Lecture 7:
Word Classes and
Grammatical Categories
- Number
- Gender
- Person
- Case
- Definiteness
- Degree
- Tense
- Aspect
- Mood
- 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