Lesson Plans 6-8 (Week 6-8)

Chapter Three: Word Classes

1. Learning Objectives

Upon completing this chapter, students are 1.1 Identify word classes 1.2 Identify open class and closed class words 1.3 State the use of certain words in sentences 1.4 Use appropriate words in sentences 1.5 Understand the different functions of words 1.6 Identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and function words

expected to be able to:

2. Topics of Content 2.1 What is a word? 2.2 What is word class? 2.3 Criteria for word classes 2.4 Open and closed word classes

3. Teaching and Learning Method 3.1 Lectures 3.2 Brainstorming 3.3 Discussions 3.4 Assignments 3.5 Presentations 3.6 Identification of word classes

4. Teaching Materials

4.1 Main textbook 4.2 Supplementary materials 4.3 Transparencies 4.4 Charts 4.5 Worksheet 4.6 English Dictionaries 4.7 Authentic texts from books, newspapers, etc.

5. Measurement and Evaluation Students will be evaluated on:

5.1 Exercises in the book 5.2 Participation in discussions 5.3 Completion of assignments 5.4 Observation the of a attention and participation of the students in class 5.5 Observation the students interest in group work. 5.6 Observation the students questions and answers on the lectures given in class.

Chapter Three Word Classes

What is word?

At first glance the most basic unit of linguistic

structure appears to be the word. The word, though, is far from the fundamental element of study in linguistics; it is already the result of a complex set of more primitive parts. The study of morphology concerns the construction of words from more basic components corresponding roughly to units of meaning. There are two basic ways that new words are formed, traditionally classified as inflectional forms and derivational forms. Inflectional forms use a root form of

a word and typically add a suffix so that the word appears in the appropriate form for the sentence. Verbs are the best examples of this in English. Each verb has a basic form that then is typically changed depending on the subject and the tense of the sentence. For example, the verb sigh will take suffixes such as -s, -ing, and -ed to create the verb forms sighs, sighing, and sighed, respectively. These new

words

are

all

verbs

and

share

the

same involves

basic the

meaning.

Derivational

morphology

derivation of new words from other forms. The new words may be in completely different categories from their subparts. For example, the noun friend is made more complex derivation would allow you to derive the

into the adjective friendly by adding the suffix - ly. A noun friendliness from the adjective form. There are many interesting issues concerned with how words are by the syntactic structure of the sentence that derived and how the choice of word form is affected constrains it.

What is Word Classes?

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 recognize that brother and drives are different types, we mean that they belong to different word classes. English words can be grouped together into word classes. The word classes are called parts of speech. They are classified into open class and closed class. The open class or major word classes consist of four classes of word: noun, adjective, adverb and verb. The closed classes or minor word classes consist of articles, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries and interjections. We recognize seven Major word classes: Verb Noun Determiner Adjective Adverb Preposition be, drive, grow, sing, think brother, car, David, house, London a, an, my, some, the big, foolish, happy, talented, tidy happily, recently, soon, then, there at, in, of, over, with

Conjunction

and, because, but, if, or

We may find that other grammars recognize 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 difference are treated like this as a should separate not cause word class, confusion. whereas we treat them as a subclass of nouns. A 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 fixed rigidly. 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 categorize them differently. For the rest of the class we explore the idea that the environment of a word can appear in the table.

Table of Word Classes

Word Class Noun The cats. The rabbits collar. Adjective Very warm Hotter Open class Verb More interesting Longest Most boring Jumped Singing I might sleep. Please leave! Adverb Really loud I happily jumped Very happily Closed class Determiner The yellow dog A yellow dog This yellow dog My yellow dog Examples The yellow dog.

Conjunctio n Auxiliary Verb

Dogs or cats Scream and shout I perspire but you sweat He he? He would not jump. I could jump and so could she. might jump, mightnt

Interjection Alas!, Dear me! Numeral two pens, four books

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 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 can 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 "action" words:

Sunday, we can replace the verb cooks with other

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. denoting a The definition of a or noun thing, as is a word wholly person, place,

inadequate, since it excludes abstract nouns such as time, imagination, repetition, wisdom, and chance. excludes a verb like be, as in Similarly, to say that verbs are "action" words

I want to be happy. What "action" does be refers 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: organization, repetition acceptable, credible, action, condition, contemplation, demonstration,

Similarly, many adjectives end in -able or -ible: miserable, suitable, terrible

responsible,

that is, regular changes in their form under certain inflection, usually by adding an -s at the end: car -- cars dinner -- dinners Verbs also take inflections: book -- books

Many words also take what are called Inflection,

conditions. For example, nouns can take a plural

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 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 am cooking dinner today I cooked dinner last Sunday My son cooks dinner every Sunday And we can see that cook is a noun in 2. because it takes the plural -s inflection The cooks are on holiday 2. The cook is on holiday

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: She looks very pale (verb) She's very proud of her looks (noun) He drives a fast car (adjective) Turn on the light (noun) He drives very fast on the motorway (adverb) I'm trying to light the fire (verb)

I usually have a light lunch (adjective) You will see here that each in bold print 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". have discussed here, Of the three criteria for word classes that we the Internet Grammar will

emphasize the second and third - the form of words, and how they are positioned or how they function in sentences.

Open and Closed Word Classes

can be added to the class as the need arises. The 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, web-site, developments URL, in computer email, technology have given rise to many new nouns: Internet, CD-ROM, newsgroup, bitmap, modem, multimedia Some word classes are Open, that is, new words

class of nouns, for instance, is potentially infinite,

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 or never invent new These prepositions, determiners, conjunctions.

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 closedclass items.

1. Open Classes

Open classes (also called content words) contain

most of the words in a language since they are readily open to new words. For example, we can form new nouns or adjectives by adding derivations. The

words in these classes carry the principal meaning of a sentence in which they occur.

