TES 25 Word classes Grammarians classify words. That's what they are for.

And whilst they may do a bit more than this, classification is an essential part of the job. o! may wonder why. Why does anybody classify anythin"# Why do biolo"ists classify cells or species# Why do ordinary h!mans classify e$erythin" in their en$ironment# %lassification prod!ces information in a $ery efficient way. As soon as we &now that somethin" is a bird we learn a $ast amo!nt abo!t it' that it has win"s, two le"s, a bea& and feathers, that it can fly, that it lays e""s, that it b!ilds a nest, and so on. Bird is the name of a class which brin"s to"ether all these lo"ically separate characteristics, so if we &now that somethin" has some of the characteristics we can "!ess that it is probably a bird and has all of them. The same is tr!e of words. S!ppose yo! meet a new word, crink. o! cons!lt yo!r dictionary, which tells yo! that it's a co!ntable common no!n. (!st thin& of all the information that flows from this simple classification' )t has a pl!ral' crinks. o! can !se a s!ffi* s!ch as ify or ise to t!rn it into a $erb' to crinkify. o! can !se $ario!s s!ffi*es to t!rn it into an adjecti$e' crink-like, crinkish, crinkfree. o! can !se it !nchan"ed as a $erb meanin" 'add+remo$e crink'' to crink the garden. o! can freely modify it with any determiner ,e*cept those that are reser$ed for mass no!ns-' a crink, this crink, my crink, every crink and so on. o! can modify it with any adjecti$e that has a s!itable meanin"' big crink, nice crink, inscrutable crink. o! can !se other no!ns to modify it, and $ice $ersa' stone crink, crink house. o! can modify it with a relati$e cla!se or prepositional phrase' crink that doesn't work, crink with pink spots. o! can !se it as the s!bject of a $erb' the crink is mine. o! can !se it as the object of a $erb or a preposition' Wash your crink! Don't sit on the crink. o! can !se it as the possessor before apostrophe.s' your crink's nappy needs changing. )ts meanin" is some &ind of indi$id!al person or object so yo! can co!nt it' ive crinks, please. And all that came from j!st one word class. )t's not only "rammarians who thin& word classes are important. /ormal people do too. Toddlers, for instance, are constantly in$esti"atin" lan"!a"e and wor&in" o!t r!les and patterns thro!"h relentless 0!estionin" and e*perimentation. o!n" children ha$e more in common with "rammarians than we mi"ht ha$e tho!"ht.