4 WORD CLASSES

Lilis Handayani Mayau

183200001
What Is Word Classes ?
Word Classes is words that exist in a language and divided into Classes Such as
Noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition.

• Noun ( sally, Cat, London)

• Adjective ( small, slow, big)
• Verb ( jump, work, fly)
• Adverb ( quickly, slowly, very)
• Preposition ( between, on, in, at)
CRITERIA FOR WORD CLASSES
MORPHOLOGICAL CRITERION
The singular form Criterion is used in the heading
because what is at stake is simply whether a given word
allow grammatical suffixes or not.
EXAMPLE
a. Sobaka lajala
Dog barked “the dog barked”
The suffix –a signals the animal doing the barking
b. Koshka tsarapala sobaku
Cat scratched Dog “the cat scratched the dog”
it as direct object suffix –u which marks the animal being
scratched
c. Petr dal sobake Kost’
peter gave dog bone “ Peter gave the dog a bone”
It has its oblique object suffix –e which here marks the reciepent
of the bone
There are few nouns in Russian take no suffixes
Example : Kakadu (cockatoo), taksi (taxi), kofe (coffe)

These nouns which do not vary their shape are called as invariable
words.
english doesn’t have the grammatical suffixes as Russian, but english
nouns typically take a plural ending –fish – fishes, cat-cats and dog-dogs.
Some nouns in english do not take a plural suffix for example sheep, deer-
and are said to be invariable.
 MORPHO- SYNTACTIC- CRITERIA
The suffixes Give information about person, number, and case
Example :
a. Sobaki lajut
dogs bark “the dogs are barking”
Sobaki is the subject but also plural and it has a different suffix, -i
b. Petr dal kost’ sobakam
peter gave bone to dogs “peter gave a bone to the dogs”
sobakam refers to the recipient and its plural and has a different
suffix –am
So the suffixes signal information about case and about number
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
Signalling information about time and person
a. Govorit o Moskve
speaks about Moscow ‘He/she speaking about Moscow’
b. Govorjat o Moskve
speak about Moscow ‘They are speaking about moscow’
c. Govorili o Moskve
spoke about Moscow ‘they were speaking about moscow’
Abc is refer event that talking about moscow
A and B place that event in present time
C place that event in past time
 SYNTACTIC CRITERION
• The syntactic criteria for word classes are based on what words a given
word occurs with and the types of phrase in which a given word occurs.
Example :
a. The dog stole the turkey
b. The children chased the dog
c. The cook saved no scraps for the dog
Dog occurs to the left of stole in (a), to the right of chased in (b), and to the
right of saved in (c) but separated from it by the intervening word for. Dog
also occurs in a noun phrase and can be modified by a word such as the –
the dog stole the turkey- or by an adjective –Hungry dogs stole the turkey-
or by the and an adjective together –the hungry dogs stole the turkey-

Based on the example above, the given word in noun phrase can be occur
anywhere by adding the article (for some noun) or change the article with
adjective (hungry dogs).
SEMANTIC CRITERION
• What words mean
It deals with meaning (dictionary and speaker’s meaning)
Example :
Nouns as words denoting people, place or things
Verbs as words denoting an action
 WHAT SPEAKERS DO WITH WORDS
• It refers to the principle that when speakers perform speech acts, they
also perform actions
Speakers and writers pick what are called
Verb when predicating
Adjectives when adding to the information carried by a noun (that is when
they perform the speech act of modifying) and
Adverbs when they add to the information carried by a verb or an adjective

*speech acts is any word or string of words that express meaning.

Speakers use speech acts : to assert, to refer to entities, to predicate (
is expressed in the formula of “someone saying something about a person or
thing”) and to issue a command.