nha2 - form classes

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PART 1: ENGLISH SYNTAX

CHAPTER 1: WORD CLASSES

I> DEFINITIONII> CLASSIFICATIONII.1> FORM CLASSES

II.2> POSITIONAL CLASSES

II.3> STRUCTURE CLASSESIII> EXERCISES



SYNTAX

• “A linguistic description, and consequently alanguage, is often regarded as beingcomposed of three parts:

phonetics/phonology, grammar andsemantics. And there is a sense in whichgrammar links phonology and semantics:phonemes combine into words (phonology),words combine into sentences (grammar),and sentences refer to events, actions andstates in the world (semantics)” (Jackson

1982:55).



• Syntax is “the study of how words

combine to form sentences and the

rules which govern the formation ofsentences” (Richards et al 1999:370).



I> DEFINITIONAccording to Howard Jackson,

• The major classes of lexical morphemes,which are the basis of words, are traditionallyknown as the parts of speech.

• The notion of “parts of speech” is still auseful one, though the term of word class isusually preferred these days.

• The definition of the word classes lookedmore to the internal structure of language,rather than to the relation between language

and the external world.



• Words classes are groups of words whichfunction similarly. In other words, “words

are grouped into classes according to howthey combine with other words and howthey change their forms” (Richard et al.,

1993: 407) to create well-formed structures.E.g.: the words boy, toy, and song are alldefined as nouns because they can inflect

for plural number (boy → boys, toy → toys,

song → songs), function as head of a nounphrase (e.g. a very naughty boy, a safe toy,an everlasting song),



or typically function as subject or

object of a clause or sentence (e.g.

The boy threw his toy at thewindow where the boy and his toy

function as subject and objectrespectively).



A necessary distinction is often madebetween lexical words and grammarwords. This distinction also appearssometimes as content words vs.function words, or full words vs.empty words. The distinction is auseful one in that it enables us toseparate the words which belong tomajor class from those that belong tothe minor one.



• Major class contains lexical wordsthat have a meaning outside the

context in which they are used.• Major classes are receptive to new

members also called open classes (Jackson:1980,7)

• Minor classes are not receptive to

new members; they are closed.



II> CLASSIFICATIONII.1>Form classes

• Membership in the class is

determined by the form of a word .

• These classes are large and open classes, admitting new members .

• English four form classes arenouns, verbs, adjectives, and

adverbs .



NOUNS

• Morphologically, or in terms of form, an

English noun can be realized by word final

noun-forming bound bases (e.g. onym,

scope, and sphere in syn onym, tele scope,

and bio sphere), inflectional suffixes

including plural suffix and possessive suffix

(e.g. flower s , spring’s

flower s), and noun- forming derivational suffixes added to

verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, & bound

forms



such as – age, -ad, -ade, -ance, -ancy,-ant, -ar,-ce, -cian, -dom, -ee, -ence, -ency, -er, -esis,-ess, -ion, -ism, -ist, -ity, -ment, -ness, -

ology, -or , -osis, -sia, -sion, -sis, -sy, -tian, -tion, -tude, -ty, -ure, and – y

E.g.: block age , mon ad , block ade , assist ance ,

hesit ancy , attend ant , begg ar , musi cian , free dom , employee , differen ce , fluency ,writ er , thesis , steward ess , predict ion ,realism , dent ist , establish ment , careful ness ,

the ology , doct or , tubercul osis amne sia ,suspen sion , ecdy sis , fanta sy , dieti tian ,communica tion , soli tude , liber ty , struct ure ,

honest y.



PROPER NOUNS AND COMMONNOUNS

• Proper nouns – which are names of particular persons, places and things – usually can not be used with

a determiner, however, they canassume the functions which aretypical of nouns. E.g.: Paris is always in my heart, next stop we’ll visit Paris .

• Common nouns are not names ofparticular persons, places and things,& do not refer to unique things .



Count Nouns & Noncount (Mass) Nouns

Common nouns can be further divided into

count nouns and noncount (mass)nouns.

• Count nouns must occur with a determinerin their singular form, but noncount nouns are not required to.

• Count nouns have plural form.• Non-count nouns do not have plural form

and usually cannot be used with anindefinite article.• Some nouns can be both countable and

uncountable, depending on how we use

them.



E.g.: in a supermarket we buymilk , not a milk , because milk

is a non-count noun, but in arestaurant we can order two

milks because here it is acount noun.



•Count and non-count

nouns can be furtherdivided into concrete

and abstract,collective and general.



Concrete & Abstract Nouns

• Concrete is descriptive of nouns

which refer to physical entities, or

perceivable objects, e.g.: table,chair, mother, father .

• Abstract applies to nouns lacking

physical reference, e.g.: thought,idea, uncertainty, morality .



Collective and General Nouns

• A collective noun denotes a group ofentities, e.g. committee, family, staff, jury

• It has a distinctive three-way pattern ofnumber contrast:

-can be used as a singular noun with a

singular verb (e.g. My family has five persons ) and a plural verb (e.g. My family have five persons )

-as a plural noun with a plural verb (e.g. The families in my neighborhood get along with one another .



VERBS

• Verbs generally refer to actions,events and processes, & have amaximum of five inflectional forms.

