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    ENGLISH__CHAPTER_03-ENGLISH_WORD_CLASSES

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    3 English Word Classes WaleOsisanwo Introduction ‘We can startour dscussion inthis chapter by recall- ingour mental picture of atownandits constituent pats The syntactic structure of any human language can be likened tothe conetituent ports of tov, ‘town begins from individual houses or buildings which make up streets, while the various streets eventually make up the town, Inpracticalterms language contains indvidual words, these words combine tomake Lup phrases and clauses, which combine to make up ‘meaningful sentences. We can even evolve a pattern from this picture, Words Buildings Phrases/clauses (Houses) streets Sentences Town In this discussion, we are going to pay detailed attention to words. Word classes or parts of speech are the building blocks of the English grammar. Without a good Understanding ofthe meanings and functions of each of the word clases individually or contextually, grammar may prove laborious and boring. Word casses, 2s the name implies deals with words and the classification of words into groups. Weuse words to express ourthoughts and ideas each ime we speak and write. These words tare cessed into groups knowns word lasses or parts of speech. In English language, there are thousands of wordsall of whichare dassfid according tothe function they perform in a sentence. For instance, words that ame things are called nouns while those that describe actions recalled verbs. Inthe Tradtional Grammar parts of speech are considered as the fundamental building blocks of sentences. They are listed thus: Determiners, Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Prepositions, Conjunctions and interjection, However, a word can be correctly classified as apart of speech when it is seen in contest, in other words, the part of speech a word belongs to actualy depends on howitis used. In Engi itis common toclasiy aword such as ‘man’ as a noun because a noun is defined a ‘the name of any person, anim, place or things; but it 0 canalgo function asa verb in another context, because a verb is defined as the word which expresses action or state of being, Consider the folowing examples ‘The man is my friend. rman’ here isa noun}. ‘They man the company with extra care. (™manY here Isa verb, This means that a word can belong to more than one word class depending on the function it performs in speatic postions in a sentence, Thedefnitions ofboth the noun andthever® as given above only expose thenationalandsemanticlmplications (efsuch dafintions. On the contray stating the definitions of some other word dasses, for instance, Adjective as the word which modifies a noun and Adverb as @ word hich modifies either a verbose expose the functional and syntactic definons of such words. For example, ‘motorcycle’ and repairer’ when considered indlvidualy ‘may belong to Noun word clas, but when combined 10 form ‘motoreycle repairer’ the wort dassfor‘motoryce” changes because it now performs the function of an Adjective by qualifying the word ‘repairer’ which still remains @ noun, This will be further explained under Grammatical Functions of words. The various parts of speech can be broadly grouped into two classes: the open and closed classes. The Open Class The classes of words that belong to this group incude nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. This class admits ‘newmembersas skuaton demands. nother words, new words are coined to describe new inventions as well as. the actions they perform. Can you think of uch words? ‘Words that belong to the open class carry the mai ‘meaning in sentences. Ths Is why they are also called content words, Forinstance, (2) Oly kickes the bal, “Ol, ‘ball (nouns) and kicked (ver) carry the meaning Inthe sentence The Closed Cass “hie las of worde does not admit naw membore ‘even if situation demands i. Pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections are the classes found in this dosed cass, The closed cassis imited in number andunkkethe open dass they donot carry much meaning Insentences. For example: ‘She cooked rice ina big pot ‘She and in are the pronoun and the preposition in the sentence and they have litle meaning as they function merely to make the sentence in which they ‘occur grammatically or structurally complete, Its for this reason they are referred to as grammatical or structural words. DETERMINERS Determinersin English are wed to introduce nouns. They are used to either identity oF quantify nouns and can also occur with modifiers lke adjectives and nouns to form noun phrases. There are different types of determiners in English such as Articles: These include the definite andindefnt articles, The’ a definite article e.g The woman while ‘a’ and ‘an’ are the indefinite artides eg An overdraft. Note that ‘X's used before consonant sounds while ‘an’ comes before vowel sounds. For instance, Aman, agit; An orange, an elephant Possessives: These include