Division of parts of speech in perspective of word classes

1. TOPIC: WORD CLASSES
BS English 3rd Semester
Superior Group of Colleges
Mian Channu
Prepared By:
Muhammad Aqeel Hayder
M.Phil (English Literature )
HOD (BS English)

2. WORD CLASSES
In English grammar, a word class is a set of words that display the
same formal properties, especially their inflections and
distribution. The term "word class" is similar to the more
traditional term, part of speech. It is also variously
called grammatical category, lexical category, and syntactic
category

3. All words belong to categories called word classes (or parts of speech) according to the
part they play in a sentence. The main word classes in English are listed below.
Noun Verb
Adjective Adverb
Pronoun Preposition
Conjunction Determiner
Exclamation

4. CLASSIFICATION OF
WORD CLASSES
Word classes may be classified as under;
 Open Word Class
 Closed Word Class

5. Open Word Class
Following parts of speech are
treated as open word class
(nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs)

6. CLOSED WORD CLASS
In English grammar, closed class refers to
the category of function words—that is, parts
of speech (or word classes)—that don't readily
accept new members. The closed classes in
English
include pronouns, determiners, conjunctions,
and prepositions.

7. Word classes may be either open or closed. An open class is one
that commonly accepts the addition of new words, while a closed
class is one to which new items are very rarely added. Open
classes normally contain large numbers of words, while closed
classes are much smaller.
The open–closed distinction is related to the distinction
between lexical and functional categories, and to that
between content words and function words, and some authors
consider these identical, but the connection is not strict. Open
classes are generally lexical categories in the stricter sense,
containing words with greater semantic content, while closed
classes are normally functional categories, consisting of words that
perform essentially grammatical functions.

8. Open-class words comprise a large portion of any
language. Unlike closed-class words, which are
finite, the possibility of creating and adding new
words to an open word-class is practically
infinite.
Closed word category does not readily accept
new words. Its members are fixed and do not
usually change. Nouns, verbs, adverbs, and
descriptive adjectives are exactly those parts of
speech that remain open to new additions.

9. When we talk about words, there are two groups:
lexical (or content) and function (or grammatical)
words. Lexical words are called open class words
and include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
New words can regularly be added to this group.
Function words, or closed class words, are
conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns;
and new words cannot be (or are very rarely)
added to this class.