UNIT 4

PARTS OF SPEECH AND LEXICAL CATEGORIES

Objectives: Understand how words are the basic building blocks of syntax Distinguish between semantically based definitions for word class and those based on distribution Identify Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs using distributional criteria. Definition: Syntactic Categories or Parts of Speech are the groupings of the words into categories groups that let us state rules about the form of sentences. Typical parts of speech are Nouns (abbreviated as N), Verbs (V), Adjectives (Adj) and Adverbs (Adv). Certain words can appear in certain places. This is one of the central insights of syntactic theory. We want to be able to capture where some words appear and others do not in our rules. Parts of speech allow us to make generalizations about which types of elements appear in which positions. Almost every student taking an elementary class in grammar will learn something like the following traditional definitions of parts of speech: Traditional Semantic Definitions: i) Noun: word describing a person, place, or thing ii) Verb: word describing an action, occurrence, or state of being iii) Adjective: word that expresses quality, quantity or extent. iv) Adverb: word that expresses manner, quality, place, time, degree, number, cause, opposition, affirmation or denial These definitions are based in meaning or semantics. To a certain degree, they have some intuitive validity. Nouns do typically refer to things, and verbs typically do refer to actions or states. However, from our linguistic perspective these definitions are inadequate. Exercise: Consider the italicized words in the following examples: 1) 2) the assassination of the president The sincerity of the student was unquestioned.

Comment:

Discussion:

Look carefully at the traditional definitions of parts of speech. Q1. Does assassination refer to a thing (i.e., a noun) or an action, (i.e., a verb)? Can you tell? Q2. Does sincerity describe a thing (i.e., a noun) or a quality (i.e. an adjective)? Explain your answer

Group 2: Words and Parts of Speech Exercise Q3. The following sentence has a number of nonsense words in them. Can you tell what part of speech they are? Do not try to use the definitions above or a dictionary -- that won't work because these words are meaningless! 3) The yinkish dripner blorked quastofically into the nindin with the pidibs. yinkish dripner blorked quastofically ninden pidibs Discussion: N N N N N N V V V V V V Adj Adj Adj Adj Adj Adj Adv Adv Adv Adv Adv Adv

Many people can identify the part of speech of a word without knowing what it means; if the definition of a part of speech is based in its meaning, then this should not be possible. It appears as if we can identify an item's part of speech without knowing anything about its meaning.

Definition:

Parts of speech are determined by looking at their distribution, not their meaning. Distribution refers to the places the word appears, both with respect to other words and with respect to the prefixes and suffixes the word has on it. Look again at sentence (3). We can determine the part of speech of these nonsense words by looking at where each word appears and which suffixes and prefixes it takes. 4) a) b) c) d) e) f) yinkish dripner blorked quastofically nindin pidibs Adj N V Adv N N between the and a noun takes -ish adjective ending after an adjective (and the) takes -er noun ending subject of the sentence after subject noun takes -ed verb ending after a verb takes -ly adverb ending after the and after a preposition after the and after a preposition takes -s noun plural ending

Discussion:

Definitions:

What follows is a list of distributional criteria for identifying nouns. This list works for English. Derivational Suffixes: In English, nouns often end in derivational endings such as -ment (basement), -ness (friendliness), -ity (sincerity), -ty (certainty), -(t)ion (devotion), -ation (expectation), -ist (specialist), -ant (attendant), -ery

Unit 4: Parts of Speech (shrubbery), -ee (employee), -ship (hardship), -aire (billionaire), -acy (advocacy), -let (piglet), -ling (underling), -hood (neighborhood), -ism (socialism), -ing (fencing). Inflectional Suffixes: Nouns in English dont show much inflection, but when pluralized can take suffixes such as -s (cats), -es (glasses), -en (oxen), -ren (children), -i (cacti), -a (addenda). Note that the following endings have homophonous usage with other parts of speech: -ing, -s, s, -er, -en. Syntactic Distribution: Nouns often appear after determiners such as the, those, these, (e.g., these peanuts) and can appear after adjectives (the big peanut). Nouns can also follow prepositions (in school). All of these conditions can happen together: in the big gymnasium). Nouns can appear as the subject of the sentence (we will define subject rigorously in a later chapter): The syntax paper was incomprehensible; or as the direct object: I read the syntax paper. Nouns can be negated by no (as opposed to not or un-): No apples were eaten. One easy way to see if something is a noun is to see if you can replace it with another word that is clearly a noun. So if we want to see if the word people is a noun or not, we can substitute another word we know for sure to be a noun, e.g., John (I saw people running all over the place vs. I saw John running all over the place). Exercise: Q4. Underline all the nouns in the following passage1: "If you'll watch my feet, you'll see how I do it," said she; and lifting her skirt above her dainty ankles, glided across the floor on tiptoe, as lightly as a fawn at play. But Sidney Trove was not a graceful creature. The muscles on his lithe form, developed in the school of work or in feats of strength at which he had met no equal, were untrained in all graceful trickery. He loved dancing and music and everything that increased the beauty and delight of life, but they filled him with a deep regret of his ignorance." Definition: What follows is a list of distributional criteria for identifying verbs. This list works for English Derivational Suffixes: Verbs often end in derivational endings such as -ate (dissipate), and -ize/-ise (regularize). Inflectional Suffixes: In the past tense, verbs usually take an -ed or -t ending. In the present tense, third person singular (he, she, it), they take the -s ending. Verbs can also take an -ing ending in some aspectual constructions, (she was walking) and take either an -en or an -ed suffix when they are passivized (more on passivization in later chapters): the ice-cream was eaten. (Note that the following endings have homophonous usage with other parts of speech: ate, -ing, -s, -er, -en, -ed. So these aren't entirely reliable guides. For example -ing and -s often also occurs on nouns; -en and -ed can appear on adjectives.) 3

