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.
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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.