Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка. Тивьяева И.В. - 18 стр.

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have no character. No wonder, other structuralists deemed it necessary to return to

traditional terminology and to use the criterion of form and, additionally, position.

The Classification of Words in Post-Structural Traditional Grammar

In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated according to three

criteria: semantic, formal and functional. This approach may be defined as

complex. The semantic criterion presupposes the grammatical meaning of the

whole class of words (general grammatical meaning). The formal criterion reveals

paradigmatic properties: relevant grammatical categories, the form of the words,

their specific inflectional and derivational features. The functional criterion

concerns the syntactic function of words in the sentence and their combinability.

Thus, when characterizing any part of speech we are to describe: a) its semantics;

b) its morphological features; c) its syntactic peculiarities.

The lexemes of a part of speech are united by their meaning. This meaning

is a category-forming one. Therefore, it is referred to as categorical meaning.

Lexemes that have the meaning of substance or thingness are nouns, those having

the meaning of property are adjectives; those having the meaning of process are

verbs; those having the meaning of circumstantial property are adverbs. As

categorical meaning is derived from lexemes, it is often called lexico-grammatical

meaning. In the surface, lexico-grammatical meaning finds outward expression.

For instance, the meaning of substance, or thingness, is realized by the following

lexico-grammatical morphemes:-er,-ist,-ness,-ship,- ment. It is also realized by

specific grammatical forms constituting the grammatical categories of number and

case. These outward features are a formal criterion of classification. The functional

criterion concerns the syntactic role of a word in the sentence.

In accordance with the said criteria, we can classify the words of the English

language into notional and functional. To the notional parts of speech belong the

noun, the adjective, the numeral, the verb, and the adverb. To the functional parts

of speech belong the article, the pronoun, the preposition, the conjunction, the

particle, the modal words, and the interjection. The notional parts of speech present

open classes while the functional parts of speech present closed classes, i.e. the