THE PARTS OF SPEECH PROBLEM.

WORD CLASSES1. Definition2. Principles of Classification

a) Classical (logical-inflectional)b) Functional –Formalc) Distributionald) Complex

3. Notional word-classes vs. functional word-classes

The parts of speech are

classes of words, all the members of these classes

having certain characteristics in common

which distinguish them from the members of other classes.

L.M.Volkova

The parts of speech are Are lexico-grammatical classes of words

possessing A certain common (abstract, categorical)

meaning The system of grammatical categories typical

of this class Peculiarities of syntactic function Special types of word-form derivation

Olga Sergeyevna Akhmanova

Word Class

refers to a group of words which have similar functions.

Word classes are divided into open classes and closed classes.

Cambridge Grammar of English 2007

Open classes

include lexical words such as nouns (dinner, place, Francis), verbs (meet, drive, go, pick), adjectives (old, angry, helpful), adverbs (quickly, carefully, fast).

Open classes admit new words.

Closed classeshave limited membership. They include

function words such as pronouns (it, he, who, anybody, one), determiners (a, the, that, some, each,

several), modal verbs (may, could, must), auxiliary verbs (be, have, do), conjunctions (and, but, if, unless), prepositions (in, at, of, by, with).

They do not admit new words.

The problem of word classification into parts of speech

still remains one of the most controversial problems in modern linguistics.

There are four approaches to the problem: Classical (logical-inflectional) Functional-formal Distributional Complex

The Classical (logical-inflectional)Principles of Classification (Prescriptive Grammarians)

Prescriptive grammarians, who treated Latin as an ideal language, described English in terms of Latin forms and Latin grammatical constraints.

e.g. the Latin noun paradigm for nouns in English Nominative: the house Genitive: of the house Dative: to the house Accusative: the house Ablative: in, at, by, or from the house Vocative: O house

The Classical (logical-inflectional) Classification

Words were divided dichotomically

declinable and indeclinable

parts of speech.

nouns, pronouns, adverbs, prepositions

verbs, participles, conjunctions, interjections,

adjectives articles

The Classical (logical-inflectional) Classification

The underlying principle of classification was form, which, as can be seen from their treatment of the English noun, was not only morphologic but also syntactic.

The logical-inflectional classification is quite successful for Latin but it cannot be applied to the English language because the principle of declinability/indeclinability is not relevant for analytical languages.

Functional –Formal Principles of Classification (Non-Structural Descriptive Grammarians )

Henry Sweet (1892), a prescriptivist divided words into

Declinables (nominative ):

noun-words (noun, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral, infinitive, gerund),

adjective-words (adjective, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral, participle),

verb (finite verb),

verbals (infinitive, gerund, participle)

Indeclinables (particles):

adverb,

preposition,

conjunction,

interjection.

Functional –Formal Principles of Classification (Non-Structural Descriptive Grammarians )

Henry Sweet speaks of three principles of classification: form, meaning, and function.

However, the results of his classification of parts of speech into nominative and particles is a division based on form.

Only within the class we can see the operation of the principle of function.

Functional-Formal Principles of Classification (Non-Structural Descriptive Grammarians )

Otto Jespersen, a descriptivist, (1935) “In my opinion everything should be kept in view,

form, function and meaning...” He distinguishes: substantives, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, particles (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions,

interjections).

Functional-Formal Principles of Classification (Non-Structural Descriptive Grammarians ) Otto Jespersen separates nouns (which he calls substantives)

from noun-words, a class of words distinguished on the basis of function – a noun word is a word that can function as a noun;

distinguishes pronouns as a separate part of speech, thus isolating them from Henry Sweet’s noun-words and adjective-words.

Although the scholar speaks of form, function and meaning, in practice he gives preference to form.

Distributional Principles of Classification (Structural Descriptive Grammarians )

Charles Fries (1956) rejected the traditional principle of classification of

words into parts of speech replaced it with the methods of distributional

analysis and substitution. The distribution of a word is the position of a word in

the sentence (the ability of words to combine with other words of different types). At the same time, the lexical meaning of words was not taken into account.

Charles Fries’s substitution frames

Frame A 1 2 3 4

The concert was good (always).

Frame B 1 2 1 4

The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly).

Frame C 1 2 4

The team went there.

Charles Fries’s classification

4 major classes of words

They contain 67% of total instances of the vocabulary

15 form-classes These function words

(numbering 154 in all) make up a third of the recorded material.

4 major classes of words

Class 1 words are words that can substitute for concert (e.g. food, coffee, taste, etc.) and words that can substitute for clerk, tax and team.

Class 2 words are words that can substitute for was, remembered and went;

Class 3 words are words that can substitute for good.

Class 4 words are words that can fill the position of there.

15 form-classes Group A words

(determiners); Group B (modal verbs); Group C (the negative

particle “not”); Group D (adverbs of

degree); Group E (coordinating

conjunctions); Group F (prepositions); Group G (the auxiliary verb

“to”) Group H (the introductory

“there”);

Group I (interrogative pronouns and adverbs);

Group J (subordinating conjunctions);

Group K (interjections); Group L (the words “yes”

and “no”); Group M (the so-called

attention-giving signals: look, say, listen);

Group N (the word “please”);

Group O (the forms “let us”, “lets” in request sentences).

pro et contra

Charles Fries was the first linguist to pay attention to some of function words (form-classes) peculiarities.

He used the principle of function, or combinability (the position of a word in the sentence is the syntactic function of word).

