Words are fundamental units in every sentence,
so we will begin by looking at these. Consider the words in the following
sentence:
my brother drives a big car
We can tell almost instinctively
that brother and car are the same type of word, and also that
brother and drives are different types of words. By this we
mean that brother and car belong to the same word class. Similarly,
when we recognise that brother and drives are different types,
we mean that they belong to different word classes. We recognise seven MAJOR
word classes:
Verb |
be, drive, grow,
sing, think |
Noun |
brother, car, David,
house, London |
Determiner |
a, an, my, some,
the |
Adjective |
big, foolish, happy,
talented, tidy |
Adverb |
happily, recently,
soon, then, there |
Preposition |
at, in, of, over,
with |
Conjunction |
and, because, but,
if, or |
You may find that
other grammars recognise different word classes from the ones listed here.
They may also define the boundaries between the classes in different ways.
In some grammars, for instance, pronouns are treated as a separate word
class, whereas we treat them as a subclass of nouns. A difference like
this should not cause confusion. Instead, it highlights an important principle
in grammar, known as GRADIENCE. This refers to the fact that the boundaries
between the word classes are not absolutely fixed. Many word classes share
characteristics with others, and there is considerable overlap between
some of the classes. In other words, the boundaries are "fuzzy", so different
grammars draw them in different places.
We will discuss each of the major word classes
in turn. Then we will look briefly at some MINOR word classes. But first,
let us consider how we distinguish between word classes in general.
Criteria for Word Classes
We began by grouping words more or less on
the basis of our instincts about English. We somehow "feel" that brother
and car belong to the same class, and that brother and
drives belong to different classes. However, in order to conduct
an informed study of grammar, we need a much more reliable and more systematic
method than this for distinguishing between word classes.
We use a combination of three criteria for
determining the word class of a word:
1. The meaning of the word
2. The form or `shape' of the
word
3. The position or `environment'
of the word in a sentence
1. Meaning
Using this criterion, we generalize about the
kind of meanings that words convey. For example, we could group together
the words brother and car, as well as David, house,
and London, on the basis that they all refer to people, places, or
things. In fact, this has traditionally been a popular approach to determining
members of the class of nouns. It has also been applied to verbs, by saying
that they denote some kind of "action", like cook, drive,
eat, run, shout, walk.
This approach has certain merits, since
it allows us to determine word classes by replacing words in a sentence
with words of "similar" meaning. For instance, in the sentence My son
cooks dinner every Sunday, we can replace the verb cooks with
other "action" words:
My son cooks dinner
every Sunday
My son prepares dinner
every Sunday
My son eats dinner
every Sunday
My son misses dinner
every Sunday
On the basis of this replacement test, we can
conclude that all of these words belong to the same class, that of "action"
words, or verbs.
However, this approach also has some serious
limitations. The definition of a noun as a word denoting a person, place,
or thing, is wholly inadequate, since it excludes abstract nouns such
as time, imagination, repetition, wisdom,
and chance. Similarly, to say that verbs are "action" words excludes
a verb like be, as in I want to be happy. What "action"
does be refer to here? So although this criterion has a certain
validity when applied to some words, we need other, more stringent criteria
as well.
2. The form or `shape' of a word
Some words can be assigned to a word class
on the basis of their form or `shape'. For example, many nouns have a characteristic
-tion ending:
action, condition,
contemplation, demonstration, organization, repetition
Similarly, many adjectives end in -able
or -ible:
acceptable,
credible, miserable, responsible, suitable,
terrible
Many words also take what are called INFLECTIONS,
that is, regular changes in their form under certain conditions. For example,
nouns can take a plural inflection, usually by adding an -s at the
end:
car -- cars
dinner -- dinners
book -- books
Verbs also take inflections:
walk -- walks -- walked
-- walking
3. The position or `environment' of a
word in a sentence
This criterion refers to where words typically
occur in a sentence, and the kinds of words which typically occur near to
them. We can illustrate the use of this criterion using a simple example.
Compare the following:
[1] I cook dinner
every Sunday
[2] The cook is on
holiday
In [1], cook is a verb, but in [2],
it is a noun. We can see that it is a verb in [1] because it takes the
inflections which are typical of verbs:
I cook dinner every
Sunday
I cooked dinner last
Sunday
I am cooking dinner
today
My son cooks dinner
every Sunday
And we can see that cook is a noun in
[2] because it takes the plural -s inflection
If we really need to, we can also apply a replacement
test, based on our first criterion, replacing cook in each sentence
with "similar" words:
Notice that we can replace verbs with verbs,
and nouns with nouns, but we cannot replace verbs with nouns or nouns
with verbs:
*I chef dinner every
Sunday
*The eat is on holiday
It should be clear from this discussion that
there is no one-to-one relation between words and their classes. Cook
can be a verb or a noun -- it all depends on how the word is used. In
fact, many words can belong to more than one word class. Here are some more
examples:
You will see here that each italicised word
can belong to more than one word class. However, they only belong to one
word class at a time, depending on how they are used. So it is quite wrong
to say, for example, "cook is a verb". Instead, we have to say something
like "cook is a verb in the sentence I cook dinner every Sunday,
but it is a noun in The cook is on holiday".
Of the three criteria for word classes that
we have discussed here, the Internet Grammar will emphasise the second
and third - the form of words, and how they are positioned or how they
function in sentences.
Open and Closed Word
Classes
Some word classes are OPEN, that is, new
words can be added to the class as the need arises. The class of nouns,
for instance, is potentially infinite, since it is continually being expanded
as new scientific discoveries are made, new products are developed, and
new ideas are explored. In the late twentieth century, for example, developments
in computer technology have given rise to many new nouns:
Internet,
website, URL, CD-ROM, email, newsgroup,
bitmap, modem, multimedia
New verbs have also been introduced:
download,
upload, reboot, right-click, double-click
The adjective and adverb classes can also
be expanded by the addition of new words, though less prolifically.
On the other hand, we never invent new prepositions,
determiners, or conjunctions. These classes include words like of,
the, and but. They are called CLOSED word classes because
they are made up of finite sets of words which are never expanded (though
their members may change their spelling, for example, over long periods
of time). The subclass of pronouns, within the open noun class, is also
closed.
Words in an open class are known as open-class
items. Words in a closed class are known as closed-class items.
In the pages which follow, we will look
in detail at each of the seven major word classes.
Nouns...
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