Notional and Functional Classes of Words

Both traditional & Synthectico-distributional classifications divide words into notional & functional. Originally, they reflect the former morphological division of words into changeable & unchangeable. Modern linguistics differentiates not & fun parts of speech on the basis of:

§ the prominence of their meaning,

§ peculiarities of their combinability,

§ the ability to be substituted by a word of a more general meaning (hyperonims table – furniture).

Notional words are characterized by complete nom force, self-dependent functions in the S. They can be used in isolation & they can be by a word of a more general meaning.

To the notional parts of speech of the English language belong the noun, the adjective, the numeral, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb.

The features of the noun are the following: 1) the categorial meaning of substance (”thingness”); 2) the changeable forms of number and case; the specific suffixal forms of derivation (prefixes in English do not discriminate parts of speech as such); 3)the substantive functions in the sentence (subject, object, substantival predicative); prepositional connections; modification by an adjective.

The features of the adjective: 1) the categorial meaning of property (qualitative and relative); 2) the forms of comparison (for qualitative adjectives); the specific forms of derivation; 3) adjectival functions in the “Sentence (attribute to a noun, adjectival predicative).

The features of the numeral: 1) the categorial meaning of ‘number (cardinal and ordinal); 2) the narrow set of simple numerals; the specific forms of composition for compound numerals; the specific suffixal forms of derivation for ordinal numerals; 3) the functions of numerical aitributeand numerical substantive.

The features of the pronoun: I) the categorial meaning of indication (deixis); 2) the narrow sets of various status with the corresponding formal properties of categorial changeability and word-building; 3) the substantival and adjectival functions for different sets.

The features of the verb: 1) the categorial meaning of process (presented in the two upper series of forms, respectively, as finite process and non-finite process); 2) the forms of the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood; the opposition of the finite and non-finite forms; 3) the function of the finite predicate for the finite verb; fhe mixed verbal - other than verbal functions for the non-(inite verb.

The features of the adverb: 1) the categorial meaning of the secondary property, i.e. the property of process or another property; 2) the forms of the degrees of comparison for qualitative adverbs; the specific suffixal forms of derivation; 3) the functions of various adverbial modifiers.

Functional words possess incomplete nom force, they have very wide lexical meaning. They perform non-self-dependent mediatory (linking,specifying) functions. They are characterized by obligatory combinability. Fries specified them:

1) words with unilateral combinability (articles, auxiliaries, modals);

2) words with bilateral combinability (prepositions & conjunctions which join words & word groups, not sentences);

3) heterogeneous class which unites introductory ‘it’, ‘their’,, interrogative words,interjections.

Besides, nat parts of speech are open-classes., they are extendible. Functional classes are closed systems., including a limited number of members. There are also structural words which can take the position of not words. They are often called PRO-words or substitutes. They constitute a class of words that takes an intermediate position between not & fun words. They can be used as connectives & specifiers & substitute for Ns & Adjs as well.

Classes of words are recognized by their formal devices (morphemes) and the position in the utterance – not their concrete lexical meaning

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Criteria applied to formal / functional parts of speech	\|	Notional classes of words

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