Education one

The sentence may be further divided according to the function each word has in the subject-predicate relalionship. Each of these functions is classified as a different part of speech. The words that form the central core of the sentence—around which all the other words "'cluster"—are the parts of speech known as nouns (or pronouns) and verbs; the words that modify the central core words are the parts of speech called adjectives and adverbs; the words that show a particular kind of connecting relationship between these four parts of speech are called prepositions and conjunctions.

In presenting parts of speech, traditional grammarians often include another part of speech, the interjection. However, since the interjection is simply some expression of emotion or feeling (surprise, pleasure, pain, etc.) usually occurring at the beginning of the sentence (oh, hurrah, ouch) and does not perform any grammatical function, this part of speech will not be treated further in this text.

In the chapters that follow, each part of speech will first be classified into its various types- Such classifications will be based chiefly on differences in structural form or in grammatical behavior. After that, the part of speech will be described according to the observable signals that operate the grammar— function, position, form, markers. Under function will be a further considera­tion of how a part of speech serves either as part of the central core (noun or pronoun, verb), or a modifier (adjective, adverb), or a connector (preposi­tion, conjunction). Under form will be included (1) inflectional endings, that is, endings for grammatical purposes (for example, -s for plural nouns, -ed for past verbs); and (2) derivational endings, or suffixes that indicate the part of speech (for example, -tion for a noun, -ize for a verb). Under markers will be included the kinds of words that act as signals for parts of speech that follow (for example, the before a noun; very before an adjective or adverb).

From the discussion of these parts of speech we will see that only nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs have special inflectional and derivational endings, and use special markers for identification. The great bulk of our vocabulary falls into these four parts of speech, and new words enter into these categories only.

Pronouns make up a small class of words of very high frequency. The traditional definition of a pronoun as "a word that takes the place of a noun"¹ is applicable to some types of pronouns but not to others. Those pronouns that arc actual substitutes may refer not only to a preceding noun—its antece­dent—but to a larger part of a discourse that precedes. Those pronouns that are not substitutes may simply have indefinite reference or express indefinite quantity.

Modern grammarians who regard position and function as the decisive factors in classifying a par! of speech often consider pronouns as a subclass of nouns. However, they point out important formal differences: many pro­nouns are more highly inflected for grammatical properties (person, number, case and gender), and all pronouns lack the derivational endings (such as -tion, -ment, etc.) that nouns have.

Although there are a number of dissimilarities among the types of pro­nouns—some may be freely chosen and some may not, some are substitutes and some are not, some are inflected and some are not, some take adjective modification and some do not—there are iwo features that most pronouns have in common. One is their weak lexical content. Whatever meanings they have are derived from the context in which they are used, in addition, many pronouns have the ability to serve either of two functions—they may stand alone in noun function, or they may act as adjectives (determiners) that precede descriptive adjectives.