AN ANALYSIS OF WORD CLASSES BY USING CRITERIA FOR WORD CLASSES

IN ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND NOVEL

By
Az-zahrah
1808103012

Introduction
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Novel which tells about the adventure of a little
girl named Alice in a magical land is a novel by Lewis Carrol. This novel is recommended
for the readers who interest in the fiction genre. The use of language in this novel is easy to
understand. Furthermore, many words in this novel that can be analyzed with four types of
criteria for word classes to determine the word classes. Word classes are a group of words
that exist in the language. The division of word classes is divided into several categories
such as word forms, functions, and meanings in the grammar system that applies in the
language. There are four types of criteria for word classes: Morphological criterion, Morpho-
syntactic criteria, Syntactic criteria, Semantic criteria (what words mean & what speakers do
with words).
Most of people only read and enjoy the story without understanding the word classes
of a word in a sentence. This paper aims to find out several words and analyze the word
classes of a word by using four types of criteria for word classes in Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland Novel. By knowing the criteria for word classes, the readers will be able to
know the types of criteria for word classes and can easily understand the meaning of a word
when they know the type of word classes. (Gardenfors, 2014, p. 180) stated, words can be
grouped into separate classes in all languages with different semantic and syntactic
functions. In English, words have traditionally been classified into eight classes: nouns,
pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Literary Review
(Kenesei, 2018, p. 1) stated, The first grammars have already provided the terms on
which to classify the words. The following eight classes: noun, verb, participle, article,
pronoun, preposition, adverb, conjunction. (Purnomoadjie & Mulyadi, 2019, p. 60-62)
stated, every word belongs to a word class, such as noun, verb, adjective, article,
1
conjunction, etc. Word class are also called "category" or "part of speech". There are eight-
word classes in English, they are Noun (a word used to name a person, animal, place or
thing), Verb (a word used to show an action or a state of being), Adjective (a word that
describes or modifies a noun), Adverb (a word that describes or modifies a verb. Ex:
carefully, quickly, wisely), Preposition (a word that indicates the relationship of a noun (or
noun phrase) to another word. Examples of prepositions are to, at, with, for, against, across),
Conjunction (words that connect two words, phrases or sentences. Ex: and, but, or, nor, after,
as, etc.), Interjection (a word that expresses emotion and has no grammatical relation to other
words in the sentence. For instance: Oh!, Alas!, Nonsense!, etc.), Pronoun (a word that
replaces or stand for a noun. Examples: he, she, it). (Damayanti & Ramli, 2015, p. 66) stated,
syntactic categories or word classes will always exist in any language. Syntactic categories
consist of verb, noun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and determiner. Each of
them has a certain position and function in a sentence. In the criteria for word classes, there
are four ways to determine word classes, namely: Syntactic criteria (Syntactic criteria is a
way to determine word classes based on the formula 'what words can appear after/before
certain words'), Morphological criteria (a way to determine the class of words by looking at
the formation of the morpheme), Morpho-syntactic criteria (a way to determine the class of
words based on morphological changes that are influenced by the syntax position), Semantic
criteria: 1.) what words mean (the determination of word classes based on meaning), 2.)
what speakers do with words (the use of adjective by speakers not to make an assertion but
merely to add to whatever information is carried by the head noun in a given noun phrase).

Discussion
In this part, the author discusses the finding of the research or analysis in Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland Novel by Lewis Caroll. There is a few words in a sentence which
analyzed by using four types of criteria for word classes.
No. Sentence Criteria for word classes analysis
1. Bring me some gloves and a fan. Quick, now! Gloves [Morphological criteria]
(p. 12)
2. She was still sitting and thinking when Ran [Morpho-syntactic criteria]
suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
past her. (p. 1)
3. She tried to open the doors, but they were all The doors [Syntactic criteria]
locked. (p. 4)

