Word Classes Flashcards
Criteria for Defining Word Classes
Distribution, morphosyntax, function
Word classes not found in English
Classifiers, converbs
This word class in English looks very different in other languages
determiner
Inflectional categories associated with verbs
TAM, evidentiality, voice
Verbs that can behave as transitive and intransitive are called…
ambitransitive
How many tense distinctions do most languages make?
Usually two: past vs. non-past and future vs. non-future
Most common aspectual distinction
perfective and imperfective (complete or incomplete)
List the aspects <3
- perfective
- imperfective
-> habitual
-> progressive
-> iterative
etc.
What’s the difference between grammatical aspect and lexical aspect?
lexical aspect: when verbs carry aspectual meaning
ex. snap, sneeze (punctual) deteriorate, ooze (durative) crackle, wag (iterative)
aktionsart
lexical aspect of a verb
Moods
Realis
Irrealis
- subjunctive
- imperative
- hortative
- conditional
- interrogative
Types of evidentiality
Witness v. non-witness
sensory (visual v. non-visual)
Reportative (hearsay v. quotative)
inferential
Inflectional categories for nouns
number, possession, case, definiteness
Semantic roles of nouns!
Agent, patient, theme, recipient, beneficiary, experiencer, stimulus, instrument
- Agent: deliberate performer of an action
- Patient: concretely affected/changed
- Theme: moved to a different location
- Recipient: receives theme
- Beneficiary: benefits from action
- Experiencer: experiences sensation, thought, or emotion
- Stimulus: causes sensation, thought, or emotion
- Instrument: used by agent to perform action
Case!
Nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, allative
Nominative: subject
Accusative: Object
Dative: To X
Genitive: of X
Ablative: from X
Ablative: toward X
