Download LECT 5B

Word Classes : Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives & Adverbs
(Reading : Greenbaum : p. 69 - p. 83)
Open and Closed Classes

Word classes are also called parts of speech are
divided into open classes and closed classes.

Open classes are readily open to new words.
e.g. nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs
 What do you think ‘haredware’
belongs to?
 What about to ‘key in some data’?

Closed classes are limited classes that rarely admit
new words.
e.g. pronouns, determiners, auxiliary verbs,
conjunctions and prepositions
Noun Classes
What do you know about noun classes? Name two.

There are two classes of nouns : Proper Nouns and
Common Nouns.
Proper nouns:
 names of specific people, places or occasions.
e.g. Chicago, John, River Thames, Christmas, The
New York Times
Common nouns:
 Common nouns are nouns that are not names.
e.g. capital, book, tea, car, book, pen
Across both groups, you have concrete and abstract
nouns
What do you about these two groups of nouns?
Supply some examples of each class.

Concrete nouns refer to people, places or things.
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
e.g. girl, kitchen, car, book, pen
Abstract nouns refer to qualities, states, or actions.
e.g. humour, belief, action, confidence
Count and Non-count Nouns
What do you know about them?
examples of each type.


Supply some
Count nouns refer to entities that are viewed as
countable.
e.g. student, book, car, pencil
Non-count nouns refer to entities that are viewed as a
mass that cannot be counted.
e.g. furniture, music, tea, information, cheese
Can non-count nouns be turned into count nouns? How?
Nouns that are ordinarily non-count can be converted
into count nouns

i)
when the count noun refers to different kinds.
e.g.
The store has a large selection of cheeses.
There are different kinds of wines.
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ii)
when the count noun refers to units that are
obvious in the situation, or particular instances
of an activity.
e.g. I'll have two coffees, please.
(reading?)
Help yourself to a couple of
chocolates.
The funeral was a painful
experience.
They did not want to lose another
war.
Do Exercise 5.2

Nouns make a distinction in number (singular or
plural) and case (common or genitive). Some nouns
are distinguished in gender (masculine or feminine)
e.g.
father, mother, uncle, aunt, bull, cow, lion,
lioness
Case

Nouns have two cases : the common case and the
genitive case
Common case : the student the child the baby (as the
head noun)
Genitive case : the student's the child's the baby's
(a non-head noun realized in the possessive form)
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Dependent Genitives

function like possessive determiners
e.g. the student's suggestions Vs his suggestions
the girls' books
Vs their book
Independent Genitives

not dependent on the following nouns. The noun may
be omitted because it can be understood from the
context.
e.g.


Your ideas are more acceptable than Sandra's.
(Sandra's ideas)
The party at Alan's tonight...(Alan's house)
I shall be at the dentist's. (the dentist's
professional establishment)
The independent genitive may combine with the -of
structure (double genitive)
The noun with the double genitive must be definite
and personal.
e.g. John is a friend of Martha's. (one of the
friends that Martha has)
This is a suggestion of John's. (one of the
suggestions that John has)
I am going to see an opera of John's. (one of
the operas that John performs in)
* a funnel of the ships (X)
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* a sonata of a violinist's (X)
Do Exercise 5.4, 5.5
Main Verbs
What do you know about the categorization of the verb
class?
 regular
 irregular
Regular verbs
 verbs which have the most typical forms for the
grammatical categories of tense and person.
e.g. laugh, play, cough, hear, smile, like cry, carry
 The past
tense and past participle forms of these
verbs are the same, i.e. adding -ed, -d, or changing y into -ied.
Irregular verbs

Irregular verbs do not have regular forms for tense,
person, etc.
e.g. put, upset, keep, catch, drive, begin, dig, find
Adjectives
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 Some can be converted from their noun forms by
adding such suffixes ‘ish’, ‘tive’, ‘ful’, etc.
Do Exercise 5.8
 Some can be converted from their verb forms, e.g.,
exciting, etc.
How can adjectives be divided?
following examples.
Take a look at the
She is a beautiful girl.
She is beautiful.
She is a former president.

different classes in terms of their functions (e.g., premodifiers, subject complements or object
complements.
Attributive Adjectives
 used as pre-modifiers of nouns.
 to add information about the quality (e.g., size,
appearance, temperament, mood, etc.) of a noun
e.g. It was a comfortable ride.
She is a beautiful girl.
He is a tall boy.
Predicative Adjectives
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 used as subject complements or object complements.
e.g. The ride was comfortable.
I made the bed comfortable.
She is happy.
He made his wife happy.
(SC)
(OC)
(SC)
(OC)
Crossing the class / restricted to one class

Some adjectives can be attributive only.
e.g. This is utter nonsense.(* The nonsense is
utter. X)
My former teacher was John. (* My teacher
was former. X)
You are the very person I was looking for.
(*You are very. X)

Some adjectives can be predicative only.
e.g. He is afraid.
I am glad.
He was asleep.

(*He is an afraid man. X)
(* I am a glad person. X)
(* He was an asleep man. )
Some adjectives can be both attributive and
predicative. (The majority of adjectives belong to this
type.)
e.g. He is a hungry man.
She is a beautiful girl.
He is hungry.
She is beautiful.
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(Note: Nouns functioning attributively : stone pottery,
stone houses, paper doll)
Which of the following can be used as an attributive
adjective only and which predicative only?








Indecisive
Indicative of
Definite
Delicate
Lucky
Previous
Predominate
Prior
Supply as many examples as possible which belong to
the following classes:
 Attributive only
 Predicative only
 Both attributive and predicative
Adverbs

quite often derived from adjectives by suffixation
(~ly).
e.g. He likes Mary considerably.
=> He likes Mary to a considerable extent.
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Politically, it is a bad decision.
=> From the political point of view, it is a bad
decision.
What can be the major functions of an adverb?

Adverbs (Adverb Phrases) can have two functions:
i) modifier of an adjective or an adverb in phrase
structure
e.g. The description was remarkably accurate.
The book was very expensive.
They sit quite calmly.
ii)
adverbial in sentence structure, i.e., modifier
the verb of a sentence or of the sentence
e.g.
They sing happily.
He loved her deeply.
Fortunately, American automobile
manufacturers are ....
Certainly, we should be grateful.
Gradability
Adverbs

and
Comparison
of
Adjectives
&
most are gradable i.e., can be conceptualized in terms
of intensity along a continuum.
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e.g.
Pleasant
Fairly/rather pleasant
Very / extremely pleasant
------------------- increasing intensity

three degrees of intensity in terms of realization of /
conversion from the base form: absolute, comparative
and superlative.
e.g.
happy
happier
happiest
(realized through suffixation)
friendly
more friendly most friendly
(realized through premodifers)

Some adjectives are non-gradable. Some are nongradable when having particular meanings.
e.g.
He is non-Christian.
*He is very non-Christian. X (unless you want to play
with words)
John is English. (referring to John's nationality)
* He is very English. (X) (in terms of his nationality)
John is very / more English than I am. (referring to
John's behaviour. I behaviour in a more English way
than John does.)
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