Parts of speech
What are parts of speech
???
• Parts of speech are word classes where
words of same grammatical (syntactic)
function are grouped
Classification of word classes
Word class
Open set : new
member words
can be added
Closed set : no
new member
words can be
added
Open set
Closed set
Auxiliary verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Nouns
Lexical verbs
Interjections
Conjunctions
Articles
Quantifiers
Possessive adjectives
Pronouns
Numerals
Nouns
• Words that denote a person (Bill), place (school),
animal (koala), thing (book) or idea (theory).
• A noun can be the subject or an object of a verb.
• Other noun categories:
Proper/Common nouns
Countable/ Uncountable nouns
Concrete/Abstract nouns
Collective nouns
Verbs
• Words that convey actions, occurrences or states of being
• Verbs are usually sentence predicates
• Other verb categories:
Lexical/Auxiliary verbs
Transitive/Intransitive verbs
Action/State verbs
Regular/Irregular verbs
Adjectives
• Words that describe other words (usually nouns)
• An adjective qualifies a noun (subject or object compliment)
Regular irregular adjectives
Positive/Negative adjectives
Adverbs
• Words that modify verbs
• (Adverbials) usually answer the questions: how?, in what way?,
when?, where?, to what extent?, etc.
Regular irregular adverbs
Adverbs of manner
Adverbs of frequency
Adverbs of time
Adverbs of place
Adverbs of degree
Interjections
• Words that express an emotion or sentiment one the part of
the speaker
Conjunctions
• Words that connect/join words, phrases, clauses, sentences.
Coordinating conjunctions: and, as/ because for, nor, but, or, yet, so
Subordinating conjunctions: after, although, as, as far as, as soon as, as long
as, because, etc.
Correlative conjunctions: just as… so, whether… or, both… and, not only… but,
etc.
Articles
• Words used with nouns to indicate type of reference made by
the noun
Definite article: the ( a singular, plural or uncountable noun identifiable by the
listener )
Indefinite article: a / an ( a singular noun not identifiable by the listener)
Negative article: no (zero quantity of a countable or uncountable noun)
Zero article: in case when referring to a mass in general rather than to a
particular quantity