1.1 Nouns

Nouns are commonly thought of as "naming"

words, and specifically as the names of "people, places, or things". Nouns such as John, London, and computer certainly fit this description, but the class of nouns is much broader than this. Nouns also denote abstract and intangible evolution, concepts technology, such as birth, happiness, literacy.... Nouns are identified through a series of formal tests. They are also classified by two aspects of form; their inflectional and derivational morpheme. Besides this, we can apply a functional definition of nouns, because other parts of speech also occur in typically nominal functions. For more suitable analyses, we must consider the forms of nouns. management,

imagination, revenge, politics, hope, cookery, sport,

Moreover, and derivation.

most

nouns

are

morphologically

characterized by their ability to take typical inflexion Typical derivations of nouns are: -age anchorage, coverage, postage -ance -ation -dom appearance, clearance, utterance affirmation, information, transformation boredom, freedom, kingdom

-cy democracy, emergency -ee advisee, employee, payee -eer engineer, mountaineer, profiteer -ence difference, existence, priesthood -ess actress, governess, murderess -ette cigarette, usherette, maisonnette -er-or -hood farmer, actor, employer childhood, parenthood, priesthood

-ing working, writing, walking -ism idealism, organism, nationalism -ist royalist, socialist, specialist - ity ability, nationality, responsibility -ment -ness amendment, commandment, shipment goodness, bitterness, happiness

-shipfriendship, relationship, membership -tion education, vocation, fruition Most nouns have distinctive Singular and Plural forms. The plural of a regular noun is formed by adding -s to the singular: Singu Plura lar car dog house l cars dogs hous es

However, there are many irregular nouns which do not form the plural in this way: Singul ar man child sheep Plural men childr en sheep

The distinction between singular and plural is known as Number Contrast.

We can recognize many nouns because they often have the, a, or an in front of them: the car an artist a surprise the egg a review

These words are called determiners, which is the next word class we will look at. Marker to indicate possession: the boy's pen a spider's web John's house Nouns may take an -'s ("apostrophe s") or Genitive

my girlfriend's brother If the noun already has an -s ending to mark the

plural, then the genitive marker appears only as an apostrophe after the plural form: the boys' pens the spiders' webs the Browns' house

The genitive marker should not be confused with the 's form of contracted verbs, as in Wanchai's a good boy (= Wanchai is a good boy). between them: rally car table top cheese grater University entrance examination We will look at these in more detail later, when we discuss noun phrases. Most nouns can take two inflectional suffixes. One to mark number (the plural) and one to mark case (genitive). Nouns often co-occur without a genitive marker

The plural

The plural morpheme {S } can be realized in

1

three ways: /s/ after base ending in voiceless sounds except sibilants, e.g. ants, books, map, roofs, lips, hats, births;

/z/

after base ending in voiced sounds except

sibilants, e.g. cars, birds, days, trees, bars, laws, zoos, boys, beds, pencils; /z/ after bases ending in sibilants, e.g. /s/ /z/ /t/ /d/ above. 1) Change in the base + regular suffix, e.g. // paths /f/ /s/ /v/ /z/ in + + the geese mice men teeth /z/ /z/ base :halves, knives, leaves : houses a suffix feet lice women (= without foot louse woman

horses, nurses, kisses noises, sizes, noses churches, torches, witches pledges, bridges, languages

/z / brushes, dishes, clashes

There are four exceptions to the pluralization rule

/ /

/z/

: baths,

mouths,

2) Change mutation) goose mouse man tooth

3) No change ( = zero plural ), e.g. deer grouse series sheep Swiss species salmon Japanese Chinese Portuguese 4) End in en plural ox oxen child

children

The genitive

The genitive is one of the two cases of the In the singular the genitive morpheme { S } can
2

English noun, the other being the common case. be realized in the following three ways: /s/ after ship wife dentist Sam /z/ sibilants, e.g.: George Georges report bases ending in voiceless sounds except sibilants, e.g.: the ships crew his wifes car the dentists drill Sams motorcycle

after bases ending in voiced sounds except

brother play /z/ George horse village

her brothers book the plays title Georges properties a horses tail the villages population

after bases ending in sibilants, e.g.:

In plural nouns, the genitive morpheme is realized in two ways: /z/ with irregular plurals not ending in men women children // student girl teacher officers mens clothes womens lip childrens books the students union a girls school a teachers club the officers mess The possibilities and the -s. e.g.:

in all other cases, e.g.:

The spelling of genitive suffix in both the singular and plural is either s or

relations between spelling and pronunciation are set in the table. Genitiv e Spellin g s Singul ar Plural s or s Pronunciati Examples on /s/, /z/, /z/ Ships; /z/, // / / /z/ // wifes Sams girls men; women students; girls; 1.1.3. Classes of noun Nouns can be subdivided into: 1. Common nouns: these are further subdivided into count nouns and mass nouns: 2. Proper John Mary nouns: nouns which name specific people or places are known as Proper Nouns.

