4.1 Word Classes (Parts of Speech/POS): Intro
4.1 Word Classes (Parts of Speech/POS): Intro
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Warm-up activity:
Watch the video of Lewis Caroll's 'JabberWocky' and answer the following questions:
Which words were invented by Carroll?
In what methods were these words invented? (This needs your knowledge of morphology.)
What do these coined words mean?
What word classes do they belong to? (nouns, verbs, adjective, adverbs, interjections?)
JabberWocky by Lewis Carroll
0️⃣ 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
1️⃣ “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
2️⃣ He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And burbled as it came!
3️⃣ And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
4️⃣ One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
5️⃣ “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
0️⃣ ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
This is a sample analysis of the1st stanza:
brillig: adjective (hint: It was brillig. a simple word, meaning: brilliant, bright)
slithy: adjective (hint: the derivational morpheme -y; formed through blending and affixation; meaning: lithe and slimy)
toves: noun (hint: the inflectional morpheme -s; a simple word, a creature that combines aspects of a badger, a lizard and a corkscrew)
gimble: verb (hint: similar to nibble, a simple word, meaning: "go round and round like a gyroscope" and "make holes like a gimlet")
wabe: noun (hint: in the wabe, derived from the verb "swab" or "soak" a simple word, meaning "the grass plot around a sundial" where the slithy toves gimble)
mimsy: adjective (hint: the derivational morpheme -y, formed through blending, meaning 'flimsy and miserable')
borogoves: noun (hint: inflectional morpheme -s; formed through blending 'boro + goves', meaning: 'a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round--something like a live mop.
mome: noun (hint: a simple word, 'might be the shortened form of "from home", indicating that the animals had lost their way'.)
raths: noun (hint: the inflectional morpheme -s; meaning 'a type of green pig')
outgrabe: (hint: out-grabe; formed through prefixation, meaning 'to bellow, whistle and sneeze in the middle. Rather like pigs making a fuss.')
📝 Now, your turn. Can you find more coined words in the poem? Talk with your classmates about the possible meaning of each coined word and the hints that help you figure it out.
Type down your analysis in this G.doc (WS 4.0.1).
4.2.1 Open- vs Closed-class Words:
If you pay attention to the POS these invented words, you'll notice that most of them are nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Together with adverbs, these word classes are known as the open-class or (lexical/content) words.
Also notice that there are some words that we can recognize easily. These are pronouns (e.g., it), conjunctions (e.g., and), determiners (e.g., the), and prepositions (e.g., in). They have a rather closed membership. Thus, they are called the closed-class (grammatical/function) words.
A. The open-class words are open because it welcomes new members. It is called content words because words in this class carry propositional meaning. The open class includes four parts of speech:
nouns [bluetooth, blue-ray, DVD, iPod, blog ...]
adjectives [fleek, lit, dope, woke ...]
lexical verbs [google, email, DM, unfriend ...]
adverbs [freakingly, blindly, maddeningly ...]
interjections [wow, huh, ha ha …]
B. The closed-class words are closed because it is almost impossible to invent new words in this category. It is called function words because words in this class do not have concrete meaning but act as connectors of the content words. The closed class includes
determiners [a, an, the, this, that, some ...]
pronouns [I, you, he, his, him, himself, ourselves …]
prepositions [in, out, beyond, above, under …]
conjunctions [and, but, or, yet, so, however …]
auxiliary verbs [be, do, have, shall, must ...]
4.2.2 The Origin of POS:
The text Tékhnē grammatiké (c. 100 BCE, Gk. gramma meant letter, and this title means "Art of letters"), possibly written by Dionysius Thrax (170 – 90 BCE), is considered the earliest grammar book in the Greek tradition. It lists eight parts of speech and lays out the broad details of Greek morphology including the case structures.
"By the end of the 2nd century BC, grammarians were identifying eight categories of words.
In 500AD, Priscian added a new category of 'interjection'.
Today, auxiliary verbs are separated from main verbs and words are often grouped into ten classes (parts of speech) in two categories." (Trivium. p.68)
Have you heard about 'The Poem for the Eight Parts of Speech'? It goes like this:
A noun’s the name of anything as school, garden, toy, or swing.
Three little words you often see, are articles – a, an, and the.
An adjective tells the kind of noun as: great, small, pretty, white, or brown.
Instead of nouns, the pronouns stand her head, his face, your arm, my hand.
Verbs tell of something to be done, to read, write, count, sing, jump, or run.
How things are done the adverbs tell, as: slowly, quickly, badly, or well.
The prepositions stand before nouns, as at or through the door.
Conjunctions join words together, as men and women, wind or weather.
The interjections show surprise, as Wow! How pretty! Oh! How wise!
The whole are called nine parts of speech, Which reading, writing, speaking teach.
It's enough to know that a noun refers to a person, place, or a thing at school. In this class, we'll learn much more about these word classes.
Recommended video (This video has a more detailed explanation of the eight POS).
Recommended video (This video has a more detailed explanation of the eight POS).
PRACTICE: 📝
PRACTICE: 📝
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