Grammatical classes of words

1. Principles of grammatical classification of words. The traditional classi­fication of words.

2. The syntactico-distributional classification of words.

3. The theory of three ranks (O. Jespersen).

4. The notion of lexical paradigm of nomination.

5. Functional words and their properties in the light of

- the traditional classification,

- the syntactico-distributional classification,

- the mixed approach.

6. Pronouns and their properties in the light of

- the traditional classification,

- the syntactico-distributional classification,

- the mixed approach.

1. Principles of Grammatical Classification of Words

In modern linguistic descriptions different types of word classes are distinguished: grammatical, etymological, semantic, stylistic, etc., one can presume, though, that no classification can be adequate to its aim if it ignores the grammatical principles. It is not accidental that the theoretical study of language in the history of science began with the attempts to identify and describe grammatical classes of words called "parts of speech".

In Modern Linguistics parts of speech are differentiated either by a number of criteria, or by a single criterion.

The polydifferential ("traditional") classification of words is based on the three criteria: semantic, formal, and functional. The semantic criterion presupposes the evaluation of the generalized (categorial) meaning of the words of the given part of speech. The formal criteri­on provides for the exposition of all formal features (specific inflec­tional and derivational) of all the lexemic subsets of a particular part of speech. The functional criterion concerns the typical syntactic func­tions of a part of speech. Contractedly the set of these criteria is re­ferred to as "meaning, form, function".

2. Traditional Classification of Words

In accord with the traditional criteria of meaning, form, and func­tion, words on the upper level of classification are divided into no­tional and functional.

In English to the notional parts of speech are usually referred the noun, the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb.

On the lines of the traditional classification the adverb, e.g., is described in the following way: the adverb has the categorial mean­ing of the secondary property (i.e. the property of process or another property); the forms of the degrees of comparison for qualitative ad­verbs, the specific derivative suffixes; the syntactic functions of vari­ous adverbial modifiers.

The notional parts of speech are the words of complete nomina­tive value; in the utterance they fulfil self-dependent functions of nam­ing and denoting things, phenomena, their substantial properties. Opposed to the notional parts of speech are the functional words which are words of incomplete nominative value, but of absolutely essential relational (grammatical) value. In the utterance they serve as all sorts of mediators.

To the basic functional parts of speech in English are usually re­ferred the article, the preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the interjection. As has been stated elsewhere, function­al words are limited in number. On the lines of the traditional classi­fication they are presented by the list, each of them requiring its own, individual description.