London France Many names consist of more than one word: John Wesley Queen Mary South Africa Atlantic Ocean Buckingham Palace Proper nouns may also refer to times or to dates in the calendar: January, February, Monday, Tuesday, Christmas, Thanksgiving All other nouns are common nouns. Since proper nouns usually refer to something or someone unique, they do not normally take plurals. However, they may do so, especially when number is being specifically referred to: There are three Davids in my class We met two Christmases ago

For the same reason, names of people and places are not normally preceded by determiners the or a/an, though they can be in certain circumstances: It's nothing like the America I remember My brother is an Einstein at maths As table shows, this classification can be based on a number of syntactic criteria. Plur Nume al ral many, few several Cou Com mon Mas s nt + + + + + Much, Little Def. articl e + + Indef. article

Proper

Proper nouns do not occur in the plural and cannot be preceded by numerals or by quantifiers such as many, few, several, much and little. Nor can they be preceded by the definite and indefinite articles. The subclassification of common nouns into count nouns and mass nouns is based on the fact that count nouns are positive with respect to five of the criteria used, whereas mass nouns are positive with respect to only two criteria: they collocate with the quantifiers much and little as well as with the definite article. Consider: Criteria Plural Examples count mass proper Numerals despairs proper Many/few/several many pens : two Frances : many tables, count count mass : : : : : table - tables - musics - Frances two music France two

two tables, two pens musics,

mass despairs proper Much/little much pen mass despair proper Definite the pen mass despair proper Indefinite article mass proper article

: :

many musics, many many Frances : much music, table, much

count : :

much

much France : the music, table, the

count : : : : the

the France : a table, a pen a music, a despair a France

count

Proper nouns normally have unique reference, that is they refer to one particular person, country, town, etc. This semantic property explains why they occur in the singular only and cannot be preceded by articles, numerals and quantifiers. Occasionally, however, proper nouns lose their unique reference, in

which case they are treated as count nouns, so that they can be pluralized and be preceded by numerals, articles and by quantifiers like, many, few and several:

1.2. Verbs
Verbs have traditionally been defined as "action" words or "doing" words. The verb in the following sentence is rides: Paul rides a bicycle the action of riding a bicycle.

Here, the verb rides certainly denotes an action which Paul performs However, there are many verbs which do not denote an action at all. For example, in Paul seems unhappy, we cannot say that the verb seems denotes an action. We would hardly say that Paul is performing any action when he seems unhappy. So the notion of verbs as "action" words is somewhat limited. We can achieve a more robust definition of verbs by looking first at their formal features.

The Base Form Here are some examples of verbs in sentences: 1. She travels to work by train 2. David sings in the choir 3. We walked five miles to a garage Notice that in 1 and 2, the verbs have an -s 4. I cooked a meal for the family

ending, while in 3 and 4, they have an -ed ending. These endings are known as Inflections, and they are added to the Base Form of the verb. In 1, for travel. verbs: Ending -ate -ify -ise/-ize Base Form concentrate, demonstrate, illustrate clarify, dignify, magnify baptize, conceptualize, instance, the -s inflection is added to the base form Certain endings are characteristic of the base forms of

realize

Past and Present Forms When we refer to a verb in general terms, we usually cite its base form, as in "the verb travel", "the verb sing". We then add inflections to the base form as required. Base Inflecti on to train in the choir five miles to a garage a meal for the whole family -ed inflection work by

Form 1. She travel

+ + + + +

s s ed ed

2. David sing 3. We 4. I walk cook

indicates the Present Tense, and the indicates the Past Tense.

These inflections indicate Tense. The -s inflection

Verb endings also indicate Person. Recall that when we looked at nouns and pronouns, we saw that there are three persons, each with a singular and a plural form. These are shown in the table below. Person Singular 1st Person 2nd person 3rd I you Plural we you

he/she/John/t they/the dogs

Person he dog

In sentence 1, She travels to work by train, we have a third person singular pronoun she, and the with a plural pronoun, then the verb will change: 1. She travels to work by train 2. They travel to work by train The verb travel in 2 is still in the present tense, present tense ending -s. However, if we replace she

but it has changed because the pronoun in front of it has changed. This correspondence between the pronoun (or noun) and the verb is called Agreement or Concord. Agreement applies only to verbs in the

present tense. In the past tense, there is no distinction between verb forms: she travelled/they travelled. There are three derivational suffixes that are -en : -ify : -ize : brighten, darken, lighten purify, clarify, simplify economize, individualize, scandalize

typical of the class of verbs:

Most English verbs can add four inflectional morphemes; namely 1. Third person singular present tense
3

{S

} 2. Past tense 3. Past participle 4. Present participle

{D }
1 2

{D }

{ing}
2

The rules of present tense morpheme {S } in the third person are similar for pluralization of nouns regularly realized in three ways: /s/ after base ending in voiceless sounds except talks, stops, walks sibilant, e.g.:

/z/

after base ending in voiced sounds except learns, snores, destroys, pays, climbs, grows

sibilant, e.g.: /iz/ after base ending in a sibilant: /s/ /z/ /t / /d/ mixes, promises freezes, sizes catches, touches budges, lodges
1

/iz/ fishes, washes

The past tense morpheme {D } and the past participle morpheme {D } of regular verbs are realized
2

in three ways: /t/ after bases ending in voiceless sounds except /t/ /d/ e.g. laughed, kissed, tripped, stopped, walked after bases ending in voiced sounds except /d/ or /t/ e.g. answered, cried, learned, parted, rotted /d/ after bases ending in /t/ or /d/ e.g. listed, ended

The present participle morpheme {ing} is always realized, such as, listening, writing, learning, speaking and playing. English has over 200 irregular verbs, and irregular verbs form its past tense or past participle {D
2

} (or both) in other ways than those described for

regular verbs. There are four possibilities as illustrated in the table below.

Base burst cost cut hit put set begin choose do All three forms drink different go speak swim wear

Base + {D
1

Base burst cost cut hit put set begun chosen done drunk gone spoken swum worn

+{D
2

All three forms identical

burst cost cut hit put set began chose did drank went spoke swam wore

bring find hang keep {D } ={D }

1 2

brought found hung kept led sat taught thought came ran overran

brought found hung kept led sat taught thought come run overrun

lead sit teach think

Bases {D }
2

come run overrun

Class of Verb

Word class of the verb, there are two subclasses

that can be distinguished: auxiliary verbs and lexical verbs. The former makes up a closed class, the later an open class. These a) classes verbs have four major differences do in

between lexicon verbs and auxiliary verbs. Lexical require periphrastic negative sentences with and in negative sentences

with not. Auxiliary can co-occur with not and can have special contracted negative forms. Compare: Sam loves dog. a song. b) Lexical verbs require periphrastic do in yes/no questions, in WH-questions where the WH- item is not the subject and in sentences opening with a negative adverbial. Auxiliaries can come before the subject. - Sam loves not dog. (the
*

statement is ungrammatical) Sam does not love dogs He cannot (cant) sing He can sing a song.

