CHAPTER 1 Part of speech

Syntax:
Syntax: the study of the ways in which words combine into units such as phrases, clauses, and
sentences.
[Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N., [2014]
Word classes (part od speech): are groups of words which function similarly in a sentence.
A family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality is called a
grammatical category.
Word classes include Form classes, Structure classes and Positional classes
1) Form classes:
There are FIVE of these:
- nouns,
- verbs,
- adjectives,
- adverbs,
- and uninflected words
Characteristics
- The membership in a class is determined by THE FORM of the word.
- The form-classes are large and open because they often admit new members.
I. Nouns:
1. Proper nouns (Danh từ riêng) refer to unique things such as people, places or
institutions
Ex: Robert Walpole, Cologne
2. Common nouns (Danh từ chung) refer to either a class of objects or a specific instance
of that class.
Ex: water, plant
a. Concrete nouns (danh từ cụ thể) refer to perceivable objects
Ex: book, table
b. Abstract nouns (danh từ trừu tượng) refer to ideas, feelings, and “things” of that
kind.
Ex: peace, love

Example: long (adj)

Length (n) → concrete noun as we can measure
Longevity (n) → abstract noun as we can’t use our sense to perceive.
➔ Concrete nouns or abstract nouns have two forms:
• Countable nouns refer to objects that may be counted
Ex: a box, two boxes
• Mass nouns are uncountable nouns
Ex: water, cheese,...
* Some nouns may be countable or mass, depending on the context in which they are
being used.
Ex: Peter wants some cake. (Mass noun)
Peter has baked two cakes. (countable noun)
 Give me a beer please.
→ “beer” is mass noun but in this situation “a beer” means “ a glass of beer”
* Some mass nouns may be used as if they were countable nouns.
Ex: Cheese in these five cheeses.
Their meaning is not simply a plurality of objects but rather “a number of kinds of
objects”
“Five cheeses” means “five kinds of cheese”.
* Mass nouns can be made countable by prefixing some expression of measurement.
Ex: Six spoonsful of flour
II. Verbs
Verbs refer to actions, events and processes.
Forms of verbs:
⚫ Infinitive (to walk, to go,…)
⚫ Third person singular present tense (walks, goes,…)
⚫ Past tense (walked, went,…)
⚫ Present participle (Walking, Going,…)
⚫ Past participle (Walked, gone,…)
Kinds of Verbs
Ex: He has a big house. → “has” is a lexical verb
He has bought a big house. → “has” is auxiliary because it has grammatical function.
“bought” is a lexical verb
⚫ Auxiliary verbs ( Modal verbs) are closed subclass and have mainly grammatical
function.
They include Be, Have, Do and Can, Could, Will, Would, Shall, Should, May, Might,
Must.
⚫ Lexical verbs:
- Transitive verbs (Ngoại động từ) require an object.
- Intransitive verbs (Nội động từ) do not take an object.
--> Some verbs may be transitive and intransitive.
Ex: He is walking.
He is walking his dog.
- Dynamic verbs may enter BE + _ing construction
Ex: John is speaking English.
Dynamic verbs include activity verbs, process verbs, bodily sensation verbs,
transitional event verbs, momentary verbs
+ Activity verbs: drink, play, write, abandon, ask, beg, call, eat, help, learn, listen,
look at, play, rain, read, say, slice, throw, whisper, work.
+ Process verbs: grow, widen, slow down, mature, change, deteriorate.
+ Bodily sensation verbs: ache, feel, hurt, itch.
+ Transitional event verbs: arrive, die, fall, land, leave, lose
+ Momentary verbs: hit, jump, kick, knock, nod, tap
- Stative verbs (động từ chỉ trạng thái) may not be used with BE + _ing
Ex: They know English. (correct)
They are knowing English. (Incorrect)
 Stative verbs include
+ Inert perception and cognitive verbs : adore, astonish, believe, desire, detest,
doubt, feel, forgive, guess, hate, hear, imagine, impress, intend, know, like, love, mean, mind,
perceive, please, prefer, presuppose, realize, recall, recognize, regard, remember, satisfy, see,
smell, suppose, taste, think, understand, want, wish.
+ Relational verbs: be, belong to, concern, consist of, contain, cost, depend on,
deserve equal, fit, have, include, involve, lack, matter need, own, possess, require,
resemble, seem, sound
III. Adjectives:
