Lecture 2.2. Part of Speech Theories § 1. Parts of speech as lexico-grammatical
categories Classification on § 2. Henry Sweet’s Classificati § 3. Traditional Traditional Modern Modern Classificati Classification: on: MEANING, MEANING, FORM, FUNCTION § 4. O. Jesperson’s Classification § 5. Charles Charles Fries’ Fries’ classificati classification on of words words § 6. Controversial problems of the part-of-speech classification: the Stative
§ 1. Parts of speech as lexicogrammatical categories There are four approaches to the problem: 1. Classical, or logical-inflectional, worked out by prescriptivists 2. Functional - by descriptivists 3. Distributional - by structuralists 4. Complex Words are divided into lexico-grammatical classes which differ in formal and semantic features. Traditionally they are called parts of speech . This term is purely conventional and was introduced in the grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece. In Latin - 8 parts of speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, participle, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction. An effective classification should be 1) based on universal principles and at the same time 2) reflect peculiarities of a specific language. Thus, Ben Jonson introduced the 9th part—the article.
§ 2. Henry Sweet’s Classification (a
step away from prescriptivists with their formal approach and Latinization)
Declinable and indeclinable (based on form). Declinable: 1) noun-words: nouns proper, noun-pronoun, noun-numeral (cardinal – hundreds of people), infinitive, gerund; 2) adjective-words – adjective proper, adjective-pronoun, adjective-numeral (ordinal), participle I and II; 3) verb-words – finite verbs, infinitive, gerund, participle I and II; Indeclinable: adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections. Subdivision is based on the principle of function and meaning. Therefore some words occur in two groups simultaneously. Such classes as pronoun and numerals have no status of their own, but are distributed between nouns and adjectives. The adverb, included into the group of indeclinable words, has degrees of comparison, which means it can change its forms.
§ 3. O. Jesperson’s Classification put forward the same three principles. “In my opinion everything should be kept in view, form, function and meaning...” (O. Jespersen, 1935:91)
He distributed all the words into 5 parts of speech: 1)Nouns; 2)Adjectives; 3)Pronouns, including numerals and pronominal adverbs (where, why, how, when); 4)Verbs, including verbids or verbals (inf., ger., part.); 5)Particles: particles proper (just, too, enough, only, yet, etc.), prepositions, conjunctions. The 5th class was a kind of dump where he included the words which didn’t fit into the four previous classes.
§ 4. Charles Fries’ syntacticodistributional classification of words It is based on the study of their combinability by means of substitution testing. The testing results in developing the standard model of four main “positions” of notional words in the English sentence: noun, verb, adjective, adverb. The words isolated from the records of spontaneous conversation were tested on the three typical sentences (substitution test-frames). Frame A. The concert was good (always). [The thing and its quality at a given time] Frame B. The clerk remembered the tax (suddenly). [Actoraction-thing acted upon-characteristic of the action] Frame C. The team went there. [Actor-action-direction of the action] As a result of those tests the following lists of words were established: Class 1. concert, coffee, taste, difference, clerk, husband, team, husband, woman, etc. Class 2. was, seemed, became, remembered, wanted, went, came, ran, lived, worked, etc . Class 3. good, large, necessary, foreign, new empty, etc. Class 4. there, here, always, then, sometimes, clearly, sufficiently, especially, there, back, out, etc. All these words can fill in the positions of the frames without damage to their general structural meaning.
Fries’ Functional Words Functional words are exposed as being unable to fill in the positions of the frames without destroying their structural meaning. These words form 15 groups totaling 154 units and are basically interpreted as exposers of various syntactic categories. They can be distributed among the three main sets: 1) specifiers of notional words (determiners of nouns, modal verbs, functional modifiers and intensifiers of adjectives and adverbs) 2) interpositional elements, determining the relation of notional words to one another (prepositions and conjunctions) 3) those which refer to the sentence as a whole (question words, attention-getting words, words of affirmation and negation, sentence introducers (it, there) Criticism: not all relevant positions were tested Faceless and Splintered classification Modal words remained unclassified and particles as well.
