wk 6 - wordclass

Question 1

Whts the diff between open vs closed word classes?

Answer 1

OPEN
- new words are constantly created & added to these classes
- words in this class usually have meaning
- noun, verb, adjective adverb

CLOSED
- new words are rarely added to these classes
- words in this class help to express & undst the r/s betw lexical/content words
- determiner, preposition, pronoun, conjunction

Question 2

What are the criterias that determine whether words belong in the same class?

Whats the morphological & distributional/functional possibilities of word class?

Answer 2

DEPENDS ON CONTEXT OF THE SENTENCE

1. morphological possibilities
   - how a word can be modified or inflected to form different grammatical variants
2. distribution/fxn
   - can occupy similar positions in a sentence
   - hv similar fxn
   - describe the range of syntactic contexts or positions in which the word can appear

Question 3

How do you identify a NOUN?

Answer 3

APPLY ALL CHECKS
DEPENDS ON CONTEXT OF THE SENTENCE

Morphological possibilities
1. can be pluralised
2. can take possessive marker/ can add an (-‘s) to it
eg: person’s

Distributional possibilities
1. a _ of _
- if a word can appear in either slot -> evidence of it being a NOUN

Question 4

How do you identify a VERB?

Answer 4

DEPENDS ON CONTEXT OF THE SENTENCE
Morphological possibilities
1. Followed by a mark of past tense (-ed)
- eg: protested

2. can exhibit agreement with subject
   - check whether can change from ‘this worker’ to ‘these workers’

Distributional possibilities
1. Usually appears aftr a subject

2. Meaning of the word can be made negative
   - eg: do not
3. Can appear after auxiliary verbs
   - has, have, had, do, does, did, shall, should, will, can, may, am, is, was, are, were
4. can have -ing after the word: shows smt in progress

Question 5

How do you identify an adjective?

Answer 5

Morphological possibilities
1. Can be inflected to form comparative/superlative
- eg: early, earlier, earliest

Distributional possibilities
1. Can occur between a determiner & a noun
2. Can follow linking/copula verb: be, been being, am, is are was were
3. Can fllw more/most
4. Can co-occur with other adjectives

• Function: modify NOUNS = tell us about a noun, specify a property/quality of the noun
  → can be a matter of degree: comparative (larger) & superlative (largest)

Question 6

How do you identify an adverb?

Answer 6

If morphological criteria cannot clearly identify the class of a lexical word = adverb
OR
if a content word is not a N, V, Adj then its an Adv

Distributional:
1. Adverbs are generally freely positioned
- Can be put in different positions within a sentence, with no grammatical errors
Eg: Sadly, she is an idiot. / She, sadly, is an idiot. / She is an idiot sadly. / She is, sadly, an idiot.

FUNCTION:
- modifies things OTHER than nouns / attribute a quality to the meaning of another word, phrase or adverb
Eg: She speaks very fast → fast modifies the verb “speaks”

Question 7

How do you identify a determiner?

Answer 7

D
1. Have no morphological possibilities - no morphological operation can change their shape
2. Cannot occur alone, some preceed a noun & optionally adjectives in a NP!
NP = string of words that pronouns can replace
- eg: a cute boy -> him

• eg: the, a, some, this

Question 8

Whats the difference between a possessive determiner and pronouns?

Answer 8

PD
- come before nouns in a NP
- my, your, his, its, our, their

Pronouns
- DO NOT come b4 nouns in a NP & Replace NPs
- eg: she saw her with his

Question 9

How do you identify a preposition?

Answer 9

Have no morphological possibilities

DP:
1. precedes a pronoun
- eg: this teacher of ours
2. or precedes a NP
- with (the stray cats)

Question 10

Difference between a preposition and a Determiner?

Answer 10

P: occurs outside NP
D: part of the NP

eg: (P) with [(D) the stray cats]