E.g.: (to) walk-infinitive, walks-3rd person singular present tense,

walked-past tense, walking-presentparticiple, walked-past participle.



An English verb can be identifiedvia its form:

• word final verb-forming bound

base (e.g. cede, ceed, cept, cess,

cise, fect, ject, and tain inpre cede , pro ceed , ac cept ,pro cess , circum cise , af fect ,in ject , and ob tain respectively)



• inflectional suffixes consistingof third-person singular present-tense, past tense and past

participle suffixes (e.g. drive s ,

cook ed , walk ing ),• verb-forming derivational

affixes (e.g.-e, -en, -ize, -fy, en-,ive added to nouns & adjectives in

bathe, ripen, solemnize, satis fy ,

en large , strive)



Lexical (Main) Verbs & AuxiliaryVerbs

• Auxiliary verbs, having amainly grammatical function,

consist of two subclasses:primary auxiliary verbs (be,have, do) and modal auxiliary

verbs (can, could, may,might,..).



• Lexical verbs can be furtherdivided into 3 subgroups:

intensive (copula/linking) verbs ,intransitive verbs that do not takean object, and transitive verbs that require an object and includemonotransitive verbs,

ditransitive verbs, complextransitive verbs & prepositionaltransitive verbs.



• She seems tired . (intens)• The child slept well last night .

(intrans)• I like fish . (monotrans)• My mother makes me a new

dress . (ditrans.)• We call him Mr. Late .(complex)•

She looks at the newspaper .

(prepV)



Dynamic Verbs & Stative Verbs

Lexical verbs can be grouped intodynamic verbs and stative verbs.

• A dynamic verb typically occurs in

the progressive form and in theimperative, and expresses meaningssuch as activity, process, bodilysensation, transitional event, andmomentary action, e.g.: work, grow,ache, die, hit.



• a stative verb usually neitheroccurs in the progressive nor inthe imperative, and expresses

a state of affair rather than an

action, including verbs ofemotion, knowledge, & belief(love, hate, know, believe ), & of

relationships (belong to, equal,own, matter )



• Note:

-Some Eng. Verbs such as have & think , can

be used statively, describing a state, ordynamically, describing an action or activity.E.g.:

Statively: I have a really bad headache (state)Dynamically: We are having a party tonight

(activity)

Statively: I think it’s going to rain (opinion,mental state)

Dynamically: I’m thinking hard about how to

solve this problem (mental activity)



ADJECTIVES• can be recognized by two aspects of form:

inflectional suffixes made up of adjectivecomparative suffix –er and adjectivesuperlative suffix –est , and adjective-forming derivational suffixes added tonouns, verbs, adjectives & bound forms ( –able, -al, -ible, -ful, -ic, -ish, -ive, -less, -like, - ly, -ous , and –some)

E.g.: lazier, tallest ; do able , nation al ,respons ible , care ful , dramat ic , child ish ,act ive , care less , child like , friend ly , cauti ous , trouble some , dead ly , & loc al.



Dynamic & Stative Adjectives

• dynamic adjectives, e.g.

careless, cautious, fast

• stative adjectives, e.g. angry,lazy, tired, tall .



Attributive & Predicative Adjectives

• An attributive adjective characteristically occurs within a nounphrase,& pre-modifies a head noun,e.g. an interesting play, a beautiful girl

• A predicative adjective occurs “in apost verbal”, i.e. after a „copula‟ verbsuch as be, seem, sound, feel, & may

contain a complement (post-modification), e.g. Students are confused about his explaining.

pred.adj. complement



• The adjectives which canoccur in both of these

positions are referred to ascentral, e.g. A beautiful girl,

she’s beautiful.



Gradable & Non-gradable Adjectives

• Gradable adjectives can be pre-modified by adverbs, particularlyadverbs of degree or intensifyingadverbs (e.g. surprisingly intelligent ,

extremely difficult , too busy )• can be used in comparative and

superlative sense (e.g. less interesting , more confusing , the least informative , the prettiest ).

• can also be used in questions with how to ask about degrees (e.g. How long

does the test takes ?).



• non-gradable adjectives are not

characterized by these features.

E.g.: dead is non-gradable. It willbe semantically odd to say very dead, more dead or how dead .



Inherent & Non-inherent Adjectives

• Inherent adjectives are the ones that“characterize the referent of the noundirectly” , e.g. a woolen scarf , an old

coffee grinder.• Non-inherent adjectives “do not exhibita direct characterization of the noun”

(Jackson, 1999: 9), e.g. a new staff member . In this example, new is a non-inherent adjective, the staff member isnot invented or produced.



ADVERBS

• Adverbs can be identified byinflectional suffixes : adverbcomparative -er and adverb superlative -

est , and adverb-forming derivational suffixes : -ly, -wise, -wards, -s, & the free form like

• E.g.: earli er , earli est ; casual ly , like wise ,for wards , day s & night s , student like



English adverbs are of two kinds:

• adverbs of degree or intensifyingadverbs which modify an adjective oranother adverb (e.g. very as in very

fast, extremely as in extremely fascinating )

• circumstantial adverbs whichprovide circumstantial informationsuch as time, place and manner (e.g.

now, here, cleverly ).



SUMMARY OF FORMCLASSES

nha2 - form classes

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