2
4. When the Rabbit ran down a large rabbit- Immediately [Semantic criteria: what
word mean]
hole, Alice followed it immediately. (p. 2)
5. She drank a little bit very slowly. (p. 5) Drank [Morpho-syntactic criteria]
In the first sentence, the word 'gloves' can be analyzed by using morphological
criteria. Based on the definition, morphological criteria is a way to determine the class of
words by looking at the formation of its morpheme or seeing its derivational/inflectional
affixes for what and who. In the word 'gloves', the addition of suffixe -s is used to indicate
that the word is plural and suffixe -s can only be added to nouns. Therefore, when the word
glove is added with suffixe -s it becomes gloves and the word is a noun.
In the second sentence, the word 'ran' can be analyzed by using morpho-syntactic
criteria. Based on the definition, morpho-syntactic criteria is a way to determine the class of
words based on morphological changes that are influenced by the syntax position. for
example, I eat rice everyday, I eat rice everyday, I ate rice everyday. The change of the word
'eat-ate-eat-eating' are morphological changes and only occur in the verbs. The change was
caused by the presence of syntax, in this case, namely time. Similarly, the word 'ran' which is
a morphological change from the verb 'run' and the change is due to the syntax position,
namely time (past).
In the third sentence, the word 'the doors' can be analyzed by using syntactic criteria.
Based on the definition, syntactic criteria is a way to determine word classes based on the
formula 'what words can appear after/before certain words'. For example: 'The' is an article
that can modify nouns. So when we find a word that starts with 'the', the word is called a
noun. Example: the padlock. Even though we don't know what it means, because we know
the word begins with the we can guess that padlock is a noun. As well as, the article 'the' in
the words 'the doors' is also an article that can modify the noun. Thus, the word 'the doors' is
a noun.
In the fourth sentence, the word 'immediately' can be analyzed by using semantic
criteria: what words mean. Based on the definition, semantic criteria: what words mean is the
determination of word classes based on meaning. The word 'immediately' has a meaning 'now
or without waiting or thinking' which is used to give the information on the verb 'followed'.
Similar to the word 'ran' in the second sentence, the word 'drank' in the fifth sentence
can be analyzed by using morpho-syntactic criteria. The word 'drank' is a morphological
change from the verb 'drink' and the change is due to the syntax position, namely time (past).

3
Conclusion
This research deduces that four types of criteria for word classes can help the readers
to easily understand the word classes and the meaning of the word in a sentence. The readers
no longer confuse to understand the criteria for word classes and its types in a sentence of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland novel. There are many words in a sentence of Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland novel that can be analyzed by using four types of criteria for
word classes (Morphological criteria, Morpho-syntactic criteria, Syntactic criteria, Semantic
criteria). The author found five words in five sentences taken from the novel which the word
class can be analyzed using criteria for word classes, the word 'gloves' which can be
analyzed using morphological criteria, the words 'ran' and 'drank' which can be analyzed
using morpho-syntactic criteria, the word 'the doors' which can be analyzed using syntactic
criteria, and the word 'immediately' which can be analyzed using semantic criteria: what
word mean. Based on the explanation in the discussion part, the readers can know how to
analyze the word classes of a word by using four types of criteria for word classes.

References
Gardenfors, P. (2014). A semantic theory of word classes. Croatian Journal of Philosophy,
14, 180.
Kenesei, I. (2018). On the definition of word classes. ResearchGate, 1, 1.
DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.34114.27842
Caroll, L. (2000). Alice's adventures in wonderland. New York: Oxford University Press.
Damayanti, L., & Ramli. (2015). A comparative function and position of English and
Indonesian preposition (comparative linguistic). Jurnal Sains Terapan, 1, 66.
Purnomoadjie, W., & Mulyadi. (2019). A Syntactical analysis on sentence structure used in
two adele's songs. PANYONARA: Journal of English Education, 1, 60-62.

ATTACHMENT OF PLAGIARISM CHECKER