Group 2: Words and Parts of Speech Syntactic Distribution: Verbs can follow auxiliaries and modals such as will, have, having, had, has, am, be, been, being, is, are, were, was, would, can, could, shall, should, and the special infinitive marker to. Verbs follow subjects, and can follow adverbs such as often and frequently. Verbs can be negated with not (as opposed to no and un-2). Exercise: Definition: Q5. Go back to the passage in question 4 above and circle all the verbs What follows is a list of distributional criteria for identifying adjectives. This list works for English Derivational Suffixes: Adjectives often end in derivational endings such as -ing (the dancing cat), -ive (indicative), -able (readable), -al (traditional), -ate (intimate), -ish (childish), -some (tiresome), -(i)an (reptilian), -ful (wishful), -less (selfless), -ly (friendly). Inflectional Suffixes: Adjectives can be inflected into a comparative form using -er (alternately they follow the word more). They can also be inflected into their superlative form using -est (alternately they follow the word most). Adjectives are typically negated using the prefix un- (in its sense meaning not, not in its sense meaning undo). Note that the following affixes have homophonous usage with other parts of speech: -ate, -ing, -er, -en, -ed, un-, -ly. Syntactic Distribution: Adjectives can appear between determiners such as the, a, these etc. and nouns: (the big peanut). They also can follow the auxiliary am/is/are/was/were/be/been/being (warning: this distribution overlaps with verbs). Frequently, adjectives can be modified by the adverb very. They can also appear in as as constructions (as big as Bill). Note that the last two criteria also can identify adverbs. Definition: What follows is a list of distributional criteria for identifying adverbs. This list works for English Derivational Suffixes: Many adverbs end in -ly: quickly, frequently, etc. Inflectional Suffixes: Adverbs generally dont take any inflectional suffixes. However, on rare occasions they can be used comparatively and follow the word more: She went more quickly than he did. Adverbs typically dont take the prefix un- unless the adjective they are derived from does first (e.g., unhelpfully from unhelpful, but *unquickly, *unquick). Syntactic Distribution: The syntactic distribution of adverbs is most easily described by stating where they cant appear. Adverbs cant appear between a determiner and a noun (*the quickly fox) or after the verb is and its variants.3 They can really appear pretty much anywhere else in the sentence, although typically they either appear at the beginning or end of the clause/sentence. 4

Unit 4: Parts of Speech Frequently, like adjectives, they can be modified by the adverb very or appear in as as constructions. Comment: In unit 13, we'll actually claim that adverbs and adjectives are part of one larger class that we call "A". But for now, it's helpful just to assume that they are different. Don't be surprised later on when we come up with the slightly more sophisticated analysis!

Exercise: Comment:

Q6. Go back to the passage in question 4 above and put a box around all the adjectives and a dotted underline under any adverbs. As you can see from trying to identify the parts of speech in this passage, parts of speech are not always obvious or straightforward. It requires some practice and some experience. What follows are several other exercises to help you practice identifying parts of speech. Q7. Identify the main parts of speech Adjectives/Adverb) in the following sentences. (i.e., Nouns, Verbs,

Exercise:

a) The old rusty stove exploded in the house quickly yesterday. b) The brainy assistant often put vital files through the new efficient shredder. c) The large evil leathery tiger complained to his aging keeper about his unappetizing snacks. d) Ive just eaten the last piece of cake. Exercise Q8. Consider the following data from Lummi (Straits Salish)4, assume that (a) t'ilm=l=sxw is a verb. What part of speech are the (b) and (c) forms? a) t'ilm=l=sxw sing=past=2SG.NOM "You sang" si'em=l=sxw chief=past=2SG.NOM "You were a chief." sey'si=l=sxw afraid=past=2SG.NOM "You were afraid."

