Identifying word classes

Overview
Identifying word classes
Syntax of the major word classes
Grammatical categories

Syntactic criteria

Distribution
Only the same members of one specific word
class can be filled in the same slot in a sentence.
Each word class has its own specific set of
modifying words

Morphological criteria

Form

The specific set of affixes in the form of words

shows that the words belong to the same word
class.

Case Study: Identifying the word class

of barista

Data
A barista is a coffee master of making coffee.
Baristas are in charge of training new
employees.
Only the best barista is hired.

In terms of morphology

Singular-plural forms

In terms of syntactic function

Modified by adjectives and articles (a, an, the)

Questions:
How do we identify the word class of in
in terms of
morphological and syntactic criteria?
Analyze the word class of can in You can
can a can in terms of morphological and
syntactic criteria?

(1)

(2)

(3)

Syntax of the major word classes

Major Word Classes

WHAT RE THE MOST

FREQUENTLY FOUND WORD
CLASSES IN THE NEWSPAPER
HEADLINES?

The verb class

John

sleeps

Argument
Predicate
(participant) (event)
John

Loves

Coffee.

argument
(participant)

Predicate
(event)

argument
(participant)

The types of verbs

Intransitive verbs

Transitive verbs

John yelled.
John cooked a pot of coffee.

Ditransitive verbs

John bought Mary a cup of coffee.

The noun class

NP -> Det N

Only co-occur with determiners

Determiners

Articles

Demonstratives

This, that, these, those

Quantifiers

a/an, the

Some, all

Possessives

His, my, their, your.

The properties of determiners

Used before or after an NP.
In some languages, determiners agree with
the NP.

Gender
Der

Sontag (mas.), die Rose (fem.), das Berlin (neu.)

Number
un

cadeau (a gift), les cadeaux (gifts)

The semantic role of NPs

Agent

Patient

The purpose of the action

Experiencer

The person/thing which undergoes the action

Goal

The person/thing which receives the action

Theme

The person/thing which performs the action

The person/thing which experiences the process of senses

Instrument

The tool to perform the action.

Analysis

A burglar ransacked my house to steal my coffee.

AGENT:
PATIENT:
INSTRUMENT:

My mothers bowl was broken by the cat.

AGENT:
PATIENT:
INSTRUMENT:

Exercise:
Mary roasted the duck in the kitchen.
The terrorists destroyed the building with a
bomb.

Syntactic roles of NPs

Grammatical relations
Subject
Object

The tests of subjecthood

Subject-verb agreement
Case marking
Prepositional object

The tests of subjecthood 1

Subject-verb
agreement

Number

Person

He is, they are

I am, you are, he is, we
are

The French example

singular

1st
Je chante
person

plural

Nous
chantons

2nd
Tu chantes Vous
person
chantez

Chanter to sing
3rd
Il chante
person

Ils
chantent

The captain who commanded these two

starships is Jean-Luc Picard.

The tests of subjecthood 2

Case marking
Nominative case: subject
Accusative case: object

An English case
text

He

loved

her

case

Nom.

Acc.

Gram
category

Subject

Object

German case
Definite
article

mas

fem

Neu.

Nominative

der

die

das

Accusative

den

die

das

German case

Glosary
Hund: dog
beit : bite
Mann: man

Sentences
Der Hund beit den Mann.
Den Mann beit der Hund.

The tests of subjecthood 3

Prepositional object

The NP in a PP is an object, NOT a subject.

PP

NP

Grammatical/morpho-syntactic
categories

What are morpho-syntactic

categories?

The grammatical information attached to the

specific class words
Number
Case
Agreement

How are morpho-syntactic categories

represented?

Open class words (e.g., nouns, verbs, or

adjectives) change the form by adding
affixes to represent grammatical information.

Books; John talked too much.

Closed class words may be used with lexical

words to represent the grammatical
information.

Comparative/superlative suffix

Morpho-syntactic categories
for nouns 1
Number
Gender

Indicated by nouns themselves.

Il

libro; la casa

Indicated by determiners
Le

soleil, la lune

Definiteness
Case

Morpho-syntactic categories
for nouns 2

Definiteness

Marked by determiners
Une

voiture a car, la voiture the car

Marked by morphological form.

Den

mus-en the mouse (Swedish)

Morpho-syntactic categories
for nouns 3

Case

She (nom.) hates her. (accu.)

Morpho-syntactic categories
for verbs
Tense and aspect
Mood
Voice
Agreement

Tense and aspect

Tense
grammaticalized expression of location in time
(Comrie, 1985)
Past and non-past

English

He walks to school every day; He walked to school last week.

The

Wishram-Wasco dialect of Chinook

Ni-ciux He did it long time ago

Ga-ciux He did it some time ago
Na-ciux-a He did it recently
i-ciux He just did it

Aspect

Whether an action is completed or ongoing.

English:
Auxiliary

verb + Verbal inflection

They are working.

They have worked for two days.

Bantu
Verbal

morphology

Ba-lee-bomba they are working (progressive aspect)

Ba-la-bomba they (repeatedly) work (habitual aspect)

Mandarin Chinese is
[+tense, +aspect]
[+tense, -aspect]
[-tense, +aspect]
[-tense, -aspect]

Mood

Definition

A grammatical category which marks the

properties such as possibility, probability, and
certainty.

for actual events

Indicative
John

bought Starbucks (because he is really rich).

for hypothetical events

Modal auxiliaries
John

would buy Starbucks (if he were rich).

Subjunctive mood (verbal morphology

specifically for hypothetical events)
John

demands that he (should) BUY Starbucks.

It faut que je le choisses. I should choose it

je choisis indicatif
Je choisses-le subjontif

Voice
Active vs. passive
Chichewa

Kalulu a-na-b-a

Hare
SU-PAST-STEAL wife
The hare stole the elephants wife.

mkazi wa njovu a-na-b-edw-a

wife

The elephants wife was stolen.

of

mkazi wa njovu
of

elephant

elephant SU-PAST-STEAL-PASSIVE

Morpho-syntactic categories for

adjectives
Comparison
Agreement

Comparison

Superlative

Comparative

English: THE -est; THE MOST adj

English: -er; MORE adj

Equative
English: AS adj AS
Welsh:

Mae-r

cwpan cyn llawn-ED

a-r
botel
Is-the cup
as full-EQUATIVE with-the bottle

The cup is as full as the bottle

Agreement
Commonly marked to agree with the nouns
adjectives modify in gender and in case
French

Le vin blanc the white wine

La porte blanche the white door

German

Ein kleines

Kind sah einen reich-en

a small child saw a rich man.

small-SU:SING:NEUTER child

saw

Mann.

rich-OB:SING:MASC man