Word classes
Word classes are categories into which we place words. Traditionally these have been called parts of speech, but word class is now the term used by linguists, and by the UK National Curriculum.
The meanings of words can often be helpful in assigning words to a particular category. This is an effective approach for younger students, but older students can take a more sophisticated approach.
If we rely on a definition such as an adjective being a ‘describing word’, this is very loose: an adjective may well be descriptive in one sense, while an adverb may be equally descriptive in another. You could even argue that nouns and verbs ‘describe’ too. In fact, we often explain to students that words like manufacture are more descriptive than words like make, and so on.
So, as well as the meaning of a word, we have to look at the behaviour of a word among other words: where it occurs in relation to other words and what it does. In other words, we will be looking at distribution and function.
We will also look at form or morphology: the appearance of a word, and how this might give us clues as to its identity.
The major word classes that Englicious looks at are as follows:
- noun
- pronoun
- adjective
- verb
- preposition
- adverb
- determiner
- conjunction
Some linguists have a slightly different list, but this is the one used in the National Curriculum for England.
The following words have all been classified as nouns. Nouns are typically ‘naming words’, but do all the examples label living beings or concrete things that we can see or touch?
Here are some words that have been classed as pronouns.
These words have all been classified as determiners. The help identify the noun in front of which they appear.
The following were classed as adjectives. Adjectives can supply an attribute to a noun.
The next set of words were classified as verbs. Verbs are traditionally thought of as ‘doing words’. How do these examples fit this description?
The following words have all been classified as prepositions. What do these words have in common? What role do you think they play?
Here is a set of words which were classed as adverbs. Can you see a connection between them?
Here are some words that were classified as conjunctions.
It’s not always easy when you look at a word by itself to say what kind of word it is.
One word can have multiple meanings. It can also belong to different word classes, depending on how it is used in a sentence. For example, laugh can be a verb (1) or a noun (2):
- He does make me laugh though. [W1B-003 #93]
- Ice skating was a laugh except I have forgotten EVERYTHING. [W1B-004 #87]
As an example of a particularly flexible word, look at how round is used in these sentences:
- Again Lewis has stepped up a gear at the start of this round. [S2A-009 #82]
- She’s been touring round the country as part of her work, dropping in on us every now and again. [W1B-015 #78]
- But to round things off for now here’s a clip from another sequel, ‘Highlander Two’, featuring as before Sean Connery. [S2B-033 #109]
- Mix all the ingredients thoroughly together, divide into 4 and shape into 1 inch thick patties with smooth, round sides. [W2D-020 #33]
- He whirled round. [W2F-001 #154]
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Word classes: Interjections
Interjections are a group of words which are commonly used in spoken language to express emotions, reactions and so on. It is generally difficult to categorise them into one of the eight major word classes.
Examples include the following:
- oh, wow, aha, ouch, tut-tut, ugh, oops, humph, hooray, yuck, whew, yikes, eek
Interjections can occur on their own, or in sequence (e.g. oh wow), and can also be attached to a sentence. These examples are all from informal conversations:
- Oh that’ll be really good. [S1A-006 #55]
- Cor Helen that’s a healthy lunch. [S1A-055 #1]
- Hey he’s got some tea that bloke, hasn’t he. [S1A-019 #29]
- Gee that’s funny. [S1A-092 #196]
Although interjections are mainly found in spoken language, some examples do occur in writing. For instance, the following example is from an informal social letter:
- The garden’s coming on well. Mum & Dad gave us ten rose bushes as a house warming present & we have our first bloom – it’s really exciting. (Gosh, the things which satisfy us as we get older ... !! ) [W1B-001 #190–93]
Written examples also occur in representations of speech, like the following (taken from a biography):
- ‘Ah,’ she said and looked at me with her huge dark eyes. [W2B-004 #43]
Interjections are considered a minor word class from a grammatical point of view. They don’t really enter into grammatical combinations with other words (although they can ‘tack on’ loosely to sentences, as we have seen).
However, we would probably find it hard to do without them in conversation, especially the more frequent ones, such as oh. Try avoiding them in a conversation and see how you go, or listen out for them in others’ speech.
Some linguists think that interjections might have been the first kind of word used by our early human ancestors hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of years ago.
The idea is that these kinds of word can function in a simple way as single-word utterances, so may have been used at a stage before humans developed full grammatical language with words put together into sentences. It is a plausible idea, and intriguing to think about, but we may never know for sure!