1. Adjectives typically amplify the meaning of a noun, by occurring immediately before
it, or by being linked to it by means of copula verb. (=linking verb)
Some linking verbs : be, seem, feel, look, sound, taste, become
Ex: The wide road
The road is / becomes wide.
2. Types of adjectives:
⚫ Dynamic Adjectives denote attributes which are, to some extent at least, under the
control of the one who possesses them.
Ex: calm, careful, cruel, disruptive, foolish, friendly, good, impatient,
mannerly, rude, shy, suspicious, tidy, vain, vacuous
⚫ Stative Adjectives denote a state or condition, which may generally be considered
permanent.
Ex: big, red, small, tall
⚫ Gradable Adjectives describe qualities that can be measured in degrees, such as
size, beauty, age, etc.
They may be modified by certain adverbs that indicate the intensity of what the
adjective refers to.
Ex: very careful, more careful
Small, big, beautiful, ugly, old, young, … are gradable adjectives
Most adjectives are gradable.
The adverbs “a bit, very, really, extremely, quite” can all be used with gradable
adjectives.
⚫ Non-gradable Adjectives describe qualities that are completely present or
completely absent.
Ex: alive, dead
They do not occur in comparative and superlative forms, and cannot be used with
adverbs such as very or extremely.
We do not use “He is very excellent.”
We use “He is absolutely excellent.”
⚫ Inherent Adjectives characterize the reference of the noun directly
Ex: a new car --> The car which is new
A wooden house --> The house which is made of wood
⚫ Non-Inherent Adjectives do not exhibit a direct characterization of the noun.
Ex: a wooden actor. (“wooden” means “not showing enough natural expression,
emotion or movement” )
 ➔ The actor performs badly
Inherent Non-inherent
distant hills Distant relatives
A complete chapter A complete idiot
A heavy burden A heavy smoker
A social survey A social animal
An old man An old friend
IV. Adverbs
⚫ Adverbs refer to circumstantial information about the action, event, or process, such as
the time, the place or the manner.
Ex: yesterday, now, there, carefully, beautifully
⚫ Adverbs serve to intensify other adverbs and adjectives.
Ex: extremely uncomfortable
2) Structure classes
They include:
⚫ Qualifiers (words before an adj/ adv)
⚫ Prepositions
- Prepositions relate a noun phrase to another unit. The relationship may be one of time,
place, logic.
Ex: after a meal, in front of the bus, because of his action
- Prepositions are tied to a particular verb or adjective and to link that verb or adjective
with its object.
Ex: They are waiting for a bus.
They are anxious about his future.
⚫ Determiners (words before a noun)
- Identifiers
+ articles
+ possessives
+ demonstratives
- Quantifiers (lượng từ) = expressions of indefinite quantity ( a lot of many, little,…)
⚫ Auxiliaries
⚫ Pronouns
- Personal Pronouns
+ Pronouns as Subject
+ Pronouns as Object
- Reflexive Pronouns (himself, myself,…)
- Possessive Pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs,…)
- Relative Pronouns (Who, Whom, Which, That, ,,,)
- Interrogative Pronouns (What, Who, Whom, Which, Whose,…)
- Demonstrative Pronouns (This, That, These, Those)
Ex: That is my house. → “ That” is a pronoun
- Indefinite pronouns (anybody, somebody, nothing,…)
⚫ Numeral (Số từ) → Khi vẽ cây viết Num
- Ordinal (first, second, third,…)
 - Cardinal (one, two, three,…)
⚫ Conjunctions
- Coordinating Conjunctions: the words that are used to combine two independent clauses.
(FANBOYS: For And Nor But Or Yet So)
Ex: I like reading book but I don’t like writing articles
I want to go to Japan so I learn Japanese.
Sentence Connectors
Ex: I like reading books. However, I don’t like writing articles.
- Subordinating Conjunctions
Ex: I don’t go to school because I am sick.
Identify part of speech of the words in the above sentence
I : pronoun
Don’t: auxiliary verb
Go: lexical verb
To: preposition
School: noun
Because: conjunction
I: pronoun
Am: lexical
Sick: adjective
Characteristics of structure classes
⚫ Structure classes are closed and small.
⚫ They rarely admit new members.
⚫ They do not change their form.
⚫ They are not identified by form, they can be memorized and recognized by position.
⚫ A structure class has a stable membership.
⚫ They have grammatical functions

