Transcript Word Classes - Daniela Caluianu`s Homepage

Word Classes
http://homepage.mac.com/caluianudaniela/ind
ex.htm
Classify
 purple,
eat, draw, triangle, song, grass,
amazing, fast, dance, water, here, she, nice,
shape, girl, three, under, there, who, wide,
gold, discussion, Mary, end, begin,
Classes
A: girl, goat, Mary, triangle, song, grass, water,
shape, gold, discussion
 B: eat, draw, begin,
 C: purple, amazing, nice, wide
 D: fast, here, there,
 E: she, who,
 F: three,
 G: under.
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Criteria 1: Meaning
A. things—nouns;
 B. activities – verbs;
 C. qualities – adjectives
 D. manner, place, time, cause: adverbs
 E. replacements: pronouns
 F. numbers: numerals
 G. space relations: prepositions
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Problem:
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triangle, triangular, kindness, singing, surround
Criteria 2: Form
girl/ girls
 dance/ dances/ danced
 nice/ nicer/ nicest
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Problem: the same form has different functions.
girls/ dances/ Mary’s
 danced/ tired
 nicer/ teacher
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Criteria 3: Distribution
The___
 girl, triangle, water, song
 *eat, *three,* who, *under
 I can ________
 eat, draw, begin
 *girl, *triangle, *three, *who
 It is very ____
 interesting, nice
 * girl, *eat, *she
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Criteria 4: Function
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Can be predicate by itself.
eat, dance
 *girl, *nice, * three
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Can modify a verb
fast
 *girl, *nice, *three
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Can replace a noun.
she, who, three
 *eat, *fast, *nice
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English Word Classes
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Nouns: cat, idea, dance, singing
Verbs: eat, dance, be
Adjectives: nice, square, present
Adverbs: fast, nicely, here, where, very, therefore,
unfortunately
Pronouns: I, he, my, myself, each, all, who, which,
somebody, this
Prepositions: on, under
Articles: a, the
Numerals: one, first
Connectors: and, but, if, because
Interjections: oh, wow
Word classes
 Nouns,
verbs, adjectives, etc. do not exist
independently.
 Word classes are the result of applying
several criteria to words.
Prototypes and Word Classes
 Not
all words fit equally well into their Word
Class.
 What
is walk, noun or verb?
 Which are adjectives and which are not?
 A nice
girl/ the girls present
 Very nice, nicer/ *very present/ *more present
 A red wall/ a stone wall
Some benefits
 Knowledge
about word classes can help nonnative speakers:
 Guess
the meaning of new words.
 Use words correctly.
Things to think about
 What
differences are between English and
Japanese with respect to Word Classes?
 What difficulties do the differences create for
language learners?
 Are the difficulties the same for English
speakers learning Japanese and Japanese
speakers learning English?
Adjectives
 The
nice cat. -- The cat is nice.
 The alleged victim. -- *The victim was alleged.
 The
 all
students are present.
the present students ; all the students present
Pronouns and determiners
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Each book costs over $100 (dependent)
Each costs over $100 (independent)
Personal pronouns: I saw him yesterday
Possessive pronouns: Consider my books yours
Relative pronoun: I know the guy whom you met
Interrogative pronouns: Whose book is that?
Demonstrative pronouns: Did you see that?
Reflexive pronouns: He speaks only about himself.
Indefinite pronouns: Nobody has everything.
So: I asked you to leave. Please do so now! (pro-V)
Articles and numerals
 Numerals
 Cardinal:
one two, three
 Ordinal: first, second, third
 Articles
 Definite:
the
 Indefinite: a, an
Adverbs
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Time and place adverbs: here, home, there, yesterday, now
Interrogative adverbs: where, when
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Where does he live? (I)
I don’t know where he lives (I)
Degree adverbs: very, completely, rather
Sentence adverbs: obviously, fortunately
Conjunctive adverbs: therefore, however
Relative adverb: where, when
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Do you remember the place where we met last week. (R)
Connectors 1
 Coordinators
 Coordinate
conjunctions: and, or, but
 Correlative
conjunctions:
both….and,
either…or, neither…nor
 Conjunctive adverb: however, nonetheless
Connectors 2
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Can have a double function: subordinating, some role in the clause
The type of subordinate clause determines the function of the
subordinator
Constituent clauses (subject, complement): subordinator may have
double unction
 I don’t know when he will arrive (double)
 I don’t know if he comes alone (simple)
Adverbial clauses: Subordinator does not have double function
 When he arrived, he was really tired.
Relative clauses: subordinator always has double function
 I don’t know the people who are coming.
Prepositions
 Simple:
in, on, at, about, of
 Multi-word: by way of, in addition to, apart
from
Interjections
 Express
speaker’s attitude: oh, wow, alas