Parts of Speech -- English 306A

PARTS OF SPEECH

I.Content Word. Large classes of lexical words distinguished by the following criteria. in a fixed sequence and applied in this order:: 1) Inflectibility.; 2) Affixation. or bound markers.; 3) Determination. or free markers.; 4) Distribution or word order.; 5) Prosody.

A. Noun (N):: 1) Inflected like man, man's. men, men's. distinguishing between singular and plural number (-Zplur), common and genitive case {-Zgen).; 2) Derivational suffixes added to V {-age, -ance, -er, -ee, -ment); A {-ce, -cy, -ity, -ness, -ster); N { -cy, -er, -isml-ist, -ship, N-ster); bound stem ( er , -isml-ist, -ity).; 3) Marked by noun determiners: the, a/an, some, this/these, that/those, my, our, etc.; 4) Occurring in certain patterns before and after V: The _____ seemed good. _______ seemed good. The ______ considered the ______. The _____gave the ______ a_____ .; 5) Distinguished by certain superfixes of stress from V: /14/ - - /41/ conflict-conflict A + N /12/- -/21/ criminal lawyer-criminal lawyer.

B. Personal Pronoun (Pron): (c!osed class):: 1) Inflected like I, me, my, mine. distinguishing gender, case. person, and number. Case = subject, object (-M), genitive₁ (-Zgen₁), genitive₂ (-Zgen₂.; 2) Occurring in Nominal positions: _____seemed good. John saw_____ .; 3) Usually occuring under tertiary or weakest stress.

C. Verb (V):: 1) Inflected like sing, sings. sang, sung, singing, distinguishing between present and past tense {-Zpres) and {-Dpret), past participle (-Dpart), present part. (-ing).; 2) Derivational suffixes added to bound stem, N, A (-ize. -fy); bound stem, N (-ate); A {-en); bound stem {-ish); and prefixes {be-, en-).; 3) Marked by auxiliaries (be, have) and modals (can/could, may/might, will/would, shall/should).; 4) Occurring in initial position in ______N. Let's _________(it), and in certain patterns after nouns: N____ N, N_____ A, N______ Av.; 5) Distinguished by certain superfixes of stress from N (see above) and A: /143/- -/144/ separate-separate.

D. Adjective (A):: 1) Inflected like fine, finer, finest, distinguishing between positive, comparative (.er), superlative (.est).; 2) Derivational suffixes added to bound stems, N (-y, -al); (-ar, -ary, -ic, -ish, -ous); V and bound stem (-able, -end, -ive); N (-ful, -less, -en); V, N, bound stem (-ed); V (-ing); N, bound stem (-ly).; 3) Marked by intensifiers or qualifiers: very, quite, somewhat, more, most, etc.; 4) Identified by Test Frame: The_____ thing seems very_____.; 5) Usually appear under secondary stress before a N.

E. Adverb (Av):: 1) A few inflected for comparative and superlative degrees: well, better, best; slow, slower, slowest; 2) Distinguished by derivational suffix (-ly) added to A; other formal markers are suffixes added to N (-wise, -ward[s]); prefixes added to N, V (a-): some, any, every + N, function words; Av identical with prep. (in, on, out, up, down, etc.); no markers (now, then, here, there, often, seldom, thus).; 3) Marked by qualifiers: very, quite, more, most, etc.; 4) Identified by Test Frame: The man told (us) his story______ .; 5) Usually under strongest stress after a Nominal.

II. Function Words. Closed classes of grammatical words, severely limited in number and relatively stable in membership:

Relatives: who, whom, whose;

Interrogatives: who, whom, whose, what, which;

Intensives-reflexive: himself, themselves, etc.;

Reciprocal: each other, one another;

Demonstrative: this/these, thatlthose;

Indefinite: few, many, all, and plenty;

Quantifiers: few, many, little, much, plenty, and numerals;

Universals: each, all, and every;

Partitive: 'of measure' (foot, acre, pint): piece, bit, item.

B. Noun determners (d): Articles: the, a/an;: Possessives: my, your, her, their, our, its;; Demonstrative: this/these, that/those;; Quantifiers: one, two. . . ninety-nine, many;; Indefinites: few, many, all, plenty