Parts of speech
Introduction
Languages are systems; that is, they are characterized by purposeful regularity. As little children, we acquire language over time by constructing rules from data supplied by the speakers around us. Nobody teaches us rules; we arrive at them ourselves. The amazing thing is that we all construct the same rules. This collection of rules is itself the system that underlies the language; (the grammar of the language). By the time that children start to school, they have become adapt at using the language, often creating grammatically complex sentences with no formal instruction. They know the rules of the language (that is, they know how to use the rule), but they are incapable of explaining how they do and what they do. Consequently, this grammar book primarily came as a response to explain and justify the teaching and learning the grammatical categories and usage throughout both intermediate and advanced levels.
In traditional grammar, words are the basic units of sentence. Grammarians classify words according to their parts of speech and identify and list the forms that words can show up in different sentences. Although the matter is really very complex, for the sake of simplicity we will begin with the assumption that we are all generally able to distinguish words from other linguistic units. It will be sufficient for our initial purposes if we assume that words are the main units used for entries in dictionaries. In the subsequent units, we will describe some of their distinctive characteristics of words under the file Parts of Speech.
Definition of Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the compositions of clauses, phrases and words in any given natural language. Dictionaries define grammar as the rules and explanations which deal with the forms and structures of words (morphology), their arrangement in phrases and sentences (syntax), and their classification based on their function (parts of speech).
Like many dictionary definitions, this makes the term grammar in a broad sense means the system and structure of a language. The rules of grammar help us decide the order we put and change words and in which forms of a word to use. Grammar in a strict sense can be defined as “the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences, the study and use of these rules”. “Flaguni Desai,” According to this definition, there are two basic elements;
The rules of grammar, as the above definition suggest, are about how words change and how they are put or arranged together into sentences. Grammar, then, is the way in which words change in form and group together in order to make correct sentences. Grammar of any language is about how words change or modify their forms in order to construct a correct use of them in terms of both form and meaning. So English is not just a collection of words but it is about the ways words are put together to form sentences.
|
Syntax |
Morphology |
Parts of Speech |
|
The arrangement of words in phrases and sentences. Syntax is about the structure, patterns and relationship of words, phrases and clauses. Syntax attempts to uncover the underlying principles, or rules for constructing well-formed sentences. |
It studies word structures, especially morphemes, which are the smallest units of language. They can be base words or components that form words, such as affixes. A morpheme is a distinct linguistic form which is not divisible or analyzable into its constituents or smaller forms/units. |
There are eight parts of speech in the English language. They indicates how the word functions in meaning as well as grammatically within the sentence. Understanding parts of speech is essential for determining the correct definition of any word. |
There are plenty of changes and modifications that can occur to English words when they are arranged into sentences in order to use them in a correct, meaningful and functional way. Among the different grammatical patterns that are available in English with their possible changes are:
§ The affirmative form: “subject + verb + object”
§ The negative form: “subject + do + not + verb + object”
§ The plural meaning: “noun + s”
§ The making of questions: verb+ subject + object + question mark”
§ The making of negative questions…
§ The particular word order of joining two clauses to make one sentence: “first clause + connector + second clause”
§ The description of dead actions,
§ The description of completed actions: “subject + have or has + past participle,
§ The description of actions in progress,
§ The description of the states, action, and so on through statue and action verbs,
§ The use of passive and active voice,
§ The description of definite and indefinite objects,
§ The direct and indirect speech,
§ The description of real actions through conditional statement,
§ The description of unreal actions through conditional statement,
§ The expression of ability, possibility, ……through appropriate modals,
§ The descriptions of obligation, absence of obligation,
§ The division of English words into Eight parts of speech,
§ The multiple available combinations of the parts of speech,
§ …………………………………………………………and so on
|
Reminder Grammar is often defined as the system and structure of a language which help us to decide the order we put words in and which form of a word to use, but it is also useful to think of it as a resource for expressing meaning. For example, when we talk of someone ‘knowing’ the Present Perfect in English, we mean that they know how to form it (by combining the auxiliary verb have with the past participle of the relevant main verb), but more importantly in which situations it is used and which meanings it can convey. Thinking of grammar as primarily ‘rules’ tends to make people think that there is a one-to-one relationship between grammar and meaning. ‘Grammar is the way that words make sense. It is a code or set of rules accepted by any community who share a language.’ |