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10 Parts of speech, their classification

Classifications of Parts of Speech.

At present there exist different lines of approach: traditional, functional (Prague linguistic school), descriptive (American descriptive linguistics), onomaseological approach ( the theory of nomination). Each linguistic trend advances its own criteria of classifying words and the number of these classes.

Traditionalists rely upon meaning as the essential criterion. This criterion is subjective and cannot be absolutely relied upon. In some grammars an adjective is defined as an attribute of substance. Prague linguistic school called parts of speech as bundles of morphologically relevant features and described words in terms of their paradigms (sets of all possible forms of a word).

Structuralists (descriptivists) rejected the traditional approach, they preferred to rely only upon the positional arrangement of words and their structural characteristics (types of inflexions and derivational suffixes). Relying upon the transformational procedure of substitution, Ch. Fries classifies words into 4 form classes, designated by numbers (I, II, III, IV) and 15 function groups of functional words designated by letters (a, b, c,…)

Notionals and Functionals Both traditionalists and descriptivists divide parts of speech into notionals (major , autosemantic words, variables, semantically full words) and functionals (synsemantic words, invariables, semantically empty words). Notionals are open classes, indefinitely extendable. Functionals are closed classes, we cannot invent new prepositions and conjunctions.

Heterogeneity Parts of speech in traditional interpretation are heterogeneous. Nouns can be distinguished into those with a developed paradigm (the plural, the genitive case, articles, any function in a sentence), but still there are nouns used only in the singular or only in the plural, nouns singular in form but plural in combinability( Police are; The New York police is one of the best polices in the world).

Field and Periphery Some scholars hold that major parts of speech have a field-like structure with the nucleus and the periphery. The periphery comprises deviated words, having defective paradigms.

Subcategorization The trend among linguists is towards subdivision of major parts of speech. By the method of oppositions and the componential analysis classes of words are divided into binary groups.

Onomaseological approach Onomaseology is concerned with the problems of nomination. This approach is based on the nominative peculiarities of words. Technical words ( functionals) are prepositions and conjunctions, they are semantically empty.

11, 12The noun: category of gender, case, number

The General Properties of a Noun

Nouns constitute the most open class. They have the meaning of thingness as they denote substances, beings, phenomena, abstract concepts. Words of other classes can be easily nominalized (substantivized), even functional words can be nominalized for the given occasion

The Category of Gender.

In OE gender was a morphological category. In present day English it is a purely lexico-semantic category, as there are no grammatical means to express gender distinctions here. There exists a whole system of lexical and semantic devices to express gender. Word-building processes (derivation, composition) are involved here.

The Category of Number

The category of number is represented by the opposition of the singular and the plural (table:: tables). Paradigmatically the singular expresses oneness, the plural expresses more-than-oneness (multitude, quantity, numerosity).

Nouns are divided into countables and uncountables.

The division of nouns into singularia tantum and pluralia tantum is justified by meaning, form, and the combinability of nouns.

The distinction into countables and uncountables is relative in English.

The Category of Case

Under the category of case we understand the change of form of a noun to denote its grammatical relations to other parts of communication.

The number of cases varies in different languages { two in English (common and Genitive), 7 (including the Vocative case) in Russian). It depends upon the morphological structure of the language and its development.

Debated Problems within the Category of Case

To the debated problems within the category of case there refer 1. the existence of this category in English; 2. the nature of this category; 3. the number of cases; 4. the nature of the element –‘s.

Genitive Constructions (N’s N)

There are a number of genitive constructions in English which are classified according to different criteria: 1. dependence; 2. the number of the constituents; 3. semantic relations between N’s and N.

All these synthetic Genitives can be replaced by analytical Genitives as there is semantic and structural similarity between the two.