Compare:

Robert plays the violin.

- Plays

Robert the violin? (the statement is ungrammatical) - Does Robert play the violin?

Robert can play the violin. the violin? Sam leaves tomorrow. Sam? (the statement is ungrammatical)

- Can Robert play - When leaves

- When does Sam leave? Sam left yesterday - When left Sam?

(the statement is ungrammatical) - When did Sam is leaving tomorrow. leaving? A dentist seldom visits his patients. a dentist visits his patients. (the statement is ungrammatical) does a dentist visit his patients. Seldom - Seldom Sam leave? - When is Sam

A dentist can seldom can a dentist visit his visits his patients.

Seldom

patients.

c) Lexical verbs cannot be used in code. Compare:

Should I meet a manager? can do it and so can he.

Yes, you

should meet a manager. Yes, you should. You You can do it and he can do it Do your students love linguistics?love linguistics. (the statement is ungrammatical) and so reads Paul. (the statement is ungrammatical) does Paul. John reads and so Yes, they do. John reads John reads and Paul reads.

Yes, they

The first two examples show that, instead, of repeating the auxiliary verb together with the lexical verb (and its complement), it is possible to repeat only the auxiliary verb. The auxiliary in such sentences is said to be used in code. The key to the code is provided by the preceding context. The last two examples do. d) Lexical verbs cannot be used emphatically to express a contrast, on the but other require hand, emphatic can be do. used Auxiliaries, emphatically. Compare: Your son did not see her. - Yes, he saw her. (the ungrammatical) Your son has not seen her. - Yes, he has seen her. - Yes, he did see her. statement is show that lexical verbs (and their complement ,if any) must be replaced by a form of

1)

Lexical Verbs.

Lexical verbs constitute the principal part of the verb phrase. They can be accompanied by auxiliaries, but they can also occur in verb phrases that do not contain any other verbal forms. Compare: may move next week. My aunt may be moving next week. moved last week There are two ways of classifying lexical verbs. The first is base on complementation, the second involves the distinction between one-word and multiword verbs.

2) Complement Verbs and Intransitive Verbs

In the sentence structures, lexical verbs can be classified as those of verbs that do not require a complement (intransitive verbs) and verbs that do (complement verbs). A classification on whether based or not on the complementation depends

lexical verb in a sentence can occur on its own (i.e.

without

complement)

or

obligatorily

followed

by

words that complement its meaning. The following sentences contain intransitive verbs: The dogs bark. The sun is shining. The spy had disappeared.

The class of complement verb consists of two subclasses:

complement verbs. Complement verbs verbs and consist of transitive complement

non-transitive

a. Transitive complement verbs

Some transitive complement verbs require only a direct object (DO). Others are, in addition, followed by another complement, i.e. by an indirect object (IO), a benefactive object (BO), and an objective attribute (OA), or a predicator complement (PC). The four classes of transitive verbs thus distinguished are: 1. Monotrasitive verbs (DO only) The man kicked his football. The farmer kicked the dog.

2. Ditransitive verbs (IO + DO/BO + DO) She gave her toy. He called her a taxi. 3. Complex transitive verbs (DO + OA) They find him a bore. We found his excuse unbelievable. 4. Transitive PC verbs (DO + PC) She reminds me of her mother.

b. Non-transitive complement verbs

Non-transitive complement verbs consist of two sub-classes: copulas (or linking verbs), i.e. verbs that are followed by a subject attribute (SA) and verbs which are followed by a predicator complement without an accompanying direct object: 1. Copulas (SA): Sam is an operator. He looks sad. 2. Non-transitive PC verbs (PC) She remembers her brother. This pen belongs to Steven.

The classification of lexical verbs is shown in the table below.

VERBS

Transitive nt verbs

Monotransitive

verbs

compleme (DO only) Ditransitve verbs (IO + DO/BO + DO) Complex Transitive (DO + PC) Nontransitive nt verbs Copulas (SA) Non-transitive PC verbs PC transitive verbs verbs (DO + OA)

LEXICAL

Comple ment verbs

compleme (PC only)

Intransitive verbs:

no complement

1.3. Adjectives

Adjectives can be identified using a number of

formal criteria. However, we may begin by saying that they typically describe an attribute of a noun:

cold weather large windows violent storms

Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical adjectival endings include: -able/ible -al -ful -ic -ive -less achievable, capable, illegible, remarkable biographical, functional, internal, logical beautiful, careful, grateful, harmful cubic, manic, rustic, terrific attractive, dismissive, inventive, persuasive breathless, careless,

groundless, restless -ous courageous, dangerous, disastrous, fabulous

However, a large number of very common adjectives cannot be identified in this way. They do not have typical adjectival form: bad bright clever cold common complete dark deep difficult distant elementary good great honest hot main morose old quiet real red silent simple strange wicked wide young

As this list shows, adjectives are formally very diverse. However, they have a number of characteristics which we can use to identify them.

