Lecture 7:
Word Classes and
Grammatical Categories

  1. Number
  1. Gender
  1. Person
  1. Case
  1. Definiteness
  1. Degree
  1. Tense
  1. Aspect
  1. Mood
  1. Voice

Active voice

Passive voice

Singular: "one"
Plural: "more than one"

Express

By inflection, generally by -s

By distinct forms of certain pron and adj

In verbs, by the singular -s of the 3rd person
which occurs in the present

In the inflected form of the verb "to be"

Generic number

Incorporates both singular and plural

When one doesn't want to specify number

A rather straightforward system of gender - natural gender

Expressed by inflection

in personal pronoun

in 3rd person

A covert category shown by the concurrence of relevant pronouns: the boy...he, the girl...she

Expressed in N

By derivational suffixes

By compounds

By separate forms

feminine suffixes -ine, -ess

common gender suffixes -er, -ist, -ard

lady-, woman-, girl-

for masculine, feminine, and common gender boy/girl/child

for masculine and feminine genders: uncle/aunt

1st person

2nd person

3rd person

the speaker, person speaking

the addressee/hearer, person spoken to

the person or thing spoken about

Expressed by the inflected
forms of the pronouns

Personal pronouns

Personal possessive determiners

Personal possessive pronouns

Personal reflexive pronouns

Nominative

Genitive

Objective

me, us, you, him, her, it, them, whom

I, we, you, he, she, it, they, who

my/mine, our/ours, his, her/hers, its, their/theirs, whose

Can be expressed with 's or of NP

Double genitive: periphrastic and inflectional forms co-occur
e.g.: a friend of Rosa's

The N with the "of" genitive must be indefinite

The N with the "s" genitive must be human

Definite

Indefinite

Denote the referent which is known, familiar, or identified to the speaker and hearer

THE

Denotes a referent which is novel, unfamiliar, or not known

A/AN

For something previous mentioned.

For a unique or fixed referent

For a generic referent

For something which is a part of the immediate socio-physical context or generally known

For something identified by a modifying expression either preceding or following the N

For converting a proper N to a common

For something mentioned for the first time

For something which cannot or need not be identified

For a generic referent

Equivalent to "any"

Equivalent to "one"

For converting a proper N to a common N

Positive

Comparative

Superlative

Root of the adj or adv

-er, more

-est, most

Note: foe semantic reason, not all adj can be inflected for degree