3) Positional Classes
There are FOUR main positional classes: nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbial
The membership in these classes is determined by THE POSITION or WORD ORDER in a
sentence.
3.1 NOMINALS (Position of Noun)
“ Any word, whatever its form-class (noun, verb, comparable, pronoun, uninflected words (non-
suffixing words)) will be tabbed a nominal if it occupies one of the noun positions” [Stageberg,
1965:196]
Position of a noun is not always a noun. It can be:
- A noun
- A verb
- An adjective comparable
- A pronoun
- An uninflected word
A nominal occupies these functions:
(1) Subject of verb (Subj)
 (2) Subjective Complement (SC)
(3) Direct object of verb (DO)
(4) Indirect object (IO)
(5) Objective Complement (OC)
(6) Object of Preposition (OP)
Here are a few illustrative cases involving the Subj position.
(1) Subject of the verb
Pattern 3: The rich live on the bay.
“The rich” is the Subject of this sentence. Subj slot is an Aj.
Pattern 2: Steadily is the best way to work.
Subj slot is an Av.
Pattern 4: Swimming develops the lungs.
Subj slot is a Verb form.
Now is the best time to go.
Subj slot is a non-suffixing form / an uninflected word
“Now” is an adverb and it is a non-suffixing word.
About a plateful is my limit.
Subj slot is a PreP.
(2) Subjective Complement (SC)
This book is hers.
➔ “Hers” is Subjective Complement (SC)
➔ “This book” is a Subject of a verb (Subj)
My favorite pastime is swimming
➔ “Swimming” is SC.
➔ “My favorite pastime is Subj.
(3) Direct object of verb (DO)
Ex: I HATE telling lies. → what do you hate?
➔ I hate something. “something” is direct object
➔ In term of position, “telling lies” is a nominal
➔ In term of function, “telling lies” is a direct object
Ex: I want to think critically. → what do you want?
➔ I want something. “something” is direct object
➔ In term of position, “to think critically” is a nominal
➔ In term of function, “to think critically” is a direct object
Ex: We enjoyed the game.
DO slot is a noun form.
(4) Indirect Object of the verb (IO)
Ex: She GAVE whomever she met different offers.
D.O: different offers
I.O: whomever she met
She GAVE nobody a hand shake.
D.O: a hand shake
I.O: nobody
(5) Objective Complement (OC)
 Ex: You’VE MADE me what I am.
O: me
OC: what I am
They NAMED the little dog Pluto
O: the little dog
OC: Pluto
(6) Object of Preposition (OP)
Ex: He is interested in nothing.
➔ “nothing” is the Object of preposition “in”
Ex: The elevator has been used for many years without being repaired.
➔ “being repaired” is the Object of preposition “without”
Ex: What can one expect from the young?
➔ “the young” is the Object of preposition “from”
➔ In term of form, “young” is an adjective
➔ In term of position, “young” is a nominal
➔ In term of function, “the young” is OP
Word groups as well as individual words can be nominals, and they occupy the usual noun
positions.
3.2 VERBALS (Position of verb)
VERBALS are those forms that occupy verb positions.
They come after the opening noun or noun phrase
They come after the opening nominal.

e.g. The golf team may play tomorrow.