his, her, thet, your, uy, Its and so on. They are slvays used with nouns to show possession or ownership ofthe nouns that follow them, Eg.My food, its milk, yourjob, their books (Quantities: These are determiners indicating quantities of nouns. Eg. some, many, few, alt of much, alte, every, one of, several, most, both, each, any, and soon. The following exemplify some of them: Somerice —eachmember allen Alotoflies muchtime several people Demonstratives: These identify the nouns e.g. these flowers, those boys, that cat, are examples of sheep species = species In our discussion we have shown two types of Inflection —the plural infection “s” as in goats and the igenitive or possession inflection as ins ~ the boy's bag. FUNCTIONS OF NOUNS The following functions are performed by nouns ina sentence. ‘Nouns can stand alone a the subject, direct object or indirect object ina sentence as in the respective examples below: 1, Jide klled the snake (Jide is @ noun and functions as the Subjed). Jide killed the snake, ‘Snake's @ noun and functions 25 the Object). Jide gave the woman a cake. (the woman’ is the Indirect abjoct anda cake" ithe dlract object) 2 3 Note that nouns do not always occur alone in these positions. They often occur with determiners, pre~ determiners, adjectives, nouns, nominals and verbals. When the noun occurs withany ofthese to form a group ‘of words in the structural position, tf called a Noun Phrase or a Nominal Group. TYPES OF NOUNS The seven kinds of noun that have been identified ‘are: Common Nouns: Theseare thekinds of nouns that refer to persons or things generally. In other words, ‘common nouns name all people, things, places of the same kind and begin with lowercase letters eg. man, book, father, bieyle, country. Proper Nouns: ProperNouns denote one particular thing, thats,» particular person, place or thing. Proper Nouns 4a gin with capital letters. 2g, Abeokuta, Molete, Redeemer’s University Collective Nouns: Collective Nouns refer to a group of persons animals or things. Another name for this kind of ‘nouns fs Class Nouns. 2g. ‘lock’ a5 ina flock of sheen ‘army’ asin an army of soldiers ‘school’ as in a school of whales Abstract Nouns: Abetract nouns do net have physlest existence but are usually associated with thought or emotion qualities, Theyre also common nouns denoting uaity, states of being or action. eg, wisdom, humility, love, hatred, courage. Concrete Nouns: These are the nouns that refer to material objects, 86. stone, chair, cupboard, wood, Countable Nouns: These are the nouns that can be counted and their plural markers can easily be added to theiesinguar forms. 126, book books, chair-chais, car -cars LUncountable Nouns: This kind ofnouns have thelr plural forms expressed in very special ways. eg. tea: threecups of tea ‘ce: two bowls of rice a However, come countable nouns such as people are ‘always plural in meaning. Similarly, there are some Lncountable nouns which are plural in form but are Singular in meaning and in use eg. news. Bxercse 1 Supply the plural form of each ofthe folowing words: village tooth ow foot shelf sheep goose path deer half wreath stadium keife vat curriculum (Change each of he folowing sentences from singularto plural 1) Thegirl cooks very well. ii) Take one car and carry one bag of rice to the shop. Ii) The oxis refusing to move. IN) My child does not ke bread fr breakfast. \)_ Thehost was highly appreciated by the man on the high table. veRBs Verbs canbe explainedas wordsthat express actions, events or state of being. Verbs are very important in sentence constructions and without them in groups of words, meaningful and complete ideas cannot be expressed. Words, such as sleep, work, jump, etc., Indicate action. Consider the following sentences: 1. Hesleeps at work. 2. Shejumped over the fence, 2. Myfatherworkedat the factory. Note that’? and ‘ed’ are added to the verbs (these ‘are called inflections) to indicate present tense and past tense respectively n the three examples given above. Verb endings however do not only signify tense. For Instance, the -s ending on the verb sleep indicates the third person singular ending of the present tense. ‘Therefore, we can desribe a verb as any word that can take a tense inflection. The notion of tense in grammar refers to the way language encode the semantic notion of time, This wll be ciscussed later in deta (CLASSES OF VERBS ‘erbscan be broadly categorized into finite and non- finite verbs. These can further be classified into more {groups as presented by the table: VERBS Finite Non-finite: Texel ‘Aullary Tnfiritive Transitive Modal Partcple Intransitve Primary Gerund 1. Finite Verbs Finite Verbs are verbs limited by theirsubjects. That 's, when the subject preceding finite verb ina sentence changes, Iaffects that verb, For instance in these sentences: 1. Wego. 2. Shegoes. 