Characteristics of Adjectives

Adjectives can take a modifying word, such as very cold weather

very, extremely, or less, before them: extremely large windows less violent storms Here, the modifying word locates the adjective on a scale of comparison, at a position higher or lower than the one indicated by the adjective alone. This characteristic is known as GRADABILITY. Most adjectives are gradable, though if the adjective already denotes the highest position on a scale, then it is non-gradable: my main reason for coming The principal role in the play my very main reason for coming the very principal role in the play

As well as taking modifying words like very and extremely, adjectives also take comparison: big -- > bigger -- > biggest The lowest point on the scale is known as the Absolute form, the middle point is known as the Comparative form, and the highest point is known as the Superlative form. Here are some more examples: Absol Comparati ute ve dark new old young darker newer older younger Superlative darkest newest oldest youngest different forms to indicate their position on a scale of

In most cases, the comparative is formed by adding -er , and the superlative is formed by adding -est, to the absolute form. However, a number of very common adjectives are irregular in this respect: Absolute Comparative Superlative

good bad far Some adjectives

better worse farther form the

best worst farthest comparative and

superlative using more and most respectively: Absolute Comparative Superlative most important most miserable most recent

important more important miserable recent more miserable more recent

Many members of the class of adjectives are identifiable on the basis of typical derivation suffixes. The comparative and the superlative inflections characterize many adjectives. Some common derivational suffixes for adjectives -able, -ible visible, comprehensible -al, -ial -ful normal, racial, editorial beautiful, careful, cheerful, useful communicable, reasonable,

-ic -ical -ish -less -like -y

atomic, historic, allergic economical, historical, political childish, foolish, tallish attractive, abortive, massive, endless, harmless, speechless ladylike, manlike, warlike famous, dangerous, spacious cloudy, really, windy

-ive, -ative

-ous, -ious

From a syntactic point of view we can distinguish the attributive and the predicative use of an adjective. Most adjectives can be used attributively as well as productively. Attribute adjectives are constituents of the noun phrase and precede the noun head. Predicative adjectives function in the structure of the sentence as either subject attribute or object attribute. Examples: Attributive A nice car That foolish idea a green door many witty remarks

Attributive adjectives normally precede the noun phrase head, but in some cases they follow the noun head: somebody important responsible something interesting Predicative subject attributive attributive The window is white. window white Her plan seem excellent. plan excellent. My coffee is hot. hot. Most adjectives can be attributively as well as predicatively, such as brave, calm, clever, hungry, and noisy. This is a comfortable chair. (attributive) This chair is comfortable. (predicative) I prefer my coffee We consider her We painted the object the tickets available the person

I made the chair comfortable.

(predicative)

Some adjectives can be used both attributively and predicatively, though there are adjectives that can only be used in one of these ways. Some adjectives are attributive only, such as chief, indoor, inner, latter, main, nonsense, outdoor, outer. Attributive only Examples: suburbs the inner court sheer nonsense the main cause the an utter fool the upper story outer

Predicative only Most adjectives beginning with a- are predicatively only. Examples: asleep alive awake afraid used

alone

aware

Some adjectives can be both attributely and predicatively in one meaning, but are restricted to the attributive function in another meaning: Attributive and an old book real gold a true story Attributive only: a true hero a real hero the right woman a perfect idiot a perfect room predicative - that book is old. - that gold is real. - that room is perfect. - that story is true -that hero is true. -that idiot is perfect. -that hero is real -that woman is right

1.4. Adverbs
Adverbs are used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb: 1. Mary sings beautifully 2. David is extremely clever 3. This car goes incredibly fast

In 1, the adverb beautifully tells us how Mary sings. In 2, extremely tells us the degree to which us how fast the car goes. Before discussing the meaning of adverbs, however, we will identify some of their formal characteristics. Many adverbs are identified on the basis of derivational suffixes. Typical derivational suffixes are: -ly -wise lengthwise On the other hand, not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. For instance, words like beastly, friendly, lively, lovely and lonely belong to the class of adjectives. Only a small number of adverbs are characterized by the comparative and superlative inflection. The majority of these are identical in form with adjectives, as seen in the following. Examples: : heavily, fully, wisely afterward, homeward, upwards : clockwise, edgewise, -ward(s) : David is clever. Finally, in 3, the adverb incredibly tells

early fast hard quick well badly

earlier faster harder quicker better worse

earliest fastest hardest quickest best worst

Syntactically speaking we can distinguish two major functions of adverbs. Firstly, they function as adverbial or they modify the head in adjective and adverb phrases. Secondly, they modify the head in adjective and adverb phrases. When and degree. functioning as sentence constituents adverbs express such meaning as time, place, manner Examples: The bus arrived yesterday. They are leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. He absolutely refused to travel. A student has been studying attentively. The prisoners were punished cruelly.

They can also express the attitude of the speaker towards what he is saying, as follows: Unfortunately, they seem to be mistake. Honestly, they tried to call her. Adverbs can also be constituents of phrases, where adverbs modify the head of an adjective or adverb phrase. Modifier phrase head adjective phrase very interesting very useful really good truly astonishing exceptionally brave adverb phrase hardly ever rather quickly most obviously fairly well almost always of adjective phrase head or adverb

Formal Characteristics of Adverbs From our examples above, you can see that many adverbs end in -ly. More precisely, they are formed by adding -ly to an adjective: Adjective slow quick soft sudden gradual

Adverb

slowly quickly of their

softly

suddenly

graduall y these

Because

distinctive

endings,

adverbs are known as ly Adverbs. However, not all adverbs end in -ly. Note that some adjectives also end in -ly, including costly, deadly, friendly, kindly, likely, lively, manly, and timely. Like adjectives, many adverbs are Gradable, that softly suddenly slowly very softly very suddenly extremely slowly

is, we can modify them using very or extremely:

The modifying words very and extremely are themselves adverbs. They are called Degree Adverbs because they specify the degree to which an adjective or another adverb applies. Degree adverbs include almost, barely, entirely, highly, quite, slightly, totally, and (extremely, very). utterly. Degree adverbs are not gradable

