This lesson provides a detailed guide to syntactic categories (parts of speech) and how to assign them in FLEx. Here’s a summary:
Understand syntactic categories and their role in linguistics.
Learn how to assign and manage categories in a FLEx database.
Apply morphosyntactic principles to classify words.
What Are Syntactic Categories?
Also known as parts of speech, word classes, or form classes.
Categories include:
Noun: Names people, places, things (e.g., "tiger").
Verb: Action words (e.g., "run").
Adjective: Describes nouns (e.g., "big").
Adverb: Modifies verbs (e.g., "quickly").
Pronoun, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection, Function Words.
Language-Specific Categories:
Each language has a finite set of categories based on syntax and morphology.
Some languages require subcategories (e.g., transitive vs. intransitive verbs).
Morphosyntactic Network:
Categories are determined by:
Distribution: How words fit into a sentence.
Function: Role in a sentence (subject, predicate).
Form: Morphological properties (tense, number, case).
Identifying Categories in Sentences:
Example: The word "judge" can be a noun ("a judge") or verb ("to judge").
Morphosyntactic tests help classify words correctly.
Assigning Categories in FLEx:
Navigate to Lexicon Edit View.
Click Grammatical Info and select a category.
Use FLEx Category Catalog to add missing categories.
Complex Cases:
Multiple Categories: Some words belong to more than one category (e.g., "house" as noun, adjective, verb).
Pre-categorial Words: Some roots require affixes to define their category (common in Austronesian languages).
Subcategories: Needed when words behave differently (e.g., inalienable vs. alienable nouns).
Editing and Adding Categories in FLEx:
Use Grammar Area → Category Edit View to modify or add custom categories.
FLEx allows importing predefined categories or creating new ones.
Includes interactive activities and a quiz (80% passing score).
Further reading materials and reference links provided.
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com