3. Igo. The verb go in these sentences isa finite verb. This 1s s0 because it's controled by its subject. A fnite verb changes is form to show tense, number, and person, In other words, a finite verb isa verb that carries tense Finite verbs can occur as Lexical or main verbs and auxiliary verbs. Lexical verbs carry the message ofthe Subject while auallary vers are helping verbs. They help the lexical verbs to express their actions. Consider the following examples: L Shereads novels alt 2 They love soccer. 3. walk everyday. ‘Theitalised words inthe tree sentences are lexical verbs. lexical verb can occur either as Transitive or Intranstive. When it is transitive, i takes an object but when it is intransitve, it does not take an object. For instance in the folowing examples: 1L. Ade kicked the ball. (the bal isthe object receiving the action of the verb kicked} 2. Ade sings. (The verb sings does nat require an object because the action of the verb is played by the subject, Note that some verbs can act as both transitive and intransitive asthe case may be. 45 Auxillary Verbs As already explained, auxiliary verbs are helping verbs. They help lexical verbs to express their actions and add information about tense. Aaiary verbs are of ‘wotypes: primary and modal auxilares. Primary Auxiliary verbs are: ‘The verb Have (has, have, had, having) The verb Be (am, are, was, were, be, being, been). The verb Do (does, do, di). (2g. 1. He has gone home. (hae ls the auxllary helping the main verb ‘go indicating tens). Note that aunilary verbs act as main verbs in some cases. eg. 1. Heishandsome, 2. Doyaucare for actin (Hereitis used tornake ‘2 question). De ‘The auxiliary verb do can be used in emphatic sentences a in the following: |dowrite poems often. ‘She does drink t night He did cook the food alone. In producing negative sentences the auxllary verb do is added to the negator not as in the following sentences: | donot play football at ll He does not play table tennis. 46 She_did not bake the bread. + Weuse dointhe formation ofinterrogativesentences asin the folowing ol sing well? ‘Does Okon drive well? Dig he pay his rent? Note that docanstand on ts ownas aver, Inthis case, itis not an auxary verb but a lexical verb. Examples: do my assignment dai, He does the work often We did the dearing immediate. The auniliry verb have as three forms ~ have - the base has 3rdpersonsingularnumber had pastform Thethree forms can go with the negativenot as well 2s the formation of interogative sentences. Here are examples Negative construction have nt eaten my food. He has not paid his fees. He had not arived by 8pm yesterday. Have / has / had can also be used as lexical verbs as in the following: ave ten suits, Bassey has many cars They had no time for us. Be Here are the realizations of the auxitary verb “BE Be, am, Is, are, was, Each ofthe eight realizations ofthe auxiary verb "be" is affected in usage by the following grammatical were, being, been phenomena Tense: _presentand past ‘Number: singular and plural Person: fist, second and third persons. {In addlition to the above, they alo form syntactic negation with net and form interrogatives too, Modal Auxiliary verbs on the other hand are used to express mood. Mood as perwhether the action expressed by the ver is possible or nat. This mood can be that of capability, certainty, possibilty, permission, obligation, _nlingness, or compulsion, eg 1 Iandoit. (can expressing capabiity) 2 He will go. (wil expressing certainty) 3. May! come? (may expressing permission) wn ‘Can is used in English to show ability, permission and possibilty as in the following sentences. *ablity: Funmican operate the engine + Permission: Can| eat the food on the table? * Possibity: The lecture can end at any time. could Could s used to show pest ability permission, possibilty ‘and abilty In unreal condition, Examples: Possibiity - Amina could never speak good Engish in those days. Permission - Could we stayin the fat? Possibly The second car could be used May May is used to express permission and possiblity, Examples Permission -You may use my office for the meeting. Possibility The teammay win the match, Might Might is used to express permission and possibilty Examples Permission - Might luse the car? Possibiity - Shemight sack the new accountant. ‘Shall Shall is used for wilingness, intention, insistence and legal injunction, future, Examples: Wilingness - He shall use the car, Intention - We shallbe there. Legal injunction ~The vice president shal actin the absence ofthe president Future = Used with and We | shall come ‘We shal pay. a should Should ic used to indicate obligation andlogicalnecessiy, contingency coalition. Examples: Obligation and necessity -Youshould weleome his ideas. Contigentuse - We should try to use their suggestions. Putativeuse It is good that we should win the contest at this point in time. Formal real condition It you should runout of cash, please call me. wil Wills used to indicate willingness, intention, _rediction, and polite request. Examples: insistence, Irtention = | willcome this evening, Insistence - | willdeal with him any day anywhere. Prediction - ‘Thematchwillhave ended by Polte Request- Will you please say that again? CContigent use in conditional