Comparative and Superlative forms, with -er and -est: I work hardest

Like adjectives, too, some adverbs can take

Somyos works hard -- Somchai works harder --

However, the majority of adverbs do not take these endings. Instead, they form the comparative using more and the superlative using most: Adverb recently effectively frequently Comparative more recently more effectively more frequently Superlative most recently most effectively most frequently

In the formation of comparatives and superlatives, some adverbs are irregular: Adver Comparativ Superlat b e ive well badly better worse best worst

little much

less more

least most

Adverbs and Adjectives Adverbs and adjectives have important characteristics in common -- in particular their gradability, and the fact that they have comparative and superlative forms. However, an important distinguishing feature is that adverbs do not modify nouns, either attributively or predicatively: Adjective Somsak is a happy child Somsak is happy The comparative following and Adverb Somsak is a happily child Somsak is happily

words,

together forms,

with be

their both

superlative

can

adverbs and adjectives: early, far, fast, hard, late

The following sentences illustrate the two uses of early: Adjective I'll catch the early train Adverb I awoke early this morning

as well as some words denoting time intervals ( daily, weekly, monthly), can also be adverbs or adjectives, depending on how they are used. We have incorporated some of these words into the following exercise. See if you can distinguish between the adverbs and the adjectives.

The comparative better and the superlative best,

2. Closed Classes
Closed classes (also called function words) contain relatively few words since they do not allow the creation of new word. That is, it is not easy to form new articles or pronouns. Closed class words tend to occur at or towards the beginning of the larger units of which they are part; in this respect they are markers of the units they introduce. The membership is unrestricted since they do not allow the creation of new members.

2.2 Determiners

Nouns are often preceded by the words the, a,

or an. These words are called determiners. They

indicate the kind of reference which the noun has. is used before both singular and plural nouns: Singular Plural the taxi the taxis

The determiner the is known as the definite article. It

the paper the apple

the papers the apples

The determiner a (or an, usually when the following noun begins with a vowel) is the indefinite article. It is used when the noun is singular: a taxi a paper The articles the and a/an are the most common determiners, but there are many others: any taxi that question those apples this paper some apple an apple

whatever taxi Many determiners express quantity: all examples both parents whichever taxi

many people each person every night several computers few excuses no escape enough water Perhaps the most common way to express quantity is to use a numeral. We look at numerals as determiners in the next section. Numerals and Determiners Numerals are determiners when they appear before a noun. In this position, cardinal numerals express quantity: one book two books In the same position, ordinal numerals express sequence: twenty books

first impression second chance third prize The subclass of ordinals includes a set of words which are not directly related to numbers (as first is are called general ordinals, and they include last, also function as determiners: next week last orders previous engagement subsequent developments When they do not come before a noun, as we've already seen, numerals are a subclass of nouns. And like nouns, they can take determiners: the two of us the first of many They can even have numerals as determiners before them: five twos are ten related to one, second is related to two, etc). These latter, next, previous, and subsequent. These words

In this example, twos is a plural noun and it has the determiner five before it. Determiner and Pronoun

There is considerable overlap between the

determiner class and the subclass of pronouns. Many words can be both: Pronoun This is a boring book film Determiner very This book is very boring film is excellent

That's an excellent That

As this table shows, determiners always come before a noun, but pronouns are more independent than this. They function in much the same way as nouns, and they can be replaced by nouns in the sentences above: This is a very Ivanhoe is a very boring book boring book

That's excellent film On the other

an Witness

is

an

excellent film hand, when these words are

determiners, they cannot be replaced by nouns: This book film is Ivanhoe is Witness excellent book film is is

very boring That excellent

very boring

determiners. This is also true of possessive pronouns

Personal pronouns (I, you, he, etc) cannot be

(mine, yours, his/hers, ours, and theirs). However, these pronouns do have corresponding forms which are determiners: Possessive Pronoun The white car is mine Yours is the blue coat his/hers Determiner My car is white Your coat is blue garage

The car in the garage is His/her car is in the

Sombat's house is big, Our house is bigger but ours is bigger the left than Sombat's left Theirs is the house on Their house is on the

Definite

and

indefinite

articles

can

never

be

pronouns. They are always determiners. The Order of Determiners Determiners occur

before

nouns,

and

they

indicate the kind of reference which the nouns have. Depending on their relative position before a noun, we distinguish three classes of determiners. Predetermine r I met A Central PostNoun friend s unusual,

Determiner my

determiner many

all

sentence

like

this

is

somewhat

because it is rare for all three determiner slots to be

filled in the same sentence. Generally, only one or two slots are filled. Pre-determiners Pre-determiners specify quantity in the noun which follows them, and they are of three major types: 1. "Multiplying" expressions, including expressions ending in times: twice my salary double my salary 2. Fractions half my salary one-third my salary 3. The words all and both: all my salary both my salaries ten times my salary

Pre-determiners do not normally co-occur: all half my salary Pre-determiners co-occur with determiners, normally preceding them: all the boys

both these umbrellas half Rattas time If we say all boys the position is occupied by the Zero Article. Many of the determiners and predeterminers function like pronouns.

