CATEGORIES AND SUBCATEGORIES OF WORDS

Verb	be, drive, grow, sing, think
Noun	brother, car, David, house, London
Determiner	a, an, my, some, the
Adjective	big, foolish, happy, talented, tidy
Adverb	happily, recently, soon, then, there
Preposition	at, in, of, over, with
Conjunction	and, because, but, if, or

The different types of words are variously called parts of speech, word classes, or lexical categories.

Some of them recognize 7 word classes (see the table). You may find that other grammars recognise different word classes from the ones listed here. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, for wxample, gives this list of 8 for English: Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Conjunction, Preposition, Interjection.. They may also define the boundaries between the classes in different ways. In some grammars, for instance, pronouns are treated as a separate word class. A difference like this should not cause confusion. Instead, it highlights an important principle in grammar, known as GRADIENCE. This refers to the fact that the boundaries between the word classes are not absolutely fixed. Many word classes share characteristics with others, and there is considerable overlap between some of the classes. In other words, the boundaries are "fuzzy", so different grammars draw them in different places. Speakers recognize word classes through three different, but complementary, processes - the use of word endings, function words, and word order. For example, consider the two quotes below. Can you tell which words are adjectives or adverbs, words that modify or describe?

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymble in the wabe

- Lewis Carroll, "The Jabberwocky" in Through the Looking Glass

The gloopy malchicks scattered razdrazily to the mesto.

- Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

Many people have the sense that the words brillig, slithy, gloopy, and razdrazily are the words that modify. That sense is a combination of factors, including the suffixes -y (also spelt -i- when a second ending is used on the same word, as in razdrazily) and -ly - two suffixes that mark adjectives and adverbs. But word endings are not the only clues to help us find the modifiers. Each sentence also gives us clues from function words and word order. In English, it is common to find noun phrases with a predictable structure of Determiner + Adjective + Noun (the clever children), so the combination of both determiners (the) marking the beginning of noun phrases and word order in the sentences above help us interpret slithy and gloopy as adjectives. It is also common in English to find adjectives after forms of the verb be when the verb functions as the 'copula' verb, the linking verb, as in Elizabeth is clever. So in the first sentence, the verb was (part of the poetic fusion of it was into 'twas) helps us to interpret brillig as an adjective. Finally, it is also common to find adverbs after verbs in English, as in Emily learns quickly. That fact helps us to interpret razdrazily as an adverb in the last example sentence.

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