They have been loitering near the bank
Any verb form taking a subject or a complement (O, SC, or Adj) or modified by an adverbial is a
verbal, regardless of its position.
Ex: Becoming angry, she broke the dish.
Being a minister, William spoke softly.
After having eaten the turnips, Prentice tried to look satisfied.
Giving to the poor is a Christian virtue.
There are two kinds of verb forms
- Finite verbs change their form to indicate person, number and tense.
- Non-finite verbs do not change their form to indicate person, number and tense.
+ The present participle {-ING vb}
+ The past participle {-D pp}
+ The infinitive (to)+ verb stem.
 - Playing field hocky in her favorite pastime.
Playing : Verbal
Field hockey : Nominal
Playing field hockey : Nominal
- He liked to play the piano.
“To play the piano”: Nominal (To play : Verbal, The piano: Nominal)
- Jim got paid for mowing the lawn.
“ mowing the lawn”: nominal (mowing: verbal, the lawn: nominal)
- Eating too much is not good for health.
Eating too much: nominal
Eating: nominal
- Eating fast food is not good for your health.
Eating fast food: Nominal ( Eating: verbal, fast food : Nominal)
COMPLEMENTS OF A VERBAL
We can find verbals in different positions.
e.g. Her hobby was making prints.
He enjoys playing golf.
We wanted to teach her a lesson.
In the nominal “to teach her a lesson”, “her” is I.O of the verb “teach” and
“a lesson” is D.O of the verb “teach”
George asked her to drive a car.
In the nominal “her to drive a car”, “her” is the subject of the verb “drive”,
“the car” is D.O of the verb “drive” and “to drive” is a verbal.
3.3 ADJECTIVALS (Position of adjective)
Adjectivals occupy certain characteristic sentence positions.
1. Between the determiner and the noun
e.g. That joyful freshman
The adjectival position may be occupied by
- noun : That college freshman
- verb : That laughing freshman
That recommended freshman
- some non-suffixing forms:
 An inside job
Her inmost thoughts
2. The second adjectival position is the third slot in pattern 2:
e.g. Those boys are young.
The boat remains shiny.
The man appeared aware.
3. The third adjectival position is after the noun.
It accepts
- adjectives (occur with another adjectival or with a modifier)
- adverbs
- verbs (participles)
- non-suffixing words
- word group
e.g. The waitress, old and weary, sat heavily down.
The door below is rented.
The plumber, rather angry, threw down his wrench.
The adjective appear alone after the head noun.
Ex: money necessary, resources available,…
4. The fourth position is at the beginning of a sentence before the Subj.
e.g. Angry and upset, the applicant slammed the door.
5. “Something” adjectival. Words composed of any-, every-, no-, or some- plus –body, -one, -place, or
–thing can be followed by adjectival.
Ex: Nothing good was on the table.
3.4 ADVERBIALS (Position of adverbs)
The traditional adverbial subclasses of time, place, and manner.

There are five common adverbial positions.

1. Before the pattern:
e.g. Really, you should know better.
Now it’s the best time to go.
2. After the Subj and before the auxiliary or verb:
e.g. She often would forget her keys.
He actually expects to marry her.
3. After the auxiliary or the first auxiliary:
e.g. He would seldom make the effort.
They could easily have made another touchdown.
4. After the main verb in pattern 1 and after be in patterns 2 and 3:
 e.g. He drove recklessly.
Her brother is always a gentleman.
She is seldom late.
She is outside.
5. After the complement of the verb (SC, DO, OC):
e.g. Hoskins will be quarterback tomorrow.
Hoskins will play football tomorrow.
They may choose Hoskins captain tomorrow.
There are many non-suffixing words employed in adverbial positions.

Word groups as well as single words can occupy adverbial positions.

e.g. With a sharp ax you can do wonders.
Angelina in her own way was a darling.
You may in this way be of great assistance.
She sat at any event happy.