NP Pre Det both NP Det N these umbrellas determiner these which in turn determines umbrellas. Central Determiners The definite article the and the indefinite article a/an are the most common central determiners: In the above example, both predetermines the

all the book As many of our previous examples show, the word my can also occupy the central determiner slot. This is equally true of the other possessives: all your money all our money all his/her money all their money The demonstratives, too, are central determiners: all these problems twice that size four times this amount Post-determiners Cardinal and ordinal numerals occupy the postdeterminer slot: the two children his fourth birthday This applies also to general ordinals: half a chapter

my next project our last meeting your previous remark Other her subsequent letter quantifying expressions are also post-

determiners: my many friends our several achievements the few friends that I have Unlike pre-determiners, post-determiners can co-occur: my next two projects several other people Post-determiners follow the determiners and

precede the adjectives. While adjectives can occur in any order, post-determiners have fixed positions. The following three classes of post-determiners can be recognized. Ordinals first second third Superlative/Comparative one two three Cardinals more most fewer

next last final Conjunctions

many few several less

fewest least

Conjunctions are used to express a connection between words. The most familiar conjunctions are and, but, and or: Paul and David cold and wet tired but happy slowly but surely tea or coffee hot or cold

They can also connect longer units: Paul plays football and David plays chess. I play tennis but I don't play well. We can eat now or we can wait till later. There are two types of conjunctions. Coordinating Conjunction (or simply coordinators) connect elements of `equal' syntactic status:

Paul and David I play tennis but I don't play well meat or fish Items which are connected by a coordinator are known as Conjoins. So in I play tennis but I don't play well, the conjoins are I play tennis and I don't play well. On the other hand, subordinating conjunctions (or

subordinators) connect elements of `unequal' syntactic status: I left early because I had an interview the next day We visited Madame Tussaud's while we were in London I'll be home at nine if I can get a taxi because, before, since, till, unless, whereas, whether concepts in grammar. Notice, for example, Other subordinating conjunctions include although, Coordination and subordination are quite distinct that coordinators must appear between the conjoins: (Somjit plays football) and (Sommai plays chess) And (Sommai plays chess) (Somjit plays football)

However, them:

we

can

reverse

the

order

of

the

conjoins, provided we keep the coordinator between Sommai plays chess and Somjit plays football In contrast with this, subordinators do not have to occur between the items they connect: I left early because I had an interview the next day Because I had an interview the next day, I left early But if we reverse the order of the items, we either change the meaning completely: I left early because I had an interview the next day I had an interview the next day because I left early or we produce a very dubious sentence: I'll be home at nine if I can get a taxi I can get a taxi if I'll be home at nine This shows that items linked by a subordinator have a very specific relationship to each other -- it is a relationship of syntactic dependency. There is no

syntactic

dependency

in

the

relationship

between

conjoins. We will explore this topic further when we look at the grammar of clauses. Auxiliary Verbs

In the examples of -ing and -ed forms which we

looked at earlier, you may have noticed that in each case two verbs appeared: 1. The old lady is writing a play 2. The film was produced in Hollywood before it. These other verbs (is and was) are known as Auxiliary Verbs, while writing and produced are verbs we have looked at on the previous pages have been main verbs. Verbs. This is because they may be said to "help" the main verb which comes after them. For example, in The old lady is writing a play, the auxiliary is helps the main verb writing by specifying that the action it Auxiliary verbs are sometimes called Helping known as Main Verbs or Lexical Verbs. In fact, all the Writing and produced each has another verb

denotes is still in progress. Auxiliary Verb Types In this section we will give a brief account of each type of auxiliary verb in English. There are five types in total:

Passive be

This is used to form passive constructions, eg. The film was produced in Hollywood The film is produced in Hollywood We will return to passives later, when we look at voice. It has a corresponding present form:

Progressi As the name suggests, the progressive ve be expresses action in progress: It also has a past form: The old lady was writing a play Perfectiv The perfective auxiliary expresses an The old lady is writing a play

e have

action accomplished in the past but retaining current relevance: She has broken her leg (Compare: She broke her leg) Together with the progressive auxiliary, the perfective auxiliary encodes aspect, which we will look at later.

Modal

Modals express permission, ability, You can have a sweet if you like Paul will be a footballer some day

can/could obligation, or prediction: may/migh He may arrive early t

shall/sho I really should leave now uld will/would must Dummy Do

This subclass contains only the verb do. It is used to form questions: Do you like cheese? I do not like cheese to form negative statements:

and in giving orders: Do not eat the cheese emphasis: Finally, dummy do can be used for I do like cheese An important difference between auxiliary verbs and main verbs is that auxiliaries never occur alone in a sentence. For instance, we cannot remove the main verb from a sentence, leaving only the auxiliary: I would like a new job You new car should buy I would a new job

a You should a new car She must crazy

She must be crazy

Auxiliaries always occur with a main verb. On the other hand, main verbs can occur without an auxiliary. I like my new job I bought a new car She sings like a bird

In

some

sentences,

it

may

appear

that

an

auxiliary does occur alone. This is especially true in responses to questions:

Q. Can you swim? A. Yes, I can

without a main verb, since the main verb -- swim -- is in the question. The response is understood to mean: Yes, I can swim been ellipted from the response. Auxiliaries often appear This is known as ellipsis -- the main verb has in a shortened or

Here the auxiliary can does not really occur

contracted form, especially in informal contexts. For instance, the auxiliary have is often shortened to 've: I have won the lottery - -> I've won the lottery

Sometimes different auxiliaries have the same enclitic them:

These shortened forms are called enclitic forms.

forms, so you should distinguish carefully between

I'd like a new job ( = modal auxiliary would) We'd already spent the money by then ( = perfective auxiliary had) auxiliary has) is) He's been in there for ages ( = perfective She's eating her lunch ( = progressive auxiliary The Nice Properties of Auxiliaries The so-called Nice properties of auxiliaries serve to distinguish them from main verbs. Nice is an acronym for:

Negati Auxiliaries take not or n't to form the on on Code negative, eg. cannot, don't, wouldn't when we form questions: I will see you soon - - >Will I see you soon? Auxiliaries may occur "stranded" where a main verb has been omitted: John never sings, but Mary does Empha Auxiliaries can be used for emphasis: sis I do like cheese Inversi Auxiliaries invert with what precedes them

Main verbs do not exhibit these properties. For instance, when we form a question using a main verb, we cannot invert: Damrong sings in the choir Damrong in the choir? Instead, we have to use the auxiliary verb do: Damrong sings in the choir - - > Damrong sing in the choir? Does - - > Sings

