Introduction to

Linguistics
Chapter 4: Syntax + Grammar
4.1. Parts of Speech (Lexical Categories)
 Table of contents
01 02 03 04
Noun Pronouns Verbs Adverbs

05 06 07 08
Adjectives Determiner Conjunction Preposition
09
Interjection
Parts of Speech (Lexical Categories)

- major grammatical classes into which

words can be divided
- traditional concept of parts of speech are
used.
Eight categories are classified: noun,
pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition,
conjunction, determiner, and interjection.
 01
Noun (N)
 Nouns are the names of persons, places, attitudes, ideas,
things, qualities, or conditions.

Common Nouns can further be classified

Subtypes
Proper Nouns: Named person,
place, activity,idea, or thing
Ex: John Smith, California, Paris
Common Nouns: Unlike proper
nouns these refer to a class of
persons, ideas, or things
Ex: man, state, stress
in the categories below
- Count Nouns: can be pluralized,
- Concrete Noun: tangible object
can be modified by a numeral
Ex: cow, tree, noise
Ex:dog, car, house
- Abstract Noun: intangible thing,
- Mass Nouns: Refer to substances
idea, concept
of which any
love, liberty
quality is not differentiable and
generally cannot be pluralized
Ex: butter, water, flour
 02
Pronouns (Pro)
Definition:
- A pronoun is a word that you use to refer to someone or
something when you do not need to use a noun, often
because the person or thing has been mentioned earlier
Example: ‘it’, ‘she’, ‘something’, and ‘myself’.’
Pronouns
Subtypes Examples
Indefinite no specific reference any, anybody, anyone, all,
neither, none, no one, etc.
Reflexive Object pronouns that refer back to myself, yourself, himself, itself,
the subject ourselves
 03
Verb (V)
- Verbs express an action, an occurrence, a condition, or astate of being. They can be a single word or a group
of words and, in English, they can be inflected for tenses, person, number, voice, and aspect.

Supertypes and example:

+ transitive:i am writing a report

+ intransitive: She slept

+ ditransitive: The waiter brings me this dish.

+ auxiliary verbs: The cat is eating a fish

+ modal verb: can, must, may

I will do it tomorrow
 04
Adverb (Adv)
 - Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Like adjectives, certain adverbs can have positive,
comparative, and superative degree ( fast, faster, fastest)

Supertypes and example:

+ manner adverb: badly, loudly, careful

+ time adverb: yesterday, today, tomorrow

+ place adverb: everywhere, here, there

+ frequency adverb: never, often, sometimes

+ direction adverb: along, down, toward

+ degree adverb: extremely, quite, very

 05
Adjective (Adj)
 Adjective
I. Definition: Modify a noun or pronoun; they identify a characteristic or a quality of a noun or a pronoun. In English, they occur before the noun or after verbs
like is. They can be inflected for degrees such as comparative (faster) and superlative (fastest).

II. Subtype

1. Descriptive adjectives

Descriptive adjectives are adjectives that describe the characteristics, traits, or qualities of a noun or pronoun. Most adjectives are descriptive adjectives. Words
such as purple, friendly, and attractive are examples of descriptive adjectives.

Examples 1. A lot of interesting people visit this park.

2 The leaves turned orange and red.

2. Limiting adjectives

Limiting adjectives are adjectives that restrict a noun or pronoun rather than describe any of its characteristics or qualities. Limiting adjectives overlap with other
types of adjectives such as demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives. Limiting adjectives include words such as these, your, and some.

Examples: 1. I bought some eggs at the store.

2. She found three pennies under the couch cushions.

Take a look at that house over there.

 06
Determiners
I. Definition:
- In grammar,determiner is a word that is used before a noun to show which particular example of the noun
you are refering to

- Function
Determiners come before a noun and indicate
+ the kind of reference the nous has
+ whether the nouns is singular or plural
+ possession
II. Subtype, meaning and example
1. Articles(a,an,the)
Ex: There is a dog running around the yard, the dog look happy
2.Demonstrative pronouns(This,that,those,..)
Ex: This box is bigger than that box
3.Distributive pronouns(many,some,several,..)
Ex: You can eat some candy on the table
4. Possessive pronouns(me,your,his,her,..)
Ex: Your cousin loves me as much as her father
5.Qualifiers(all,many,some,countable number,...)
Ex: More than 300 hunters want to catch that fish
 07
Conjunction
A conjunction is a strong word used to link two words, phrases,
sentences or sentences together.
Conjunctions are divided into 3 types:
1: Coordinating conjunctions
-Connect words or phrases/groups of words of the same type, or equivalent clauses
(adjectives with adjectives, nouns with nouns....)
-For,and,nor,but=however=nevertheless,or=or else=otherwise,yet,so=hence=therefore
-Ex:She is rich and coordinating famous
2: Correlative conjunctions
-Conjunctions combine with other conjunctions to form conjunctions. They are used in
pairs to link phrases or clauses that have equivalent grammatical functions.
-Both...and...,either...or...,whether...or...,so/such..that...,neither...nor..,not
only.. .butalso...
-Ex:both you and I are not wrong.
3: Subordinating conjunctions
-Connect groups of words, phrases or clauses with different functions, connect
subordinate clauses with main clauses in a sentence.
-After,before,since,because/now that/since/as/seeing that, elthough/even
though/though......
-Ex:She didn't go to school because she was ill.
 08
Prepositions
 Definition

Prepositions usually introduce a phrase that

ends in a noun or pronoun. They show a
relationship between the object and another
word or words in the sentence
 There are 8 types of prepositions in English

+Prepositions indicating time: At, on, for, since, by, after, during.
Ex: At noon, in the morning
+Prepositions of location: By/ near/close to, between, behind, in front of,..
Ex: By/near/close to the beach
+Prepositions indicate movement: To, from, over,…
Ex: go to the office, come from China
+Prepositions indicate agents:Sentences containing personal prepositions are often written
in a passive configuration and use the preposition “by” (for person) or “with” (for thing).
Ex: The bridge was built by a foreign company
 There are 8 types of prepositions in English
+Prepositions indicate instrumental manner: These prepositions are “by”, “with” and “on”.
Ex: I go to school every day by bus
+Prepositions show reason and purpose: for, through, because of, on account of, and from.
Ex: He walked slowly because of his injured leg.
+Prepositions indicate origin: of, to, with
Ex: Hanoi is the capital city of my country.
+Prepositions indicate relationships: prepositions “from” and
“of”.
Ex: Yesterday, we met a couple from Japan.
 09
Interjection
 Definition
- An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion or sudden feeling.
- It is often used to convey surprise, excitement, joy, anger, or pain. Interjection are typically
used in spoken language and are often followed by an exclamation mark.

There are three type of interjection:

+ volitive
+ emotive
+ cognitive

Examples:
- “Wow! What a lovely scene” (Expressing surprise or amazement)
-”Listen! I am starving” (Expressing attention or calling someone)
-”Phew! I finally succeeded” (Expressing relief or exhaustion)
 The function of an interjection
- To express strong emotion or sudden feelings. It add
emphasis or emphasis to statement, convey the speaker's
reaction or attitude, and help to convey the tone or mood of
a conversation or text.
 Thanks!
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