Descriptive grammar

Descriptive grammar

Tests applied to various word

classes

University of Szczecin

December 7th, 2008

Word categories of English

Word categories of English



Class 1: noun



Class 2: verb



Class 3: adjective



Class 4: adverb



Class A: the, a/an, both,



Class B: may, might,

can,



Class C: not



Class D: very, rather,

pretty,



Class E: and, or, but



Class F: at, by, in



Class G: do, does, did



Class H: there



Class I: when, why



Class J: after, when



Class K: well, now,



Class L: yes, no



Class M: look, say,

listen



Class N: please



Class O: let’s

Distributional tests

Distributional tests



Distributional tests – words that fill
the same syntactic slot are considered
to belong to the same class of words.



Semantics is ignored in such tests.



The ______ book is on the shelf.



large, green, exciting, damaged,



*while, *very, *that, * up, *him, *sing

Inflectional tests

Inflectional tests



In inflectional test all words that take a

particular inflectional suffix are believed

to belong to the same word class.



The _______ [-er, -est] book.



bigger, biggest, thicker, thickest



*hander, *arrivest, *ander, *himest



Derivational morphology is not used in

such tests as it is highly idiosynchratic

and individual in its combinatory

possibilities.

Inflectional tests applied to

Inflectional tests applied to

nouns

nouns



The plural –s inflection and the genitive ‘s
inflection



The plural suffix attaches to:

1.

Count nouns: pencils, dogs, hats

2.

Collective nouns: committees, herds, groups



The plural suffix does not attach to:

1.

Proper nouns: *Jims, *Susans, *Yorks

2.

Abstract nouns: *friendships, *loyalties,
*musics

Genitive inflection

Genitive inflection



The genetive inflection can be
added to all kinds of nouns, but it
is sometimes odd with inanimite
nouns, e.g. the table’s leg – the leg
of the table

Distributional tests for the

Distributional tests for the

category noun – test I

category noun – test I



1. Det ______



Nouns can follow determiners:

1.

Articles (a/an, the)

2.

Determiners (this, that)

3.

Possessives (my, your, his)

4.

Quantifiers (many, several)

Distribution of countable and

Distribution of countable and

uncountable nouns

uncountable nouns



Proper nouns don’t follow a determiner, e.g.

*the London, *the Poland, *the John



Single count nouns always follow a determiner,

e.g. a/the cat, *cat



Plural count nouns may or may not follow a

determiner, e.g. cats, the cats



Single mass nouns may or may not follow a

determiner, e.g. the honey honey, *a honey



Collective behave either like count nouns, e.g.

*herd, herds, the herd, the herds, or like mass

nouns, e.g. furniture, the furniture, *a furniture

Quantifiers in

Quantifiers in

distributional tests

distributional tests



Much, a little, a large amount of,
etc are restricted to mass nouns



Many, a few, several, a large
number of, etc are restricted to
count nouns



A lot of, more, most can appear
with both

Test II

Test II



A _____



Plural count nouns and mass
nouns may follow an adjective,
e.g. fierce dogs, sticky honey, but
single count nouns and proper
nouns cannot, e.g. *big dog,
*beautiful Paris

Test III

Test III



Det A ____



All nouns except proper nouns can

follow the sequence of determiner

and adjective, e.g. the big dog, two

fierce dogs, the sticky honey, *the

beautiful Moscow



Exceptions – geographical names:

the Amazon, the Netherlands, the

Vatican, the Hague, the Smiths,

Infectional tests for the

Infectional tests for the

category adjective

category adjective



Inflectional tests for the category

adjective include the comparative –er

and the superlative –est degree endings,

e.g. larger/largest, prettier/prettiest.



Some adjectives don’t take this

inflection.



This inflection test allows some adverbs,

e.g. late/latest, but not others

*quicklier/quickliest.

Distributional tests for the

Distributional tests for the

category adjective

category adjective



1. Det ____ N



Attributive position of adjectives



Exceptions: afraid, asleep, ablaze



2. Vcop ____



Predicative position of adjectives – follows a copula

verb, e.g. The dog is dangerous.



Exceptions: some adjectives have different

meanings in the two positions, e.g. The poor girl

vs. The girl is poor.



Adjectives may follow degree words or intensifiers

such as so, too, very, somewhat, rather, highly,

completely

Inflectional tests for the

Inflectional tests for the

category verb

category verb



The present participle –ing, which

attaches to all verbs



The 3rd p sg pres –s, which attaches

to all verbs



The past tense –ed, which attaches to

‘weak’ verbs



The past participle –ed, which

attaches to weak, but not strong

verbs

Distributional tests for the

Distributional tests for the

category verb

category verb



1. ____ N



Transitive verbs may precede noun phrases



Intransitive verbs cannot precede noun phrases



2. ____ #



3. ____ AP/NP.



Copula verbs (seem, feel, become) precede
adjective phrases, or noun phrases



4. to ____



Verbs follow the periphrastic marker of the
infinitive

Inflectional tests for the

Inflectional tests for the

category adverb

category adverb



Some adverbs take the comparative
inflectional ending –er and the superlative
ending –est.



Most adverbs are uninflected



In respect to distribution, adverbs are free:

1.

Jim worked quickly.

2.

Jim completed the work quickly.

3.

Jim quickly completed the work.

4.

Quickly Jim completed the work.

Overlap

Overlap



Many words belong to several

different classes, e.g.



Adverb: He’s never been here since. I

haven’t seen him before.



Preposition : I haven’t seen him since

lunch. I saw him before lunch.



Conjunction: He’s been asleep since I

arrived. I spoke to her before she

left.

Distributional tests for the

Distributional tests for the

category preposition

category preposition



Right ____

1.

Look it right up

2.

Go right home

3.

Land right on top

4.

He left right after the music started



Measure phrases

1.

Three feet behind me

2.

Twice before

3.

He was here two hours before I was



_____ NP.

1.

In the garden

2.

After the man leaves

3.

Blow out the candles