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3.
Words
3.1 What is a word?
Some difficulties in classifying ‘words’:
1.
In spoken language it is almost impossible to detect gaps in speech that
marks word boundaries (speech stream are continuous)
SoonafterbeakfastMaryAnnbroughtinTheTimes
2.
In written language:
Soon after breakfast Mary Ann brought in The Times
 Markers between words are relatively resent
 There are many ambiguous cases, e.g.
girlfriend (Hamlyn’s Encyclopedic Word Dictionary)
girl-friend (The concise Oxford Dictionary)
girl friend (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary)
Native speakers have the intuition about the grammaticality in demarcating word
boundaries.
In Welsh,
Bethymayemrysyneiwneud?
‘What is Emrys doing’
Native speakers of Welsh can judge where boundaries are
Beth y may Emrys yn ei wneud?
3.2 Word classes
Words in all languages seem to fall into categories (‘parts of speech’)
Suggested word classes in English are:
NOUN
PREPOSITION
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VERB
PRONOUN
ADJECTIVE
DETERMINER
ADVERB
CONJUNCTION
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Other suggested word classes include interjections, relative clause marker,
politeness marker, mood marker, question particle, etc.
3.2.1 Nouns (N)
Nouns are heads of noun phrases (NPs)
Traditional definition: “a noun is a person, pace or thing”
Crying is sometimes a relief.
It rained yesterday.
Linguistic criteria for nouns:
1.
Morphology
tramp > tramps
diary > diaries
2.
Grammatical function..
Nouns are associated with subject and object
* rained yesterday
3.
Distribution in relation to associated words (i.e. environment)
N: (adj) __ V
Continuous/deep/loud
crying is bad for the nerves.
3.2.1.1 Nouns and Reference
Some noun categories are relevant to the grammar on the base of their inherent
referential properties, or the way they pick out an entity or entities in the world.
 Proper nouns refer to specific people or place
Jeddah, London, Mohammed, Barely Road
* The Jeddah, The London, The Mohammed, Some Barely Road
 Pronouns are linked with another NP in the sentence or discourse:
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The trampi read the diary. Hei laughed. Hei turned the page.
Johni met Maryj at the entrance of the station. Hei bought herj an ice-cream
Johni was unable to control himselfi.
* the he, * one himself, * they herself, John himself
Pronouns include personal pronouns, indefinite pronouns, demonstrative
pronouns, interrogative pronouns, possessive pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.
It chased her
Some like it hot
This is very pretty
Which is the train to Liverpool?
The red book is mine
The children hurt themselves
 Common nouns cover just about everything else..
mother, uncle, baby, city, squirrel, peach, love, peace
the mother, my uncle, three babies, a city, two squirrels, * peach herself
3.2.2 Verbs (V)
Verbs (V) encode various types of predicate, including events, states, and
processes. They are heads of verb phrases (VPs). They are associated with a
number of grammatical categories called Auxiliaries (AUX) that determine the
agreement, tense, plus other features of aspect, mood and modality of the whole
clause:
1.
Agreement (AGR)
In English, subject triggers subject-verb agreement (marked on the verb):
He/she/it
falls
I/we/you/they fall
2.
Tense (T)
Tense locates a situation in time in relation to another time expressed in finite
sentences.
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a) Manchester United played the final game [yesterday]
b) Manchester United is playing the final game [right now]
c) Manchester United will play the final game [tomorrow]
Tense can be seen as expressing temporal relation along an imaginary time-line,
where 0 is the present moment:
past
present/future
0
Event can be seen as points along the time line (punctual) or stretches (events,
states, process, etc.)
3.2.2.1 Auxiliaries (AUX)
Modal Auxiliaries
Modality expresses whether a state of affairs is likely, possible, necessary and so
on.
Model auxiliaries are will, would can could, may, might, shall, should, etc.
a. Kate will hug the baby
b. The baby would like the hug
a. Kate can hug the baby
b. Kate could hug the baby
c. The baby might like a hug
a. Kate should hug the baby
b. The baby must want a hug
Primary Auxiliary
Auxiliary verbs which are not models are called PRIMARY AUXILIARY, which
are have, be, do that are used to indicate the aspect (Perfect and Progressive),
voice.
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Perfect Aspect
indicated by the auxiliary verb have
a. Sally has finished this book
b. Sue had given the dog a bone.
c. Sue may have given the dog a bone.
Progressive Aspect
indicated by the presence of the auxiliary be:
(10) a. Sally is walking along the beach
b. Sue was giving the dog a bone
c. Sue may be giving the dog a bone
d. Sue has been giving the dog a bone
e. Sue may have been giving the dog a bone
Passive Voice
Voice refers to whether a sentence is in the ACTIVE or the PASSIVE.
(11) a. A dog chased that girl
b. That girl was chased by a dog
< ACTIVE>
< PASSIVE>
3.2.3 Adjectives (A/Adj)
Adjectives (Adj) describe nouns (names of persons, place, or thing) or pronouns.
They are heads of adjective phrases (AP)
Charlotte is a kind woman.
He is tired.
Adjectives express different degree of quality (base > comparative > superlative)
Mary Ann is nice, Philip is nicer, but Vicar is the nicest.
She is ambitious,
She is more ambitious than her sister
She is the most ambitious student in the first year
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3.2.4 Adverbs
Adverbs (adv.) are heads of (AdvP). They describe verbs, and adjectives, and other
adverbs. They are formed by adding –ly to the corresponding adjectives:
Charlotte spoke kindly to the confused man.
The man said he was completely alone in the world.
Charlotte listened very sympathetically to his story.
Other adverbs have no corresponding adjectives:
soon, early, late, etc.
Adverbs express different degree of quality (base > comparative > superlative)
early > earlier > earliest
3.2.5 Preposition (P)
Prepositions (P) are heads of prepositional phrases (PP). Prepositions (such as on,
at, in, over, under, inside, outside) denote location, direction, time, etc.
The cat sat on the mat
3.2.6 Determiners (Det)
Determiners are pre-nominal modifiers that may either belong to a closed class
words:
Articles: indefinite a/an and definite the
Demonstratives this, that, these, those
Quantifiers some, any, each, every, no, etc
Possessives my, your, her, his, its, our, your [PL], their
Wh-determiners whose, what, which
as in
a. Some people like it hot
b. My book is on the table
c. This jumper is very colorful
d. Which train goes to Liverpool?
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Or belong to more complex structures such as Genitives (POSS)
(8) a. This boy’s clothes are very dirty
b. Kate’s baby is crying
The possessives (This boy’s) and (Kate’s) occupy the same position as the article
the
(9) a. The clothes are very dirty
b. The baby is crying
3.2.7. Conjunctions
Conjunctions serve to link sentences/clauses, or phrases. Conjunctions are either
coordinators (coord) such as and, but, or, for, etc.
a) John got up and walked out.
b) Not Paul, but Bill failed hi finals
c) We had to hurry, for we were late
or subordinators (complementisers (COMP)) such as that, if, although, so that, as
soon as
a) When he is ill, he does not go to church.
b) He didn’t go, because he felt ill.
c) They came back early, in order that they could see the film on TV.
Reading for this lecture:
Wekker&Haegeman (1985: 57-61)
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