A part of speech – are large lexico-grammatical classes of words differentiated on the basis of their semantic, morphological & syntactic propeties; (the grammatical category or word group in a language to which words may be assigned on the basis of how they are used in sentences. The traditional main parts of speech in English are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Others sometimes used are article and determiner.)
The words of language, depending on various formal and semantic features, are divided into classes. The traditional grammatical classes of words are called “parts of speech”, since the word is distinguished not only by grammatical, but also by semantico-lexemic properties, some scholars also refer to parts of speech as lexico-grammatical categories (Смирницкий).
It should be noted that the term “parts of speech” is purely traditional and conventional. This name was introduced in the grammatical teaching of Ancient Greece, where no strict differenciation was drawn between the word as a vocabulary unit and the word as a functional element of the sentence.
In modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of the three criteria: “semantic, formal and functional” (Щерба).
The semantic criterion presupposes the generalized meaning, which is characteristic of all the words constituting (составлять) a given part of speech. This meaning is understood as the categorical meaning of the part of speech.
The formal criterion exposes the specific inflexional and derivational (word-building) features of part a part of speech.
The functional criterion concerns the syntactic role of words in the sentence, typical of a part of speech.
These three factors of categorical characterization of words are referred to as 'meaning', form and function.
The three-criteria characterization of parts of speech was developed and applied to practice in Soviet linguistics. Three names are especially notable for the elaboration of these criteria: V.V. Vinogradov in connection with the study of Russian Grammar, A.I. Smirnitskyand B.A. Ilyish in connection with their study of English Grammar.
Today many scholars believe that it is difficult to classify English parts of speech using one criterion.
Some Soviet linguists class the English parts of speech according to a number of features.
1. Lexico-grammatical meaning: (noun - substance, adjective - property, verb - action, numeral - number, etc).
2. Lexico - grammatical morphemes: (-er, -ist, -hood - noun; -fy, -ize - verb; -ful, -less - adjective, etc).
3. Grammatical categories and paradigms.
4. Syntactic functions
5. Combinability (power to combine with other words).
In accord with the described criteria, words are divided into notional and functional, which reflects their division in the earlier grammatical tradition into changeable and unchangeable.
To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun, the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb.
To the basic functional series of words in English belong the article, the preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the interjection.
The difference between them may be summed up as follows:
1) Notional parts of speech express notions and function as sentence parts (subject, object, attribute, adverbial modifier).
2) Notional parts of speech have a naming function and make a sentence by themselves: Go!
1) Functional words (or form-words) cannot be used as parts of the sentence and cannot make a sentence by themselves.
2) Functional words have no naming function but express relations.
3) Functional words have a negative combinability but a linking or specifying function. E.g. prepositions and conjunctions are used to connect words, while particles and articles - to specify them.
Interaction between parts of speech.
Part of speech is characterized by a field or prototypical structure.The term field structure is not new,it appeared within a functional analysis of the lang& was introduced by the scholars of Prague school.The term prototypical was borrowed from cognitive phycology(E.Porsch)&became very popular almost ousting the term field.However these 2 terms are closely related .Both imply that p of s have a center & a perifery.The center is represented by units which posses all the features of a given p of s & thus they r characterized by a semmetry of semantic morphological& syntactic properties .The perifery is occupied by words which are characterized by an assymetry of these features.Ex:MAN-[sem]an animate object,[morph]number,case,[synt]it is the most friquently used as subject,object,predicative.
SIMPLICITY[+-]semantics-quality,morphology---,syntactics[-+]she is simplicity itself.Such periferal zones exist within each notional p of s 7 with the help of these periferies p of s interract with one another.
N –V
ADV-ADJECT
The most common way of functional interraction between p of s is the syntactic or functional transposition. It is a syntagmatic process which consists of the use of a word of one part of sp in the syntactic position characteristic of another p of s.In the process of syntactic transposition words realize their secondary syntactic function& thus extend the syntactic territory of p of s.Ex:she sings it verydixiland and whorehouse—N used adverbialy.A nothing day-pronoun used as an adjective.Syntactic transposition carries out 2 important functions of a lang.IT makes up for certain constrains in the sphere of word-building.Nouns are also used attributivelyTo make up for absence of an adjective(a shadow place,big city police problem)
This function of transposition is called compensatory.However syntactical transp often occurs in cases when there’s a word in this or that p of s to render the necessary meaning,yet the speakers of the lang resort to transposition to find an unconventional or expressive means of rendering the meaning(sad eyes=spanial eyes,drooping ears=tulip ears)This function of transposition is called expressive.So syntactical trans reveals the dinamic & creative potential of a language.Its ability to satisfy the communicative & expressive means of speakers.
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