ЛЕКЦІЯ № 4

GRAMMATICAL CLASSES OF WORDS

Questions to be discussed:

1. The three criteria of parts of speech discriminating.

2. Notional and functional parts of speech.

3. The synactico-distributional classification of words.

4. Traditional parts of speech division of words.

5. The notion of “lexical paradigm of nomination”.

The words of language, depending on various formal and semantic features, are divided into grammatically relevant sets of classes. The traditional grammatical classes of words are called “parts of speech”. The term “parts of speech” is traditional and conventional. This name was introduced in the grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece. In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the tree criteria: semantic, formal and conventional.

The semantic criterion presupposes the evaluation of the generalized meaning, which is characteristic of all the subsets constituting a given part of speech. This meaning is understood as the “categorical meaning of the part of speech”.

The formal criterion provides for the expression of the specific inflexional and derivational (word-building) features of all the lexemic subsets of a part of speech.

The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence typical of a part of speech.

The said three factors of categorical characterization of words are conventionally referred to as, respectively, “meaning”, “form”, “function”.

According to the described criteria, words on the upper level of classification are divided into notional and functional.

To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong:

- the noun, - the pronoun,

- the adjective, - the verb,

- the numeral, - the adverb.

The features of the noun within the identified triad “meaning – form - function” are the following:

1. The categorical meaning of substance (thingness).

2. The changeable forms of number and case; the specific suffixal forms of derivation (prefixes in English do not discriminate parts of speech as such).

3. The substantive functions in the sentence (subject, object, substantival predicate); prepositional connections; modification by an adjective.

The features of the adjective:

1. The categorical meaning of property (qualitative and relative).

2. The forms of the degrees of comparison (for qualitative adjectives); the specific suffixal forms of derivation.

3. Adjectival functions in the sentence (attribute to a noun, adjectival predicate).

The features of the numeral:

1. The categorical meaning of number (cardinal and ordinal).

2. The narrow set of simple numerals; the specific forms of composition for compound numerals; the specific suffixal forms of derivation for ordinal numerals.

3. The functions of numerical attribute and numerical substantive.

The features of the pronoun:

1. The categorical meaning of indication (deixis).

2. The narrow sets of various status with the corresponding formal properties of categorical changeability and word-building.

3. The substantival and adjectival functions for different sets.

The features of the verb:

1. The categorical meaning of process.

2. The forms of the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood; the opposition of the finite and non-finite forms.

3. The function of the finite predicate for the finite verb; the mixed verbal – other than verbal functions for the non-finite verb.

The features of the adverb:

1. The categorical meaning of the second property, i.e. the property of process or another property.

2. The forms of the degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs; the specific suffixal forms of derivation.

3. The functions of various adverbial modifiers.

The identifying properties of the notional parts of speech unite the words of complete nominative meaning characterized by self-dependent functions in the sentence.

Contrasted against the notional parts of speech are words of incomplete nominative meaning and non-self-dependent, mediatory functions in the sentence. These are functional parts of speech. Traditionally only unchangeable words are treated as functional parts of speech. To the basic functional series of words in English belong:

- the article, - the particle,

- the preposition, - the modal word,

- the conjunction, - the interjection.

The article expresses the specific limitation of the substantive functions.

The preposition expresses the dependencies and interdependencies of substantive referents.

The conjunction expresses connections of phenomena.

The particle unites the functional words of specifying and limiting meaning.

The modal word expresses the attitude of the speaker to the reflected situation and its parts. Here belong the functional words of probability (probably, perhaps), of qualitative evaluation (fortunately, unfortunately, luckily) and also of affirmation and negation.

The interjection is a signal of emotions.

Each part of speech is subdivided into subseries according to various particular semantico-functional and formal features of the constituent words. Sometimes the subdivision is called “subcategorization” of parts of speech.

Nouns are subcategorized into:

• proper and common: Mary, London, the Mississippi; boy, city, river

• animate and inanimate: man, butterfly; field, machine

• countable and uncountable: coin-coins, floor-floors; news, water, furniture

• concrete and abstract: stone, leaf; honesty, love, darkness.