Words
Introduction to English Language Phrases
Professor Sabine Mendes Moura
Different senses of the word ‘word’
• Ortographic words: words we are familiar with in
written language, where they are separated by spaces.
• Grammatical words: a word falls into one grammatical
word class or another. leaves
• Lexemes: this is a set of grammatical words which
share the same basic meaning, similar forms, and the
same word class. leaves, left: verb lexeme leave
• Each occurrence of a word in a written or spoken text
is a separate TOKEN, while word TYPES are the
different vocabulary items.
• The birds and the deer and who knows what else.
- Closed system and open class
Type-token ration
The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll: let’s
identify lexical words
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
FEATURES/FAMILIES
LEXICAL WORDS
FUNCTION WORDS
INSERTS
MEMBERS
Nouns, lexical
nouns, lexical
verbs, adjectives
and adverbs
Prepositions,
coordinators,
auxiliary verbs and
pronouns
Yeah, Hm hm, Well,
Cheers, Bye (and
the like)
MORPHOLOGY
Complex internal
structure – rootbased (+ affixes
Tend to be simple
and stable.
Simple forms
Atypical
pronunciation
SEMANTICS
Main carriers of
information in a
text or speech
act.
Show how units
relate to one
another, indicating
meaning
relationships
Carry emotional
and discursive
meanings
SYNTAX
Generally heads
in noun phrases
Generally remain
in compressed
sentences
Occur frequently in
almost any kind of
construction
Are mainly found in
oral syntax
Do not form part of
the syntactic
structure
OPEN CLASS
CLOSED CLASS
OPEN CLASS (?)
Three major word classes
Morphology
• Inflection
• Derivation
• Compounding
Inflection
• In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the
modification of a word to express different
grammatical categories such as tense,
grammatical mood (indicative, imperative and
subjunctive), grammatical voice (passive, active,
reflexive), aspect (perfect, progressive), person,
number, gender and case.
• Overt and covert inflection
- Lead and led (a lexeme marked for tense) – covert.
Derivation
• Adding an affix (prefix or suffix) to a word,
changing the identity of the word (≠ inflection)
Compounding
• Spelled as single words, main stress on the
first element and meaning cannot be
determined from the parts.
Multi-word units, collocations, and lexical
bundles
• A multi-word unit is a sequence of orthographic words
which function like a single grammatical unit. e.g. on top
of
• An idiom is a multi-word unit with a meaning that cannot
be predicted from the meaning of its constituent words.
e.g. fall in love
• A collocation is the relationship between two or more
independent words which commonly appear together. e.g.
wide experience
• A lexical bundle is a sequence of words which co-occur
very frequently, especially when the sequence consists of
more than two words. e.g. Would you mind... recurs in
conversation.
Lexical word classes: nouns
MORPHOLOGICAL
SYNTACTIC
SEMANTIC
Countable nouns: number
and genitive case
Uncountable nouns
Often contain more than
one morpheme
Often heads of noun
phrases
Can be modified by many
kinds of words (except for
proper nouns)
Normally refer to concrete,
physical entities, but can
also refer to qualities and
states.
Lexical word classes: lexical verbs
MORPHOLOGICAL
SYNTACTIC
SEMANTIC
Signal tense, aspect and
voice
Verb lexemes may have a
complex form
Often single-word verb
phrases which are the
central part of the clause
Can also occur in main verb
positions
Denote actions, processes
and state of affairs.
Define the role of human
and non-human
participants
Distinct from auxiliary verbs
PRIMARY VERBS BE, HAVE AND DO can occur as both classes
Lexical word classes: adjectives
MORPHOLOGICAL
SYNTACTIC
SEMANTIC
Can be composed by
several morphemes
Take inflectional suffixes
(comparative and
superlative)
Head of adjective phrases
More commonly modifiers
in noun phrases
Qualities of people, things
and abstractions.
Many express gradation.
Lexical word classes: adverbs
MORPHOLOGICAL
SYNTACTIC
SEMANTIC
Many are formed from
adjectives
Few adverbs allow
comparative and
superlative forms (soon,
fast)
Head of adverb phrases
Modifiers of adjectives and
adverbs
Most often express degree
Can express notions of
time, place and manner
Can convey attitudinal
aspects
Can express connections
(though)
Accidentally in love: analysis
• WORD CLASSES: Lexical? Function? Inserts?
• So she said what's the problem baby?
What's the problem I don't know
Well, maybe I'm in love
• MORPHOLOGY: Inflection? Derivation? Compounding?
• Sunlight shimmering love
• LEXICAL WORDS: Nouns? Lexical verbs? Adjectives?
Adverbs?
• I surrender to the strawberry ice cream
• We're accidentally in love
Lexical word classes
Borderline cases
• Nouns vs. Verbs
The matter needed checking
The matter needed checking carefully
The matter needed careful checking
Borderline cases
• Nouns vs. Adjectives
What about
“wide-eye wow”?
Borderline cases
• Verbs vs. Adjectives
It was embarassing
It was embarassing me
It was very embarassing
Function word classes: determiners
•
•
•
•
•
Definite article the
Indefinite article a, an
Demonstrative
Possessive
Quantifiers
Function word classes: pronouns
• Personal pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns (≠ determiners,
indicate space positioning)
• Reflexive pronouns
• Reciprocal pronouns (each other, one
another)
• Possessive pronouns (related to determiners –
mine, yours, hers)
Big Girls Don´t Cry (Fergie)
“I hope you know
I hope you know
That this has nothing to do with you
It's personal, myself and I
We got some straightening out to do”
Big Girls Don´t Cry (Fergie)
“I hope you know
I hope you know
That this has nothing to do with you
It's personal, myself and I
We got some straightening out to do”
Function word classes: auxiliary verbs
• Primary and modal
• Primary: be, have, do.
• Modal: will, can, shall, may, must, would,
could, should, might
Function word classes: prepositions
• Linking words that introduce prepositional
phrases, prepositional complement (on the
phone), complex preposition (such as, with
regard to)
Function word classes: adverbial particles
• used to build phrasal verbs (broke down) and
extended prepositional phrases (back to the
hotel).
Function word classes: coordinators
• coordinating conjunctions, relationship
between two units such as phrases or clauses
(and, but, or - nor); correlative coordinator
(both... and, either...or, neither...nor, not
only...but also).
Function word classes: subordinators
• subordinating conjunctions, linking words that
introduce a dependent clause to a main
clause, adverbial clause (if), degree clause
(as), complement or nominal clause (that);
complex subordinator (as if).
Special classes of words
• Wh-words (begin with wh, - how; determiners, pronouns, adverbs).
– Introducing an interrogative clause What do they want?
– Introducing a relative clause (relativizers) whose father died
– Introducing a complement clause (complementizers) ...whatever I have in my
pocket
– Adverbial clause links However they vary...
• Single word classes: (unique grammatically, do not fit a class)
– Existential there There were four bowls of soup.
– The negator not ... but you can’t do that.
– The infinitive marker to (complementizer preceding the infinitive) What do
you want to drink?
• Numerals: (simple forms and complex forms built from the simple ones)
– Cardinals: (How many?) Four of the yen traders have pleaded guilty.
– Ordinals: (Which?) A fourth will be charged with having information...
Multi-class membership