The document discusses the different types of word classes and the criteria used to classify words. There are two main types of word classes - lexical/content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions that have denotations, and grammatical/function words like articles and auxiliary verbs that do not refer. Words are classified based on morphological criteria like what suffixes they take, morpho-syntactic criteria like inflectional suffixes indicating person, number or case, syntactic criteria based on context and phrase type, and semantic criteria regarding meaning.

1. WORD CLASSES
BY
SITI NURANI, S.PD., M.HUM

2. WHAT ARE WORD CLASSES?
 LEXICAL (CONTENT WORDS)
WORDS THAT HAVE A DENOTATION APPLY TO PEOPLE,
PLACES,
THINGS, ACTIONS, STATES, AND PROPERTIES => NOUNS (E.G.
VILLA,
IDEA, ETC), VERBS (E.G. BUY, DESTROY, ETC), ADJECTIVES (E.G.
STRONG, ABSTRACT, ETC), ADVERBS (E.G. HOPEFULLY,
RAPIDLY, ETC),
PREPOSITIONS (E.G. WITH, FROM, ETC)
 GRAMMATICAL (FORM WORDS)
WORDS THAT DO NOT REFER => DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE
ARTICLES
(E.G. A, AN, THE), DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES (E.G. THIS,
THESE,
THOSE), AUXILIARY VERBS (E.G. IS, HAS, ETC).

3. CRITERIA FOR WORD CLASSES
1) MORPHOLOGICAL CRITERION
(WHAT A GIVEN WORD TAKES SUFFIXES)
2) MORPHO-SYNTACTIC CRITERIA
(WHAT A GIVEN WORD TAKES SUFFIXES HAVING TO DO
WITH
PERSON, NUMBER, OR CASE)
3) SYNTACTIC CRITERIA
(WHAT WORDS A GIVEN WORD OCCURS WITH AND THE
TYPES OF
PHRASE IN WHICH A GIVEN WORD OCCURS)
4) SEMANTIC CRITERIA
(WHAT WORDS MEAN)

4. MORPHOLOGICAL CRITERION
 THIS CRITERION HAS TO DO WITH THE GIVEN WORD THAT TAKES
SUFFIXES
 DERIVATIONAL
GENERALLY COMBINE WITH THE BASE TO CHANGE ITS “PARTS OF
SPEECH CLASS”
EXAMPLES
- DERIVATIONAL SUFFIX “-ER” (V  N)
VERBS NOUNS
TEACH TEACHER
- DERIVATIONAL AFFIX “LY”(ADJ  ADV)
ADJECTIVES ADVERBS
HAPPY HAPPILY
- DERIVATIONAL AFFIX “-EN” (N  V)
NOUNS VERBS
DANGER ENDANGER

5.  INFLECTIONAL
CARRY GRAMMATICAL MEANINGS LIKE “PLURAL”, “TENSE AGREEMENT”, OR
“POSSESIVE”AND NEVER INVOLVE A CHANGE OF PARTS OF SPEECH CLASS.
- INFLECTIONAL AFFIX “PLURAL”MORPHEME TO THE NOUNS, THEY ARE STILL
NOUNS.
SINGULAR NOUNS PLURAL NOUNS
BAG BAGS
- INFLECTIONAL AFFIX “POSSESIVE”OF ALL NOUNS.
JOHN'S BOOK/BOOKS THE MAN'S BOOK/BOOKS
- INFLECTIONAL AFFIX “TENSE AGREEMENT”MORPHEME TO THE VERBS,
THEY ARE STILL VERBS.
PRESENT TENSE AGREEMENT
I/YOU/WE/THEY LOOK/SING
SHE/HE/IT LOOK+S/SING+S
PRESENT PARTICIPLE AGREEMENT
LOOK+ING/SING+ING
REGULAR VERBS OF PAST AND PAST PARTICIPLE
I LOOK+ED FORMED BY THE
I HAVE LOOK+ED SUFFIX “-ED”

6. MORPHO-SYNTACTIC CRITERIA
 these criteria have to do with inflectional suffixes and the
information (person, number, case) signalled by them.
examples:
 person
she writes, they write
 number
singular plural
cat cats
mouse mice
 tense
- pull vs pulls vs pulled
- he/she is speaking about moscow. (present time)
- they were speaking about moscow. (past time)

7. SYNTACTIC CRITERIA
 these criteria have to do for word classes are based on what words a
given word occurs with and the types of phrase in which a given word
occurs.
examples:
(1) a. the dog stole the turkey.
b. the children chased the dog.
c. the cook saved no scraps for the dog.
description:
- dog occurs to the left of stole in (1a), to the right of
chased in (1b), and to the right of saved in (1c) but
separated from it by the interviewing word for.
- dog occurs in a noun phrase and can be modified by a
word such as the

8. (2) a. a tall building.
b. this building is tall.
c. a very tall building.
d. a taller building
(3) a. a unique building.
b. this building is unique.
c. a very unique building.
d. * a uniquer building
e. * a more unique building
description:
- there are two criteria labelled ‘d’ because some
adjectives take the comparative suffix –er while others
do not allow that suffix but require more.
- the adjective ‘tall’ meet all the criteria but ‘unique’ does
not.

9. SEMANTIC CRITERIA
 these criteria have to do of what speakers and writers actually do with
verbs, nouns and so on.
 two such speech acts are referring to entities and predicating
properties of them.
 the term “denote” is used for the relationship between a given word
and the set of entities.
examples:
- nouns are the centre of noun phrases, by means of
which speakers and writers refer to entities.
- verbs ,including be, signal the performance of a
predication.

10. EXERCISE
PLEASE DO NUMBER 1

11. THANK YOU