Linguistics - POS Flashcards
What are all of the parts of speech? (POS) x4 x5
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs (content/open class/lexical words)
Determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs (function/closed class/grammatical words)
What does suffixation mean?
Refers to the end of a word
What does distribution mean?
Refers to the other words that occur in the context of the target word whose POS we are trying to determine
E.g. nouns can have the word the or a immediately before them: the cat sat on the mat
What are the different noun types?
Proper nouns and common nouns.
Common nouns can be further broken down into
1. count nouns
2. non-count nouns
3. concrete nouns
4. abstract nouns
5. collective nouns
What are proper nouns?
Refers to specific entities, tend to have a capital letter when written, typically don’t allow plurals e.g. Essex, United Kingdom
What are common nouns?
Less specific, don’t tend to capitalise, allows plurals e.g. cat, dog
What are count nouns?
Type of common noun.
Can count them individually e.g. books, flowers, dogs
What are non-count nouns?
Type of common noun.
Can’t be counted, no specific shape or boundary e.g. happiness, progress
What are concrete nouns?
Type of common noun.
Can touch them, tangible physical entities e.g. chair, table
What are abstract nouns?
Type of common noun.
Can’t touch them, includes concepts/feelings e.g. dream, sadness
What are collective nouns?
Type of common noun.
A group that acts like a single unit e.g. group, army, family
What is the definition of a noun?
A word which refers to people, places, things, ideas, or concepts.
What is the definition of a verb?
A word that generally conveys an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.
What are the two types of verbs and what are their definitions?
Full/lexical/main verbs (content words) e.g. walk
Auxiliary verbs (helping/supporting verbs) - accompany full verbs and provide e.g. could walk
What does a verb suffix do and what are the different types of tense? X4
Can change meaning or tense of the verb by adding a different ending
1. Third person singular, present tense e.g. she plays
2. Progressive e.g. she is playing (is - auxiliary verb)
3. Past tense e.g. she played
4. Past participle e.g. she has played (has - auxiliary verb)
What is a primary auxiliary verb and what are the two main examples?
Most common auxiliary verb type.
To be: I am, you are, you were etc.
To have: I have, we had
What is a dummy auxiliary verb? + example
Used when an auxiliary is needed but not available.
To do: did, didn’t e.g. you did ask me to come, didn’t you?
Can also be used as a full verb: he did well
What is a modal auxiliary verb?
Special class of auxiliaries.
Expresses additional meaning such as intention, probability and obligation.
Modal auxiliaries always appear before primary auxiliaries when present e.g. He may be singing.
What are the modal auxiliary verbs? x9
- Can
- May
- Must
- Shall
- Will
- Could
- Might
- Should
- Would
What is the definition of an adjective?
A word that describes or modifies a noun/pronouns.
It can be modified by an adverb e.g. very tall
What is a good way to identify an adjective?
Suffixation: er, est e.g. faster, fastest
Distribution - predicative (after noun) and attributive (before noun)
What are the ways in which an adjective can be used? x2
Predicative use: occurs after a noun e.g. the car is blue
Attributive use: occurs before a noun (most common) e.g. the blue car
What are adverbs?
Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.
What are the two types of adverbs?
Intensifiers e.g. very, extremely
Qualifiers e.g. quite, rather
What are the most common types of adverbs?
(Always check to see if it is actually an adverb): almost, already, always, here, now, often, particularly, probably, quite, sometimes, then, today, usually, very, yesterday
“Wh” words: Why/ where/ how /when are also adverbs.
What are adverbs useful for referring to? x6
- Time – tells us when something happens (yesterday, early) e.g. I never get up early at the weekend
- Place – tells us where something happens (everywhere, nearby) e.g. There was somebody standing nearby
- Manner – tells us the way something happens (carefully, slowly, well) e.g. She carefully cut out the shape
- Degree – tells us the extent of something (totally, very, rather) e.g. It’s rather hot
- Frequency – tells us the likelihood of something happening (often, always) e.g I’m always losing my phone
- Duration (forever) e.g I’m forever lost on campus
What is the definition of a determiner?
A word that modifies nouns or nouns equivalent. They help clarify what a noun is referring to.
What are some examples of determiners and what are the different types?