§ 5. Traditional Modern Classification: MEANING, FORM, FUNCTION The upper level of classification – notional (complete nominative value, changeability, self-dependent syntactic functions) the noun, the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb and functional (the opposite) the article, the preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal words, the interjection Each part of speech is further subcategorized into lexico-grammatical groups.
1. The Semantic Approach Is based on the universal forms of human thought which are reflected in 3 main categorial meanings of parts of speech: substance (предметность) process (процессуальность) property (свойства, качества) Part-of-speech meaning - the meaning common to all the words of a given class and constituting its essence. However, this principle is open to criticism; it doesn’t always work; it can be hard to define a categorial meaning of a word whiteness - is it substance (a noun) or property (an adjective)? action denotes process, but it isn’t a verb
2. The Formal Approach 1) Gives rise to two classes of words: declinable vs. indeclinable (see H.Sweet) (changeable forms) (static forms - articles, prepositions, some modals ) This criterion is also unreliable. It doesn’t take into account the way a word functions in the sentence. ‘must’ functions as many other verbs ‘shall’ has a declinable form 2) This approach implies that each Part of Speech is a morphological class (Фортунатов), which includes words with a similar paradigm (not applicable to Chinese, etc. where morphological system is nonexistent or poorly-developed).
3. The Syntactic (Functional) Approach Implies taking into account the syntactical properties of a word such as:
the method of combining with other words (deals with phrases) its function in the sentence (deals with sentences)
EXAMPLE: Noun Characteristics 1)
2)
3)
The categorial meaning of the substance (“thingness”); The changeable forms of number and case; the specific suffixal (not prefixal!) forms of derivation; Syntactic functions (all except predicate), prepositional connections, modification by the adjective.
Major problems with three-principle classification 1.
2.
3.
4.
In modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, intensifying adverbs, determiner pronouns the three different properties are intersecting which makes it difficult to refer them to notional or functional parts of speech. Functional words can also express smth extra-linguistic: The match was called off because it was raining (the conjunction because denotes the connection between two processes). Some words belonging to a particular part of speech may perform a function differing from that which characterizes the part of speech as a whole. I have some money left (have – a notional word) I have found a dog (have – an auxiliary (functional) verb). The class of adverbs includes those words that cannot find their place anywhere else. At the same time, there are no grounds for grouping them together either: after all, anyway, actually, in fact.
§ 6. Controversial problems of the partof-speech classification: the Stative The Stative is not universally recognized as a separate part of speech. It is built by the prefix and the root of a word. awake, applause, ablaze, afraid Ильиш: It differs from the adjective from the point of view of meaning, function and form. 1. It's meaning is that of the passing state a person or a thing happens to be in (not that of a quality). 2. Its form is unchangeable. 3. Usually the Stative follows a link verb and occasionally a noun (Ex.: man alive). It can follow an adverb (Ex.: fast asleep). Its function is that of the predicative. Conclusion: It is its own part of speech Бархударов и Блох disagree applying same principles: 1. statives express properties of nouns. 2. a changeable form. It has degrees of comparison, though they are not synthetical but analytical. The one most aware of the situation. 3. The Functions of the Stative: the predicative and an attribute, though a post positional attribute (Ex. man alive) Conclusion: the Stative belongs to the class of adjectives. It makes up a subclass of its own within the class of adjectives.
Tasks for Seminar 5 Topics for Discussion Compare traditional and syntactico-distributional 1. classification of parts of speech. 2. What is lexical paradigm of nomination? Give examples. 3. What are pronouns syntactically? The idea of prowords. Compare H.Sweet’s and O.Jespersen’s part-of-speech 4. classifications. What does each approach in three-principle 5. classifications stand for? Practical Assignments Test Questions See Key Terms
Key Terms
declinable and indeclinable parts of speech notional and functional parts of speech lexico-grammatical groups part-of-speech meaning categorial meaning of a word
