Identifying word classes Overview Identifying word classes n

Identifying word classes

Overview Identifying word classes n Syntax of the major word classes n Grammatical categories n

Syntactic criteria n Distribution Only the same members of one specific word class can be filled in the same slot in a sentence. n Each word class has its own specific set of modifying words n

Morphological criteria n Form n The specific set of affixes in the form of words shows that the words belong to the same word class.

Case Study: Identifying the word class of ‘barista’ n Data A barista is a coffee master of making coffee. n Baristas are in charge of training new employees. n Only the best barista is hired. n n In terms of morphology n n Singular-plural forms In terms of syntactic function n Modified by adjectives and articles (a, an, the)

Questions: How do we identify the word class of 信 in ‘他 每週寫信給朋友’ in terms of morphological and syntactic criteria? n Analyze the word class of ‘can’ in ‘You can a can ’in terms of morphological and syntactic criteria? n (1) (2) (3)

Syntax of the major word classes

Major Word Classes NOUNS VERBS ADJECTIVES ADVERBS PREPOSITIONS

WHAT RE THE MOST FREQUENTLY FOUND WORD CLASSES IN THE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES?

The verb class John sleeps Argument Predicate (participant) (event) John Loves Coffee. argument (participant) Predicate (event) argument (participant)

The types of verbs n Intransitive verbs n n Transitive verbs n n John yelled. John cooked a pot of coffee. Ditransitive verbs n John bought Mary a cup of coffee.

The noun class n NP -> Det N n Only co-occur with determiners

Determiners n Articles n n Demonstratives n n This, that, these, those Quantifiers n n a/an, the Some, all Possessives n His, my, their, your.

The properties of determiners Used before or after an NP. n In some languages, determiners agree with the NP. n n Gender n Der n Sontag (mas. ), die Rose (fem. ), das Berlin (neu. ) Number n un cadeau (a gift), les cadeaux (gifts)

The semantic role of NPs n Agent n n Patient n n The purpose of the action Experiencer n n The person/thing which undergoes the action Goal n n The person/thing which receives the action Theme n n The person/thing which performs the action The person/thing which experiences the process of senses Instrument n The tool to perform the action.

Analysis n A burglar ransacked my house to steal my coffee. n n AGENT: PATIENT: INSTRUMENT: My mother’s bowl was broken by the cat. n n n AGENT: PATIENT: INSTRUMENT:

Exercise: Mary roasted the duck in the kitchen. n The terrorists destroyed the building with a bomb. n

Syntactic roles of NPs n Grammatical relations Subject n Object n

The tests of subjecthood Subject-verb agreement n Case marking n Prepositional object n

The tests of subjecthood 1 n Subject-verb agreement n Number n n Person n n He is, they are I am, you are, he is, we are The French example n singular 1 st Je chante person plural Nous chantons 2 nd Tu chantes Vous person chantez Chanter ‘to sing’ 3 rd Il chante person Ils chantent

n The captain who commanded these two starships is Jean-Luc Picard.

The tests of subjecthood 2 n Case marking Nominative case: subject n Accusative case: object n

An English case text He loved her case Nom. Acc. Gram category Subject Object

German case Definite article Nominative mas fem Neu. der die das Accusative den die das

German case n Glosary Hund: dog n beißt : bite n Mann: man n n Sentences Der Hund beißt den Mann. n Den Mann beißt der Hund. n

The tests of subjecthood 3 n Prepositional object n The NP in a PP is an object, NOT a subject. PP P NP

Grammatical/morpho-syntactic categories

What are morpho-syntactic categories? n The grammatical information attached to the specific class words Number n Case n Agreement n

How are morpho-syntactic categories represented? n Open class words (e. g. , nouns, verbs, or adjectives) change the form by adding affixes to represent grammatical information. n n Books; John talked too much. Closed class words may be used with lexical words to represent the grammatical information. n Comparative/superlative suffix

Morpho-syntactic categories for nouns 1 Number n Gender n n Indicated by nouns themselves. n Il n libro; la casa Indicated by determiners n Le soleil, la lune Definiteness n Case n

Morpho-syntactic categories for nouns 2 n Definiteness n Marked by determiners n Une n voiture ‘a car’, la voiture ‘the car’ Marked by morphological form. n Den mus-en ‘the mouse’ (Swedish)

Morpho-syntactic categories for nouns 3 n Case n She (nom. ) hates her. (accu. )

Morpho-syntactic categories for verbs Tense and aspect n Mood n Voice n Agreement n

Tense and aspect n Tense “grammaticalized expression of location in time” (Comrie, 1985) n Past and non-past n n English n He walks to school every day; He walked to school last week. n The n n Wishram-Wasco dialect of Chinook Ni-ciux ‘He did it long time ago’ Ga-ciux ‘He did it some time ago’ Na-ciux-a ‘He did it recently’ i-ciux ‘He just did it’

Aspect n Whether an action is completed or ongoing. n English: n Auxiliary n n n verb + Verbal inflection They are working. They have worked for two days. Bantu n Verbal n n morphology Ba-lee-bomba ‘they are working’ (progressive aspect) Ba-la-bomba ‘they (repeatedly) work’ (habitual aspect)

Mandarin Chinese is … [+tense, +aspect] n [+tense, -aspect] n [-tense, +aspect] n [-tense, -aspect] n

Mood n Definition n n A grammatical category which marks the properties such as possibility, probability, and certainty. for actual events n Indicative n John bought Starbucks (because he is really rich).

n for hypothetical events n Modal auxiliaries n John n would buy Starbucks (if he were rich). Subjunctive mood (verbal morphology specifically for hypothetical events) n John demands that he (should) BUY Starbucks. n It faut que je le choisses. ‘I should choose it’ n n n je choisis –indicatif Je choisses-le subjontif

Voice Active vs. passive n Chichewa n n Kalulu a-na-b-a n n Hare SU-PAST-STEAL wife The hare stole the elephant’s wife. ’ n mkazi wa njovu a-na-b-edw-a n wife n ‘The elephant’s wife was stolen. ’ of mkazi wa njovu of elephant SU-PAST-STEAL-PASSIVE

Morpho-syntactic categories for adjectives Comparison n Agreement n

Comparison n Superlative n n Comparative n n English: THE -est; THE MOST adj English: -er; MORE adj Equative English: AS adj AS n Welsh: n n Mae-r cwpan cyn llawn-ED a-r botel n Is-the cup as full-EQUATIVE with-the bottle n ‘The cup is as full as the bottle’

Agreement Commonly marked to agree with the nouns adjectives modify in gender and in case n French n Le vin blanc ‘the white wine’ n La porte blanche ‘the white door’ n n German n Ein kleines Kind sah einen reich-en n A n ‘a small child saw a rich man. ’ small-SU: SING: NEUTER child saw a Mann. rich-OB: SING: MASC man