Descriptive Grammar – 2S, 2016 Mrs. Belén Berríos Droguett Unit 1 Word Classes Descriptive Grammar – 2S, 2016 Mrs. Belén Berríos Droguett

Word classes Words can be classified in two main ways: Simple and Complex Open and closed The first classification is closely related to the form of words, its constituents and the changes they can go through. At this level we can focused on: Stems/Roots Affixes: Suffixes Prefixes Simple words will be the ones formed by one stem, while a complex word has always a stem plus an affix

Word classes The second classification is related to their form also as well as their use in bigger grammatical structures Open Class Closed Class Noun (N) Determiner (d) Verb (V) Pronoun (pn) Adjective (Aj) Preposition (p) Adverb (Av) Conjunction (cj) Operator verb (v) Interjection (ij) Enumerator (e)

Word classes All of these classes are usually also called “Parts of Speech”, since they appear in any type of written or oral communication we use Besides the two classification listed before, there are other classification used in understanding words, e.g.: Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs (AITEG) Words, in general, can be recognized from one class or another according to the context they appear Open class words/units usually are the same for most grammatical books, however, in some texts (AITEG) they consider many more classes and subclasses of Closed class units For this course, we will study only the closed class units listed in EGFT

Open class units/words Open classes are called this way because they are “open” to receive or create new units according to the need We can identify them from three points of view: Form: they can be made up of morphemes, in this case, we can identify the use of inflectional and derivational suffixes Function: the way it occurs in certain positions or structural contexts, thus, how it works in a phrase/clause/sentence Meaning: it is not a strong criterion, however there could be seen some similarities in open class units and their definitions According to Leech, these points can be ranked as: Function  most important Form  next important Meaning  least important

Closed class units/words Closes classes are limited and almost never admit ne words Every of the classes contain few members, and in some cases, very easy to identify and list They tend to appear at or towards the beginning of larger units They can be identified as markers of the unit they introduce According to some books, the classes can vary in name or numbers, so we will focus only in the ones mentioned previously