GST 111 - CHAPTER TWO (The parts of speech pt. 2)

 NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, VERBS & ADVERBS

NOUNS: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW???

·         Nouns can be identified in two ways namely MORPHOLOGICALLYand SYNTACTICALLY.

·         MORPHOLOGICALLY nouns possess two forms: (a) The Plural form and (b) The Possessive Form.

·         There are four [4] main types of nouns and they include: proper, common, count and non-count.

·         There exist other forms of nouns such as: concrete, abstract, collective and compound nouns respectively.

·         The Proper Nouns are simply those nouns that are specific in nature. Hence, proper nouns comprises the specific names of persons, places, days, months, rivers, newspapers and because of their unique nature, they must always begin with a capital letter no matter their position in a sentence i.e. whether initially, medially or at the end.

·         Common nouns are generic in nature. They do not refer to specific persons or places.

NOTE: THE PROCESS WHEREBY A WORD CAN BE STEPPED DOWN FROM ITS NORMAL SYNTACTIC CLASS AND BE MADE TO PERFORM THE FUNCTION OF ANOTHER SYNTACTIC CATEGORY IS KNOWN AS WORD CONVERSION.

·         Nouns will usually form their plurals by the addition of s, es, or ies. Though not all nouns conform to this rule. E.g. boy(s), baby(ies), church(es) etc.

·         Count nouns are simply nouns that are countable and can take all English Articles (a/an, the). They can also possess plural forms i.e. we can attach s, es or ies to them depending on how they form their plurals.

·         Mass Nouns are called non-count nouns because though they may be counted or quantified, they only take the definite article [the] and they can’t possess plural forms i.e. we cannot attach the plural morphemes – s, es or ies, to them. The following must be regarded as MASS / NON-COUNT NOUNS:

Categories	Examples
Liquids or Consumables	Milk, beer, water, blood, fuel, petrol, bread, oil etc.
Others	Music, Homework, Bacon, Information, Luggage, Baggage, Furniture, Behaviour, Chalk, Gas, Advice, News, Evidence, Business, Grass, Sugar, Work, Equipment, Machinery, Ammunition, Stationery, Traffic etc.

 

·         MASS NOUNS may be pluralized however, but this must be done by means of ‘select quantifiers’ such as partitives – a piece of/pieces of, a lot of/lots of, a blade of/blades of, an item of/items of, a bit of/bits of, a loaf of/loaves of etc. Examples: I just bought a plot of land, my father came home with a loaf of bread etc.

 

ADJECTIVES: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW???

·         There are two ways by which we recognize ADJECTIVES. They are: Morphologically and Syntactically.

·         Morphologically, Adjectives can possess three forms: The Positive, The Comparativeand The Superlative. Examples:

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Long	Long(er)	Long(est)
Shy	Shy(er)	Shy(est)
Beautiful	More Beautiful	Most Beautiful
Funny	Funnier	Funniest
Handsome	Handsomer	Handsomest
Intelligent	More Intelligent	Most Intelligent

 

·         Adjectives can easily be identified by the presence of the following attachment at the end of their spelling [suffixes] – ful (beautiFUL), ish (foolISH), ic/al/ical (non-sensICAL, apologetIC), -like, -less, -able, -ive etc.

·         On the basis of SYNTAX, adjectives function either ATTRIBUTIVELY or PREDICATIVELY. If an adjective comes before/afterwhat it describes, it is called an Attributive Adjective. But if an adjective functions either as a subject/an Object Complement it is said to be Predicative.

·         If an adjective functions as A NOUN PHRASE HEAD, such an adjective is regarded or said to be GENERICbecause they refer to a whole group or to something that is common to a group of people.

 

VERBS: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW???

·         VERBS can either be identified ‘morphologically’ or ‘syntactically’.

·         On the grounds of morphology, verbs or rather ‘all verbs’ have/possess five forms. These forms include: (a) The BASE form (b) The –S (singular) form (c) The ED₁ [past tense] form (d) The –ING (present/past continuous) form and (e) The ED₂ [past participle tense] form.

·         VERBS can exist as finite, non-finite, simple, complex, Lexical or Auxiliary. Now, you must know that:

·         If a verb is finite, it changes with time, number and persons. While the opposite of this is non-finite.

·         A verb phrase is said to be simple when it contains ONLY ONE verb element. The opposite of this is complex where a verb phrase consists TWO/MORE VERB ELEMENTS either in finite/non-finite positions.

 

ADVERBS: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW???

·         ADVERBS can be identified via ‘morphology’ and ‘syntax’.

·         Morphologically, adverbs possess the suffixes –ly, -wise, ward(s) etc.

·         Any suffix that can be used to convert words from other parts of speech into the adverb is regarded as a PRODUCTIVE SUFFIX.

·         Syntactically, adverbs can function as: (a) Constituents of a Clause (b) Modifiers of adjectives and other adverbs (c) attitude expressers (d) Linkers (e.g. nevertheless, so, however), they are also called Linking Adverbs.