verb

b)

______________

c)

______________

Q9. What does the data from Lummi tell us about the value of semantic definitions of parts of speech? 5

Group 2: Words and Parts of Speech

Exercise

Q10. Consider the following selection from Jabberwocky, a poem by Lewis Carroll (From Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872). Identify the parts of speech of the underlined words. Indicate what criteria you used for determining their part of speech. Note that since these words are nonsense words you cannot use semantic criteria like "it's a thing" to determine what part speech they are!. Twas brillig and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious bandersnatch! He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought So rested he by the tumtum tree And stood a while in thought. And as in uffish thought he stood The Jabberwock with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came. _____________________ _____________________ _____________________

_____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ _____________________

Summary

In this chapter we have covered the following major concepts: We use syntactic categories to make generalizations about what words can appear in which positions Traditional semantic criteria are too vague to be effective, they also don't work in the light of nonsense words. Syntacticians uses distributional criteria based on suffixes, prefixes and the relation of the word to other words.

Suggested Further Reading: 6 The following is a web site that teaches the traditional semantic definitions of parts of speech: http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/ Wikipedia article on nouns: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun Wikipedia article on verbs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb Wikipedia article on adjectives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective

Unit 4: Parts of Speech Wikipedia article on adverbs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverb The following book provides a very sophisticated analysis of what it means to be a Noun, Verb or Adjective. You will probably want to finish your hand at the book you are now reading before trying it: Baker, Mark (2003) Lexical Categories. Cambridge University Press. Huddleston, Rodney and Geoffrey K. Pullum (2005) A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge University Press. (especially chapters 2, 3, 5, 6) Carnie, Andrew (2006) Syntax: A Generative Introduction, Blackwell Publishers, chapter 2. Answers to Questions Q1-2: The semantic definitions are pretty vague and don't always give us a clear answer. To me, assassination is at the very least an action, similarly sincerity is a quality, but once we investigate these cases syntactically we will find that they are both nouns. yinkish Adj; dripner N; blorked V; quastofically Adv, ninden N, pidibs N. The following are pronouns, which are a special types of noun: you('ll), my, I, she, her, his, he, him, they. The following are clear nouns: feet, skirt, ankles, floor, tiptoe, fawn, Sidney Trove, creature, muscles, form, school, work, feats, strength, equal, trickery, music, everything, beauty, delight, life, regret, ignorance. Play and dancing are also nouns in this sentence even though they express actions. For the moment I'll leave auxiliary verbs like will or had out of the list, we'll return to these in unit 5. The following are clear verbs: watch, see do, said, lifting, glided, was, developed, met, were loved, increased, filled. Adjectives: dainty, graceful, lithe, deep; Adverbs: lightly. How is also an adverb, but may not be obvious from the criteria listed above. a) N: stove, house; Adj: old, rusty; Adv: quickly, yesterday; V: exploded b) N: assistant, files, shredder; Adj: brainy, vital, new, efficient; Adv: often; V: put. c) N: tiger, keeper, (his), snacks; Adj: large, evil, leathery, aging, unappetizing; V: complained d) N: I, piece, cake; Adj: last; Adv: just; V: eaten. Both (b) and (c) are also verbs, we can tell this by virtue of the fact that they bear the same basic inflection as the verb. This tells us that semantic definitions

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Group 2: Words and Parts of Speech aren't valid, because presumably the words that mean the same thing in English are nouns and adjectives respectively. Q10: wabe: N; gimble: V; after the this one is tricky. I think it's a verb based on the parallel between it and 'did shimmer', but other possible analyses are possible. outgrabe: V; out- prefix frumious: Adj; after the, -ious ending bandersnatch: N; after frumious vorpal: Adj; after his, before sword, possibly -al ending manxone: Adj; after the, before foe tumtum: Adj; after the, before tree uffish: Adj; after in, before thought, ish ending Jabberwock: N; after the tulgey: Adj; between the and wood, -y ending burbled: V; -ed ending

Irving Bacheller (1903) Darrell of the Blessed Isles. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12102/12102.txt (open source text project) 2 There are verbs that begin with un-, but in these circumstances un- usually means reverse not negation. 3 In some prescriptive variants of English, there are a limited set of adverbs that can appear after is. For example, well is prescriptively preferred over good, in such constructions as I am well vs. I am good (referring to your state of being rather than the acceptability of your behavior). Most speakers of American English dont allow any adverbs after is. 4 Data from Jelinek and Demers (1994) Predicates and Pronominal arguments in Straits Salish. Language 70: 697-736.