Not all relevant positions were tested. His functional classes are very much broken into

small groups. Being deprived of meaning, his word-classes are

“faceless”, i.e. they have no character.

Complex Principles of Classification (Post-Structural Traditional Grammar)

Parts of speech are discriminated according to three criteria: semantic, formal and functional.

The semantic criterion presupposes the grammatical meaning of the whole class of words (general grammatical meaning).

The formal criterion reveals paradigmatic properties: relevant grammatical categories, the form of the words, their specific inflectional and derivational features.

The functional criterion concerns the syntactic function of words in the sentence and their combinability in the phrase.

When characterizing any part of speech we are to describe: a) its semantics; b) its

morphological features; c) its syntactic peculiarities. The lexemes of a part of speech are united by their

grammatical meaning. This meaning is a category forming one. Therefore,

it is referred to as categorical meaning. As categorical meaning is derived from lexemes, it

is often called lexico-grammatical meaning and finds outward expression in morphological forms. These outward features are a formal criterion of classification.

The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of a word in the sentence and combinability in the phrase.

All the words of the language are divided into:

notional words

are those denoting things, objects, notions, qualities, etc. – words with the corresponding references in the objective reality –

function words, or grammatical words

are those having no references of their own in the objective reality; most of them are used only as grammatical means to form up and frame utterances

Notional words nouns, pronouns, numerals, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.

The notional parts of speech present open classes: the number of items constituting the notional word-classes is not limited

Function words articles, particles, prepositions, conjunctions, modal words, the interjection.

The functional parts of speech present closed classes: the number of items constituting the functional word-classes is limited and can be given by the list.

The contrast Notional word-classes vs. Functional word-classes

does not suggest that functional word-classes are devoid of content.

As suggested by B.Khaimovich and B.Rogovskaya (1967), function words can be called semi-notional. This distinction is to some extent reflected in the phenomenon of substitution: notional words usually have substitutes:

I saw a cat in the street. It was shivering with cold.

He gave me an interesting book. vs. He gave me this book.

John has ten friends. vs. John has many friends.

He speaks English better than you do. She lay down. Her eyes closed. It was thus

(i.e. in this manner) that Robert saw her.

Function words are to ‘service’ the notional words by restricting the reference of a notional word (the

article), by substituting for them (the pronoun), by expressing a relation between notional words or

predications (the preposition and the conjunction), by intensifying the meaning of a notional word (the

particle). As for the modal words and interjections, they

function as restrictors of predications: modal words help to remove the directness of a statement or express the presence or absence of an obligation

interjections serve to colour our statement emotionally.

A The dog is man’s best friend (the dog refers to the

whole class). I need a dog (a dog refers to an unspecified

member of the class). I saw a dog running across the street (a dog refers

to a specific, i.e. concrete member of the class). The dog came to our house again (the dog refers to

a particular member of the class: you know what dog I’m talking about).

B He was a member of a famous golf club. I came here in 1972 and I have lived here ever

since.

C Even Anthony enjoyed it. The video is to be used for teaching purposes only.

D There are perhaps fifty women here. If nothing is done, there will certainly be an

economic crisis.

E “He refused to marry her the next day!” “Oh!” said

Scarlett, her hopes dashed (M. Mitchell). Oh dear, I’m late.

The most important of all the parts of speech

the noun and the verb they form the nucleus of the sentence, i.e. a

subject-predicate structure. However, of the two parts of speech, the

central role in the sentence is played by the verb: it is ‘responsible’ for both its meaning and structure.

e.g. Peter broke the window

The verb does not only shape the semantic and syntactic structures but also expresses grammatical information, without which the sentence would only have a propositional structure.

Cf. Peter broke the window (sentence) - Peter + break + the window (proposition).

The role of the noun in the semantic (propositional) structure the

noun performs the role of a participant; in the syntactic structure the noun is a

constituent. in both types of structure the noun serves as

a building-block. Although it is the verb that is responsible for

the form of the sentence, the noun determines the person and the number of the verb:

The student is in the lecture-room vs. The students are in the lecture room.

The grammatical information which turns a proposition into a sentence is: person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood, order.

The remaining notional parts of speech

are satellites of the noun (adjective, numeral) the verb (adverb)

they serve as their restrictors, or concretizers.

The functional parts of speech

some serve as satellites of the noun (article, pronoun, preposition),

others serve as satellites of the verb (modal words, interjections).

Some functional parts of speech – the conjunction, the particle – serve two masters – the noun and the verb.

Task for Tutorial 5 Parts of Speech, their classification. Different approaches to classifying words into parts of

speech. The definition of parts of speech. Different points of view on the problem. The theories of Parts of Speech. The Classical (logical-inflectional) Principles of Words Classification (Prescriptive

Grammarians). The main reasons of impossibility to apply those principles to the English language

H. Sweet’s classification of words into parts of speech. Three criteria of the classification. O. Jesperson’s classification.

Distributional Principles of Classification. Ch. Fries’s frames. Complex Principles of Classification (Post-Structural Traditional Grammar), criteria in

describing parts of speech. The contrast Notional word-classes vs. Functional word-classes Recommended Literature. Blokh M.Y. Chapter 3-4, p. 27-48. Ilyish B.A. p. 27-35. Irtenyeva N.F. et alia, p. 41-46, 53-58. Иванова И.П. et alia стр. 11-20. Readings. p. 41-57. Practical Assignment: Write out from the dictionary of Linguistics definitions of the following terms: part of

speech, form, function, declinable, particle, . Make a gist of different approaches to the problem of parts of speech (Readings): their

specification of each theory, strong and weak sides of their appliance to the English language.