includes the words having the position of ‘good’, and ‘new’, i.e.
in the position of the predicative or attribute.

And
the words of class IV are used in the position of ‘there’ in Frame C,
i.e. of an adverbial modifier.

These
classes are subdivided into subtypes.

Ch.
Fries sticks to the positional approach. Thus such words as man, he,
the others, another belong to class I as they can take the position
before the words of class II, i.e. before the finite verb.

Besides
the 4 classes, Fries finds 15 groups of function words. Following the
positional approach, he includes into one and the same group the
words of quite different types.

Thus,
group A includes all words, which can take the position of the
definite article ‘the’, such as: no, your, their, both, few, much,
John’s, our, four, twenty.

But
Fries admits, that some of these words may take the position of class
I in other sentences.

Thus,
this division is very complicated, one and the same word may be found
in different classes due to its position in the sentence. So Fries’
idea, though interesting, doesn’t reach its aim to create a new
classification of classes of words, but his material gives
interesting data concerning the distribution of words and their
syntactic valency.

Today
many scholars believe that it is difficult to classify English parts
of speech using one criterion.

Some
Soviet linguists class the English parts of speech according to a
number of features.

1.
Lexico-grammatical meaning: (noun — substance, adjective — property,
verb — action, numeral — number, etc).

2.
Lexico — grammatical morphemes: (-er, -ist, -hood — noun; -fy, -ize —
verb; -ful, -less — adjective, etc).

3.
Grammatical categories and paradigms.

4.
Syntactic functions

5.
Combinability (power to combine with other words).

In
accord with the described criteria, words are divided into notional
and functional, which reflects their division in the earlier
grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.

To
the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun,
the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb.

To
the basic functional series of words in English belong the article,
the preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the
interjection.

The
difference between them may be summed up as follows:

1) Notional
parts

of speech express notions and function as sentence parts (subject,
object, attribute, adverbial modifier).

2) Notional
parts

of speech have a naming function and make a sentence by themselves:
Go!

***

1)
Functional
words

(or form-words) cannot be used as parts of the sentence and cannot
make a sentence by themselves.

2)
Functional
words

have no naming function but express relations.

3)
Functional
words

have a negative combinability but a linking or specifying function.
E.g. prepositions and conjunctions are used to connect words, while
particles and articles — to specify them.

Each
part of speech is further subseries in accord with various particular
semantico-functional and formal features of the words.

Thus,
nouns are subdivided into proper and common, animate and unanimate,
countable and uncountable, conctrete and abstract.

E.g.
Mary-girl, man-earth, can-water, stone-honesty.

This
proves that the majority of English parts of speech has a field-like
structure.

The
theory of grammatical fields was worked out by V.G. Admoni on the
material of the German language.

The
essence of this theory is as follows. Every part of speech has words,
which obtain all the features of this part of speech. They are its
nucleus. But there are such words which don’t have all the features
of this part of speech, though they belong to it.

Consequently,
the field includes central and peripheral elements.

Because
of the rigid word-order in the English sentence and scantiness of
inflected forms, English parts of speech have developed a number of
grammatical meanings and an ability to be converted.

E.g.
It’s better to be a has-been than a never-was.

He
grows old. He grows roses.

The
conversation may be written one part of speech.

She
took off her glasses.

Give
me a glass of water.

The
person in the glass was making faces.

Don’t
break the glass when cleaning the window.

They
are called variants of one part of speech. Because of homonymy and
polysemy many notional words may have the same form as functional
words.

E.g.
He grows roses — He grows old.

Professor
Ilyish objects to the division of words into notional and functional
(formal) parts of speech. He says that prepositions and conjunctions
are no less notional than nouns and verbs, as they also express some
relations and connections existing independently.

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