Morphology. General Classification of the Parts of Speech

Grammar is the subject, which studies the rules by which words and their forms are combined into sentences. English practical grammar consists of two main parts: morphology and syntax. The subject matter of morphology is words, parts of speech. The subject matter of syntax is a sentence, its structure and types. Our special interest this time is the first part of grammar - morphology.

According to their meaning, morphological characteristics and syntactical functions, words fall under certain classes called parts of speech.

We distinguish between notional and structural parts of speech. The notional parts of speech perform certain functions in the sentence: the function of subject, predicate, attribute, object, and adverbial modifier.

The notional parts of speech are:

- the noun;

- the adjective;

- the pronoun;

- the numeral;

- the verb;

- the adverb;

- the words of the category of state (statives);

- the modal words;

- the interjection.

The structural parts of speech either express relations between words or sentences or emphasize the meaning of words or sentences. They never perform any independent function in the sentence.

Here belong:

- the preposition;

- the conjunction;

- the particle;

- the article.

Chapter I. The Noun

§ 1. Definition

The Noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word. In the concept of substance, we include living beings (E.g. a man, a woman, and a bird), lifeless things (E.g. a table, a book), and names of abstract notions: qualities, states, actions. (E.g. Love, fear, conversation).

§ 2. Formation of Nouns Noun-forming suffixes

Productive		unproductive
-er -ist -ness -ism -ess -(a)ion -tion -sion	Reader Dramatist Madness Socialism Actress Suspicion Formation Admission (-ess is practically only the gender-forming suffix, expressing feminine gender)	-hood -dom -ship -ment -ance -ence -ty -ity -ure -age	Childhood Freedom Friendship Development Importance Dependence Generosity Cruelty Culture Marriage

The most common prefixes

re- reconstruction

co- co-author

dis- disarmament

mis- misunderstanding

over- overestimation

under- under-secretary

sub- subdivision

inter- interaction

§ 3. Morphological composition of Nouns

All the nouns can be divided into:

-simple nouns which have neither prefixes nor suffixes; they are indecomposable. (E.g. book, table, practice.);

-derivative nouns which have derivative elements (suffix-reader, prefix-inexperience)

- compound nouns which are built from two or more stems. The meaning of a compound often differs from the meanings of its elements. The main types of compound nouns are as follows:

- noun-stem+ noun-stem: (E.g. apple tree, snowball);

- adjective-stem+ noun-stem: (E.g. bluebell, blackbird);

- verb-stem+ noun-stem (E.g. pickpocket).