lexical category

Lexical Category is also called by word class, lexical class or in traditional grammar is called parts of speech. It is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behavior.
There two kinds of word classes:
1. Open word classes.
2. Closed word classes.

Opened Word Classes

A. Adjective

We know that an adjective is to modify a noun. But in the word class definition: an adjective is describing it or making its meaning more specific too.
Examples: beautiful, great, tired, etc.

Adjectival phrase

An adjectival phrase is a phrase with an adjective as its head.
Example:
Our teacher has been so kind to us.
The adjective kind is modified by the adverb so to form the adjectival phrase.

Attributive and predicative adjectives

An attributive adjective is one which is part of a noun phrase with the noun which it modifies.
Example: a beautiful girl.
 A predicative adjective is one which functions as part of the predicate of a sentence.
Example: the girl is beautiful.

Adjective order

1. Determiner: a, an, the, etc.
2. Subjective or evaluative adjective: beautiful, smart, etc.
3. Measurement adjective: old, new, big, small, tiny, etc.
4. Coloration adjective: black, white, yellow, etc.
5. Origin adjective: plastic, French, etc.
6. Headword
Example:
A beautiful old black wooden statue.
1     2          3     4        5           6

Comparison of adjectives

Most English adjectives have comparative and superlative forms. Some adjectives have superlative forms in their comparison, such as good, better, best.
Example:
 Comparative:
Tia is taller than Ovie.
 Superlative:
Sonia is the best student in the class.


B. ADVERB

Adverb is a word that modifies any other part of language (verbs, adjectives (including numbers), clauses, sentences and other adverbs) except for nouns.
An adverb is a type of word that is a member of the adverb part of speech class, while an adverbial is a syntactic function.



Adverbial Functions
• as a verb-modifier
Ex: He walks slowly.
• as an adjective-modifier
Ex: The dictionary is too expensive.
• as an adverb-modifier
Ex: I am sure that she can do it more clearly.
• adverb modifies a preposition
Ex: She often behind me when we were doing an examination.
• adverb modifies a whole sentence
Ex: Unfortunately, she fell down.
• adverb links one sentence to another
Ex: I am very tired; therefore I will take a rest at this time.

Groups of adverbs

• Adverbs of manner
Examples: happily, quickly, slowly, and smoothly.
• Adverbs of time
Examples: then, soon, recently.
• Adverbs of place
Examples: above, there, here.
• Adverbs of degree
Examples: much, more, very, really.


C. Interjection

An interjection is a big name for a little word. It is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker.
An interjection is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written.
Examples:
Ugh, wow, ouch, scat, um, and eureka.
Hello and Goodbye
Cheers! and Hurray!.
Interjections can be phrases or even sentences as well as words:
As I entered the room - Oh, my goodness! What I saw! - he was still standing there.


D. NOUN

A noun is a part of speech both a word or phrase which can co-occur with definite articles and attributive adjective, and function as the head of a noun phrase.
A traditional definition of nouns is that they are all and only those expressions that refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality or idea.

Classification of nouns:

• Proper nouns and common nouns
Proper nouns are the names of unique entities.
Example: "John", "Mary" and "French".
All other nouns are called common nouns. For example, "man", "town", and "office" are common nouns.
• Count nouns and mass nouns
• Count nouns (or countable nouns) refer to discrete, countable objects. Count nouns can take a plural, can combine with numerals or quantifiers and can take an indefinite article.
Examples: book, umbrella, and table.
• Mass nouns (or uncountable nouns) refer to objects that cannot be individually enumerated. They are always singular. In other words,an uncountable noun has no plural form.
Examples: water, news, salt, faith, etc.
• Collective nouns
Collective nouns are subject-specific words used to define a grouping of people, animals, objects or concepts. Example. A cup of tea. Cup is a collective noun.
• Concrete nouns and abstract nouns
• Concrete nouns refer to definite objects.
Example: chair, Mary, bag, etc.
• Abstract nouns on the other hand refer to ideas or concepts.
Example: faith or love.
• Nouns and pronouns
Noun phrases can be replaced by pronouns, such as he, it, which, and those, in order to avoid repetition or explicit identification, or for other reasons.
Example: Mary has been maried and she was very happy.


E. VERB

A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action, occurrence, or a state of being.
Valency is the number of arguments that verb takes.
According to valency, there are 3 classes of verbs:

1. Intransitive is the verb only has a subject. So, intransitive has not a object. The sentence only contains a subject and a verb. It has one valency.
Example: She cries.
2. Transitive is the verb which has a subject and a direct object. So, the valency of it is two.
Example: He brings a book.
3. Distransitive is the verb which has a subject, a dicect object and an indirect or secondary object. So we know that the valency of it is 3.
Example: She brings me a book.

There is a special kind of verb too in many languages. It is called a copulative verbs or linking verbs. It is used to describe the subject. Example:
- To be (am, is, and are)
Verbal noun is a noun that describes the action of the verb.
Examples: writing, playing, too writes, to play, etc.
Verbal adjective is called participle. Example: given, added, etc.


Closed Word Classes


A. Auxiliary verb

Auxiliary verb is the verb that used with main verbs to show tense, etc. and to form questions.
In English, the extra meaning an auxiliary verb imparts alters the basic form of the main verb to have one or more of the functions.
The functions of the English auxiliary verb:

 Passive voice

Example: the book was read by me.
It implies that someone read it without stating who or what is was.

 Progressive aspect
 The auxiliary verb be is used with a present participle to form the progressive aspect.

 Perfect aspect
The auxiliary verb have is used with a past participle to form the perfect aspect.

 Modal
Modals express the speaker's opinion at the moment of speaking. They are: can/could, may/might, shall/should, will/would, and must.

 Dummy
A dummy auxiliary do is used for questions and negatives when only a full verb exists in the positive statement.

 Quasi auxiliaries
Quasi auxiliaries require an infinitive, a gerund, past participle, and other.

B. Grammatical conjunction

A conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, phrases, or clauses together. It is an invariable grammatical particle too.
Types of conjunctions:

1. Coordinating conjunctions are the conjunctions that join two items of equal syntactic importance. Examples: and, but, or, nor, and for.

2. Correlative conjunctions are pairs which work together to coordinate two items. Examples: both, and, not, but.

3. Subordinating conjunctions are conjunctions that introduce a dependent clause. Examples: after, although, if, and because.


C. Determiner

A determiner is a noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase in the context.
English determiners:
Articles: a, an, the
Deminstratives: this, that, these, those.
Possessive determiners: her, my, his, etc.
Quantifiers: all, few, much, etc.


D. Measure Word

Measure words are words that are used in combination with a numerals to indicate the count of nouns.
Examples:
A cup of tea
An ear of corn

E. Adposition

Adposition is classified by their placement relative to their object.
The kinds of adpositions:
 Prepositions
 Postpositions
 Ambipositions
 Circumpositions


F. Pronoun

A pronoun is a pro form that substitutes for a noun phrase.
The kinds of pronoun:
 Demonstrative Pronouns
 Interrogative Pronouns
 Personal Pronouns
 Relative Pronouns