A survey of word classes in

English
6. Conjunctions
1. Introduction

7. Prepositions

2. Nouns

8. Articles

3. Adjectives

9. Numerals

4. Adverbs

10. Pronouns

5. Verbs

11. Quantifiers
12. Interjections

Introduction

definition
A word class defines a group of words that share a
number (at least two) of properties.

Introduction
Criteria
The properties members of one group are supposed to
share usually are morphological and syntactical
characteristics.
Morphological features usually are derivational or
inflexional affixes.
Syntactic poperties of a word class are reflected by the
typical ways in which their members function in
sentences and phrases.

Introduction

Attempts to define word classes on the basis of

semantics have been dismissed.
Can you imagine why?

Introduction

Reasons: conversion, multiple membership

Example:
handshake (describes action ergo verb?)
roundness ( describes quality ergo adjective?
fly, lack, tear (multiple membership)

Nouns
Derivational suffixes
-age, -ance, -ation, -dom, -ee, -eer, -ess, -ette,
-hood, -ism, -ist, -ment, -ness, -ship
tolerance, childhood
Inflexional suffixes
number (plural) -s cats,
case (genitive) -'s / s' a girl's book,
Dickens' books / Dickens's books

Nouns
Classes of nouns
plural

numerals

many, few,
several

much, little

def. article

indef.
article

count
(common
nouns)

mass
(common
nouns)

proper

Please decide which class the following nouns

belong to: Mary, hope, table, night, Ireland, honey.

Nouns
Mary proper noun
hope mass noun
table count noun
night count noun
Ireland proper noun
honey mass noun

Adjectives
derivational suffixes: -able, -ful, -ic, -ish, -ive, -less,
-like
comparative ending: -er superlative ending: -est
attributive adjectives the green door
predicative adjectives the door is green

Adverbs
Typical adverb suffixes are: -ly(!), -ward(s), -wise.
Morphplogical features:Only a small number of
adverbs inflect for comparison, the forms are generally
the same as the adjective forms (early, earlier,
earliest).

Adverbs
Syntactic features: One can distinguish between two
main syntactical function of the adverb which are
a) adverbial, expressing meanings such as time, place,
manner and degree
eg: The plane arrived yesterday./ Peter quickly agreed
to come.
and b) constituent of a phrase, modifying adjective or
adverb phrase head: eg. really good, linguistically
correct (adjective phrase) / hardly ever, almost never
(adverb phrase).

Adverbs

Please give two example phrases- one using the adverb

perfectly in adverbial function and one with
perfectly as a phrase constituent.

Verbs
Morphological features: Typical derivational verb suffixes are:
-en, -ify, -ise/-ize eg strengthen, simplify, customize.The most
distinguished quality of the verb however is the ability to express
the different tenses via inflexion. Eg: she walks (3rd person sgl,
present), she (has)walked (past simple, participle), she is
walking(gerund, progressive form). Apart from those regular forms,
English has over 200 irregular verbs.
Syntactical features: The verb ususually functions as the predicator
of a sentence.
Can you name an exception?

Verbs

Can you name an exception?

(gerund. Example: Leaving NY is never easy.)

Verbs
The class of verbs can be divided into two subclasses,
namely
a) auxiliaries (closed class)
Auxiliaries such as be*, do*, have*, may, must..
cannot stand on their own but must be
accompanied by lexical verbs. (*primary
auxiliaries)
They are often used to form questions or tenses eg:
Have you ever been to Paris? / You must never
mention this again!

Verbs
and b) lexical verbs (open class)
Lexical verbs contain the principal information of the verb
phrase. They can be accompanied by an auxiliary but can also
stand alone.
Aarts&Aarts introduce two different approaches for
categorizing lexical verbs, namely
a) according to complementation (intransitive verbs vs.
complement verbs)
Simply put, Intransitive verbs do not take a complement,
complement verbs (four sub-groups) do.

Verbs
Examples:
Intransitive verbs: The baby is sleeping. Dogs bark.
Complement verbs: 1. mono-transitive (DO only). The farmer
kicked the horse.
ditransitive verbs (IO& DO/Benefactive Object&Object
attribute) He gave her a book. / She called him a taxi.
Complex transitive (DO&BO) They find him a bore.
Transitive PC verbs That play reminds me of Shakespeare.
Non-transitive complements: John is a teacher.(copula)/ He
resembles his father(predicator complement)

Verbs
b) one word verbs vs. multi word verbs
I became a teacher. (one word)
The book consists of 12 chapters.(prep verb)
He stepped down from his position. (phrasal verb)

Prepositions & Conjunctions

Prepositions
Simple prepositions: at, in, before, with
Complex prepositions: according to, in front of, in terms of, in
addition to
Conjunctions
Simple conjunctions: and, if, since, but
Complex conjunctions: as if, so that, in case, as long as
Coordinators (and, but, or, for) linkers between sentences,
clauses and phrases
Subordinators introduce clauses/ subclauses

Articles & Numerals

Articles
The definite article is the, the indefinite article is a or
an (before vowels).
Numerals
Numerals are divided into cardinal numbers (1 one, 2
st
nd
two, 90 ninety etc.) and ordinal numbers ( 1 first, 2
th
second, 6 sixth etc.).

Pronouns
There are several subclasses that can be considered
pronouns:
a) personal pronouns ( eg.I, me, you, he, them...),
b) self-pronouns/ reflexives (eg myself, oneself, ourselves..),
c) demonstrative pronouns ( this, that, these, those)
d) possessive pronouns (eg my,mine, hers, our, their...),
e) relative pronouns (who, whose, whom,which and that),
f) interrogative pronouns: who, whose, what, which)
g) reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another

Quantifiers & Interjections

Quantifiers
Quantifiers that...
a. can only function as the head of a noun phrase (eg. someone, anyone,
everything etc.)
b. can function as the head of a noun phrase and as determiner (eg.
some, many, enough, both, all, few etc.)
c. can only function as determiner (every and no)
Interjections
Interjections are used only to express emotions (eg. surprise, disgust,
pain etc.)
Examples: ah, hey, ouch, wow, oh

Source
Aarts, Flor & Jan Aarts. 1982. English syntactic
structures. Functions and categories in sentence
analysis. New York, etc.: Prentice Hall.