sentence - The fre would burn down the whole street the fire Fighters dict arrive. Probability - That would be the new English lecturer Must Must is used to express obligation or compulsion and logical necessity. Examples: (Obligation and compulsion - You must attend the Interview tomorrow, Logical necessity Ought to ‘Ought to is used to express obligation and logical necessity. Example: ‘Obligation and logical necessity - We ought to ‘end the lecture ~ There must be a police station ‘around here Dareand Need ‘These are marginal auiaries usualy found in negative and interrogative sentences. They are urualy fallowed by plain infintve, thats infikive without to, Examples: ‘They dare not stay Dare they stay? They need not come, ‘Need they come? Used to Used to is often used to indicate a state of affairs or a past action that was regularly performed but which has stopped. Examples: Ayo used to wash Dad's car when he wasin the secondary school ‘We used to think that, Rome was in heaven, Would Would is used to indicate willingness, insistence, past characteristic act, contingency and probability. Examples: Willingness - Would you come upstairs? Insstence - Youwould use the old hall for vyourparty today. Past characteristic activity ~ He would take no breakfast before going to work in those days. Contigent use in a conditional sentence - The fire "ould burn down the whole street f the fre fighters aide’ arve, ‘Modal Verbs and conditional sentences ‘The use of modal verbs with conditional sentences 1s 2 major source of problem for students at this level, leven for users of English as a second language. The ‘uicing princpleisthat whenthereare two clauses, there ‘must bean agreement between the twociausesinterms oftense. Here are examples for you to study. IF she leaves, Ill shut the door against er. |F the team wins. | will sponsor the players totaly. If youtook care ofyourcay,youwould have agood trip to Abuja. | we knevour way through Lagos, wewouldn't need 2 guide. ‘There is a modern usage of the expression would ike to \which we should note. it means want. Here are some evamples: | would ke to stay in the hal. | would like to make some suggestions. ‘would ike to study Marine Engineering. fxercise 2 1. Describe the usage oridea expressedby the auxiary verb undertinedin the folowing sentences. Usejustone word Example: Adogcan see very welinthe dark (2) May lask the applicants to go? (b) Youmay come in now. (6) Youmighty be hucky to win the contest. (d) Could you bring in the guest? (e) Myarandmother could speak Hausa fluently (0) Shall we take our lnch or just snacks? (a) We brought him quiet inside, but ho would not confess, Teachers should always advise ther pupils. ‘The new drama should be very interesting. Lend me your new book on Grammar will ou? ity) i) 0 0 2. Complete the following sentences by choosing the ‘correct frm ofthe verb in each bracket. (2) If Tom (comes / has come / came / ad come) he would have washed the two ca, (b) If All (has reported / reported / reports / had reported) he would work on the engine, (¢)fitrains, the match willbe/ wouldbe / would have been /had been) postponed, (d) As ong as we had water we (would / would have / will/ wl ave) produced bottled water. Unless they pad, (should not / didnot / would not/ shallot) allow them in. ry 2. Non-Finite verbs Noninite verbs function as nouns, adjectives and adverbs although they are derived from verbs. The three different ways in which non-inite verbs occur are: the Infinitive, gerund and participle. 1. To forgive is divine. (infinitive frm) 2. Driving is my hobby. (gerund form). 3. Beaten by the robbers, he was unconscious. {perfective for) 4, Being hungry, | cooked some food. (continuous fer) PRONOUNS. These arewords thatare used toreplace nouns. They ‘are words such 3s |, you, he, here, himsel who, which, why, whose, whom, this, tht, one, sameone, anything, The following sentences shaw examples of pronouns: 11. Ade isa good cook, she cooked rice yesterday. 2. Theparentsattendedthe PTAmeeting andthey donated a bus to the school Insentence 1, she" replaces “Ade” whileinsentence 2 they” replaces “the parents”. The main function of a ‘pronoun i to substitute for a noun especially when the ‘oun has been mentioned intial. ‘A pronoun often serves asa subject oras an object Ina sentence. Subject pronouns are used as subjects of sentences or of subordinate clauses. The Subject Pronouns (Subjective Case) are talkizedin the sentences below. {ve forthe summer You remind me ofa grey day in winter He (or She or I) s heading fora fall, We are ready to spring into action “They never last longer than a season, (Object pronouns (Objective Case)areusedas objects cof verbs or of prepositions him. The object pronouns are Underlined nthe sentences below. Te sun never shines on me. Someday 2 planet will he named afer yout ‘Mona gave (or her a it) a gold ribbon, She showed us the ring around the moon, The Coast Guard rescued them at dawn. ‘Types of Pronouns There are several sub-

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