Semi-auxiliaries Among the auxiliary verbs, we distinguish a large number of multi-word verbs, which are called SemiAuxiliaries. These are two-or three-word combinations, and they include the following: get to happen to have to mean to seem to tend to turn out to used to be about to be going to be likely to be

supposed to Like other auxiliaries, the semi-auxiliaries occur before main verbs: The film is about to start I'm going to interview the Prime Minister I have to leave early today You are supposed to sign both forms I used to live in that house Some of these combinations may, of course, occur in other contexts in which they are not semiauxiliaries. For example: I'm going to London Here, the combination is not a semi-auxiliary, since it does not occur with a main verb. In this sentence, going is a main verb. Notice that it could be replaced by another main verb such as travel (I'm travelling to Lomsak). The word 'm is the contracted see later, is a preposition.

form of am, the progressive auxiliary, and to, as we'll

Interjection An Interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion. It is not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence. We usually mark. follow an interjection are are with an in exclamation Interjections interjections uncommon just

formal academic prose, except in direct quotations. Sometimes regular words. These are some common Interjections: Aha All right Gee Whiz Gosh Hey Indeed Nuts Oops Phew Ugh Whoopee Wow Ahem Gadzooks Good Yippee Hooray My Goodness Oh No Ouch Right on Dear me sounds, exclamations, gasps, or shouts, more like noises than

Yikes Yuck

Yoo-hoo

Summary
Linguists divide words into two classes: 1. Open Class 2. Closed Class Words that belong to generally classified as nouns (e.g. pen, book, boy, open class are those

brandy), verbs (e.g. see, become, appear), adjectives (e.g. good, painful, charming, tall) or adverbs (e.g. here, now, yesterday, calmly, soundly). These words are said to belong to the open class because more and more words continue to be added to this class. One can always coin new words to add to the existing stock of words in this group. Thus, the membership of this group is open ended. English vocabulary is continually being extended by new words belonging to this group. Open Class Words 1. Nouns

Examples of nouns are girl, table, fire, thing, idea. It is often said that nouns are naming words, used as the name of a person, animal, place and thing. Proper nouns name particular places or persons (e.g. Samran, Somsak, Bangkok, Phetchabun). Other nouns (like girl, thing) are called common nouns. 2. Verbs often said that verbs are doing words, words that mean actions performed by someone of something. 3. Adjectives Examples of adjectives are good, bad, lovely, friendly. It is often said that adjectives are words which describe or tell you something about the noun. 4. Adverbs actually, today. It is often said that adverbs are words which tell you something about a verb, adjective or indeed other adverbs. In the following examples, the words in bold type are adverbs: The little boy ran quickly in the room. The woman was very beautiful. Examples of adverbs are now, then, often, calmly, Examples of verbs are sing, drive, go, love. It is

Tai Orathai sang very well. number of words in it. No new words are added to it. Determiners (e.g. a, an, the, some, any, The close class, on the other hand, has a fixed

The closed class includes word generally classified as this), Pronouns (e.g. I, me, you, we) Prepositions (e.g. in, at, on, upon, near, far), Conjunctions (e.g. and, or, but, when, because), Modals or Auxiliary (e.g. will, shall, can) numeral (e.g. one, first) and Interjection (e.g. Ugh!, Alas!). Closed Class Words 1. Determiners some, any, Examples of determiners are the, a, an, this, that, all. Determiners include those words known as article:

the is called the definite article, because you are a, an is called indefinite article, because you do Determiners also include demonstratives, e.g. this,

talking about a definite, particular example of a thing. not mean any definite, particular example. these, etc.

Determiners function as specifying modifiers of nouns. For example, in the phrases: the mango this boy some oranges these pens the determiners the, this, some, and these specify the particular referred to. 2. Pronouns Examples of pronouns are I, me, you, it, they, etc. It is often said that pronouns replace nouns; for instance, in the sentence. The good boy ate the mango. We can use the pronouns he and it to replace The good boy and the mango: He ate it. 3. Prepositions to, for, etc. Prepositions are words placed in front of a Examples of prepositions are in, by, with, from, mango, boy, oranges, pens being

noun or pronoun to show the relationship of that noun of pronoun to other words in the sentence. In the

following examples, the words in bold types are prepositions: in the house by the brook on the table with the girl to her by him

through it. 4. Conjunctions when, because, etc. Conjunctions are words which link other elements together. In the following examples, the words in bold type are conjunctions: Tosapol was a short man but Somyos was tall. Veerawan vegetables. 5. Modals or Auxiliary Verbs Examples of auxiliary verbs are can, may, will, have, be, etc. Auxiliary (or helping) verbs are those common words which modify the lexical verb within ate her food because she liked Examples of conjunctions are and, but, that, if,

the verb phrase. They are the short verbs that help to form different tenses, telling you when something happened, and also help to form questions. In the following examples, the words in bold type are auxiliary verbs: The woman was frying eggs. Veerawan should eat her food. Will you drink your coffee? The dog has chewed the paper.

6. Numerals Examples of numerals are one, two, first, second etc, and they are fairly easy to recognize. There are two kinds of numerals: cardinal and ordinal. Cardinal numbers are one, two, three etc.; ordinal numbers are first, second, etc. 7. Interjections Examples of interjections are oh!, ah!, etc. It can be said that interjections are exclamations expressing emotion. The following is an illustration of classes of word.

Word Class Open Classes - Nouns (boy, hotel, day) (he, she, it, we, they) - Verbs (run, drink, play) (a, an, the, this, that, these) - Adjectives (good, low, high) (in, on, at, under) - Adverbs (quickly, completely) (and, but, because etc.) Auxiliaries (will, must, Numerals (one, four, Interjection ( Heaven!, can, may etc.) first, forth etc.) Alas!) Conjunctions Prepositions Determiners Closed Classes Pronouns