chapter 7: word classes 2

Question 1

1) open vs. closed word classes

Answer 1

= open vs. closed –> content vs. function

• function/meaning
• diachronic
• -> function words provide a grammatical scaffolding
  1) was walking front door dropping bags going
  2) It was me - walking out of my front door, dropping my bags and going back in.

Question 2

2) open word classes

Answer 2

• three criteria: distribution, morphology, meaning

open classes:

• noun = girl, chair, water, thing
• verb = sing, walk, go, become
• adjective = good, watery, calm, unlimited
• adverb = now, there, calmly, away

Question 3

3) nouns in general

Answer 3

= largest of all word classes + cover an extremely wide rays of things
= nouns are used to create a entities (Wesen) that can be referred to + about which something can be said

inflectional categories:

• number (car - cars)
• gender (he - she)
• case (he - him)

subtypes:

• count nouns (a car)
• proper/ common nouns (Peter)
• mass nouns (milk)

Question 4

4) verbs in general

Answer 4

= main verbs express action + states and these, in turn, can be physical, mental, perceptual, social,…
= they are all used to state or predicate something about a referent

inflectional categories:

• tense (present vs. past)
• aspect (simple vs. progressive)
• voice (active vs. passive)

Subtypes:

• transitive
• intransitive
• ditranistive

Question 5

5) closed word classes: determiners

Answer 5

Determiners:
= typical nouns can co-occur with a so called determiner like the, this/these,…
= underline the fact that the noun is used as an entity + referent

types:

• article = the, a(n)
• negative determiner = no
• possessive determiner = my, your, his, her
• demonstrative determiner = this, that, these, those
• indefinite quantifying determiners = all, some, any, every, each
• interrogative determiners = what, which, whatever, whichever

Question 6

6) closed word classes: pronouns

Answer 6

= can appear in the place of nouns, or rather entire noun phrases, thus effectively substituting for them
= can’t themselves take determiners or adjectives in front of them

types:

• personal pronouns = I, me, you, he, him, we, us, they
• possessive pronouns = mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
• reflexive pronouns = myself, yourself, itself, herself
• reciprocal pronouns = each other, one another
• demonstrative pronouns = this, that, these, those
• indefinite quantifying pros = all, some, any, none, each, neither, both
• interrogative pronouns = who, whom, whoever, whatever, which

Question 7

7) closed word classes: prepositions

Answer 7

= are added to noun phrases to indicate that the NP in question bears a particular semantic or grammatical relationship with other elements in the clause

types:

• spatial = on, in, under, into, across
• temporal = in, since after, until
• causal = because of, due to, on account of
• others = of, with, about, us

Question 8

8) closed word classes: conjunctions

Answer 8

= are introductory relation words, but they introduce clauses rather than phrases

types:

• temporal = when, while, since, after
• conditional = if, even if, in case, unless
• causal = because, since, as
• concessive = although
• coordinate = and, but, for, nor, either

Question 9

9) closed word classes: auxiliaries

Answer 9

= assist the main verb of the clause to express certain grammatical meanings + to perform important grammatical operations

basic auxiliaries:

• be = progressive, passive
• have = present + past perfect
• will = future tense

Modal auxiliaries:

• can, could, may, might, must, must not
• -> MV with bare infinities: must/can do

Question 10

10) other minor word classes

Answer 10

• interjection = oh, ah, ooh, gee, ugh, hell, hey

- Numeral = one, two, three, first, second, third