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Lesson 3 Parts of Speech

This document provides an overview of parts of speech in English, categorizing words based on their function, meaning, and grammatical role. It outlines three criteria for distinguishing parts of speech: notional, morphological, and syntactic, and includes exercises for identifying and classifying words. Additionally, it discusses grammatical homonyms, which are words that share the same form but can belong to different parts of speech depending on context.

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2 views

Lesson 3 Parts of Speech

This document provides an overview of parts of speech in English, categorizing words based on their function, meaning, and grammatical role. It outlines three criteria for distinguishing parts of speech: notional, morphological, and syntactic, and includes exercises for identifying and classifying words. Additionally, it discusses grammatical homonyms, which are words that share the same form but can belong to different parts of speech depending on context.

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daneilpark145
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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LESSON 3 : PARTS OF SPEECH

In English, every word belongs to a category called a part of speech, depending on its function in a
sentence.Examine the following example.
Are there any similarities in the way words in these sentences behave?
1. The worker drives carefully
2. The cat runs quickly
The worker and the cat are the ................. drives and runs are ............... and carefully and
quickly are ...........................
Such similarities of function allow us to group words together into different categories
which are called parts of speech.

CRITERIA FOR DISTINGUISHING PARTS OF SPEECH


To comprehensively distinguish parts of speech, we can use notional, morphological, and
syntactic criteria. These three criteria provide a structured and systematic way to classify
words based on their meaning, form, and grammatical function.
1. NOTIONAL CRITERIA
This approach classifies words based on their general meaning or semantic roles in the language.
- Read the following groups of words. Do they have anything in common in terms of meaning?

 Examine the following sentence. Do all words contribute equally to the meaning of the sentence?

My sister went to the post office buy stamps.


From the two examples we notice that words have different degrees of ‘meaningfulness’. Those
words that are high in meaning are called lexical, whereas words that are low in meaning are
called functional.
LEXICAL WORDS : nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
2. MORPHOLOGICAL
FUNCTIONAL CRITERIA
WORDS : pronouns, articles, prepositions, conjuntions and interjunctions
2. MORPHOLOGICAL CRITERIA
This approach examines the internal structure of words, particularly their morphemes
(prefixes, roots, suffixes) and how they inflect or derive.
ACTIVITY : Exchange each of the following words for one word in the sentence below.
Susurrated - captious - viragos
-My angry neighbors argued loudly in the yard.
.........................................................................................
1
. You should have known the categories by the morphological structure of the word. ........................

Susurrated is ................ - captious is ....................... - viragos is .......................

3. SYNTACTIC CRITERIA
The syntactic criteria focus on a word’s function within a sentence and the grammatical
relationships it forms with other words. This approach examines how a word interacts with
surrounding words, its position, and the grammatical role it plays in constructing the sentence.

In order to identify the part of speech we examine the following elements :

1. Function in the Sentence : A word's role in a sentence determines its part of speech.

 Nouns: Typically function as subjects, objects, or complements.


o Example: The dog is barking. (Subject)
 Verbs: Act as predicates or part of predicates.
o Example: She runs every day. (Predicate)
 Adjectives: Modify nouns or pronouns.
o Example: The red apple is sweet. (Modifies "apple")

2. Position in the Sentence : Words often appear in predictable positions based on their
part of speech:
1. Nouns: Often follow determiners (the, a, an) or adjectives.
1. Example: The book is on the table.
2. Verbs: Typically follow the subject in a sentence.
1. Example: She writes daily.
3. Adjectives: Usually come before the noun they modify or after linking verbs.
1. Example: A beautiful sunset or The sunset is beautiful.
3. EXERCISE : What part of speech do the underlined words belong to? Are they lexical or
functional?
1. He did well in the test.
2. The car was speeding up the hill.
3. He looked down – there was something strange under his feet.
4. Wow, werewolves heal even faster than vampires.

2
5. He had loved a singer, but he had married the farmer’s daughter.
6. Are you going to tell everyone those awful stories about my aunt?

4. GRAMMATICAL HOMONYMS
Grammatical homonyms are words that share the same form (spelling and pronunciation) but
can belong to different parts of speech depending on their usage in a sentence. These words
often require context to determine their function. Or in other words :

For example :

 She runs a successful business.


 I had a quick run around the park.
 The artist will paint the mural tomorrow.
 This paint is high-quality.
 The crowd gave a loud cheer.
 I’m sure they will cheer for her success.

Exercise : What is the part of speech of the underlined words? Make up sentences of your own
using their grammatical homonyms. What part of speech did you use in your sentence?

1. When things that we are used to are done differently, it could spark the strongest reactions in us.
- ..............................................................................................................................................................
2. The knowledge of the potential differences should be kept at the back of our minds.
- ..............................................................................................................................................................
3. The doctor was led above.
- ...........................................................................................................
4. I met her in the early hours of Saturday morning.
- ...............................................................................................................................................
5. Finally, after passing the narrows of Guaracayo, we saw the valley.
- ....................................................................................................................................................

Exercise 2 : Identify the part of speech of the underlined words. Explain your choice.
1. They put the patient under for surgery.
The servants were the under ones.
We were sitting under a tree.
2. He always goes with the chairman.
He has been on the go since morning.
3. My watch is fast.
He always drives fast.
4. She has gone out.

Truth will out!

HOMEWORK : Identify the part of speech of each word in the following sentence using
the appropriate criteria. Are they functional or lexical? Identify cases of conversion
(grammatical homonyms)

Whether you are looking for a great blouse to


wear to the next party or need a new look to wow
everyone at school, this is a great option. ds

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