- The, a, an (also called ‘articles’) - a word that comes before a noun to show if it’s specific or general.
- This, these, that, those (also called ‘demonstratives’) - a word that points something out in the real world
- My, your, his, her, its, our, their (also called ‘possessives’) - which shows who or what something belongs to or is connected with
* - can also be a pronoun
‘The’ will always be a determiner
What test can you use to decipher if it’s a determiner?
Substitute something that is unambiguously pronoun or determiner – is the sentence still grammatical?
Pronoun version:
I like this/I like the
- it doesn’t work so therefore it’s a pronoun
Determiner version:
I like this book/I like the book
- it does work so therefore it’s a determiner
What is a pronoun?
A pronoun is a word that can be substituted for another word, or for a group of words.
What do closed class words mean?
Unlikely a new word will enter the language that will belong to these.
Determiner, preposition, auxiliary verb, pronoun, conjunction.
What does open class words mean?
Membership is open as new words will almost always be these.
Noun, full verbs, adjectives, adverbs.
What is a preposition?
Refer to the relationship between things in space, time or direction.
Most commonly followed by a noun phrase or pronoun.
Closed set class - islands of reliability.
What are some ways in which you can identify a noun? x6
- Suffixation evidence - listed in table 5.1 (p.59/60)
- Suffixation apostrophe evidence - Julie’s
- Plural evidence
- Distribution evidence - determiners, prepositions and adjectives frequently come before nouns
- A noun can be an appropriate answer to a one-word question e.g. Who did this? John
- Names of people and places
What are some ways in which you can identify a pronoun?
- Substitution evidence - replace with individual/group of words
- Anaphora/anaphoric reference - when words reference something that has been mentioned earlier in the sentence (something that pronouns typically do)
- Antecedent - technical term for specific word/group of words that were mentioned earlier e.g. she and Sue
- Cataphoric reference - word in a text refers to another later in the text and you need to look forward to understand e.g. When he arrived, John noticed that the door was open.
What are the different types of pronoun? x7
- Personal pronouns - 1st (you, e.g. I), 2nd (conversion partner e.g. you), 3rd (someone else, she)
- Reflexive - same entity of the noun mentioned earlier on in the sentence e.g. himself
- Possessive - e.g. That car is his
- Interrogative pronouns - who, whom, whose, which and what
- Relative - same form as interrogative but not in a question form - who, whom, whose, which, that e.g. There are lots of ways in which to exercise
- Demonstrative - used to point to specific people/things e.g. these, this, these, those
- Indefinite - doesn’t refer to a specific thing e.g. everyone, everything, nothing
What is a good way to decipher a full verb? x5
- Suffix evidence e.g. -ify, -ise, -ize, -s (as verb never means more than one)
- Distributional evidence - often preceded by pronouns or groups of nouns
- Full/auxiliary verb - ‘to be’ - am, is, are, was, were
- Forms am and are are sometimes contracted e.g. I’m sorry: contractible copula, or uncontracted e.g. I am sorry: uncontractible copula
- Prepositions sometimes occur alongside full verbs to form multi word verbs such as cross out or turn on.
What is an auxiliary verb?
Grammatically supports full verb e.g. They HAVE arrived
Can sometimes appear without full verb but not common e.g. Who is crying? She IS
What is the definition of a conjunction?
A word used to connect clauses or used to coordinate words in the same clause.
What are the different types of conjunction? x3
- Coordinating - used to conjoin two linguistic units of the same kind - and, but, or
E.g. I cried and cried and cried - three verbs - Subordinating - used when one unit is more important than the other
E.g. Rosa Parks was arrested because she would not give her seat up on the bus - implies ‘Rosa Parks was arrested’ was the main part
- Subordinating conjunction can appear first in a sentence e.g. BECAUSE Rosa Parks was arrested etc. - Correlative conjunctions - conjunctions used in pairs e.g. either/or: He was either honest or poor
What are some examples for a coordinating, subordinating and correlative conjunction?
- Coordinating - and, but, or
- Subordinating - because, after, although, before, even if, even though, if, since, so that, though, till, unless, until, while
- Correlative - either/or: He was either honest or poor
What is a performative verb?
Verb carried out by uttering them aloud e.g. I name you Elizabeth
