WORD CATEGORIES AND FUNCTION

 GROUP 4

PAPER

PPT

English Language is one of many language in the world that used almost in the world. This is not awkward if University in Indonesia also applied English language for college students. Almost every University in Indonesia have been applying TOEFL in the accepting new college students. So, we can conclude that English is important to learn because this period force us to survive and protect our country from stupidity  of all product, activities and labors that used English.

                From that problem, The Author made this paper beside of as the first assignment. The Author intended to spell out what is the word catagories and function to facilitate a reader who want to learn English. This paper will show a reader about basic learning in English is part of speech. Not only basic learning, the reader will know about criteria of word classes and how the words are classed according to the same categories.

THE AIM OF THIS PAPER :

1. To make who want to learn English more easily by elaborating the word

    categories and function.

2. To make who want to learn Englishk know about classification of word and

    how easy to make sentence after read this paper.

3. To share our comprehension as the first assignment of English Morphemes and

    Syntax.

 

CHAPTER I

WORD CATEGORIES AND FUNCTION

 

 

            Word Classes is grouping several words that human spoke or used based on the same category precent. So, the words can be used well because the grouping help to know the position and function of the word.  Word Classes called parts of speech in traditional terminology (Carstairs Andrew, 1988 : 45) but also called lexical categories, word categories and content word. Whereas, function word also called fuction categories, grammatical and form words. Function categories is grouped based on the same category precent that will adjust word categories later on more great.     

            In old distinction between words that have a denotation and words that do not (Miller Jim, 1988 : 34), we can know which is the word categories that has major categories and which is function categories that have minor categories.

The Following Word Categories (Major or Open Classes) and Function Categories (Minor or Closed Classes) :

 

Word Categories (Major or Open Classes)	Function Categories (Minor or Closed Classes)
Noun	Article
Verb	Auxiliary
Adjective	Preposition
Adverb	Determiner
	Pronoun
	Conjunction

 

            Word Categories have four main important components so that it called major and word categories also can be added or changed depend on the user and the time to use it called open classes

Word categories in traditional term :

1. Noun is a word that has  denotation meaning such as person, things, animal, etc.

Kind of noun :

a. Proper Noun is a noun that use capital in front of the word such as name,

    place, country, village, day, month, etc.

    Example : Dina, Indonesia, Monday, March

b. Common Noun is a noun about name of a group word such as kind of

    noun, action that is not specific.

    Example : water, chair, conversation

c. Material Noun is about all material either food or something in the world.

    Example : Sand, cement, fish

d. Collective Noun is the name of a group noun

    Example :people, family, couple

e. Abstract Noun is an abstract noun that can be measured or counted.

    Example : beauty, honesty, kindness.

2. Verb is a word that contains an action

Kind of verb :

a. Transitive Verb is a verb that needs object.

    Example : She buys a bag, I cook some delicious foods

b. Intransitive Verb is a verb that doesn't need object.

    Example : I will come here tomorrow, Nina goes to Korea by plane.

c. Linking Verb is a verb that doesn't contain an action or activity.

    Example : You are my love, My brother became an doctor in the year

 

Beside that, the main form of verb are infinitive (V1), past tense (V2) and past participle (V3).

3. Adjective is a word that always explain and complete about noun.

Kind of Adjective :

a. Descriptive Adjective explain about characteristic or condition of noun

     such as good, big, thin.

b. Numeral Adjective explain about kind of number such as  one, two, first,

     second, one half, two thirds.

c. Quantitative Adjective explain about total of noun such as much, money,

    some, a lot of.

d. Interrogative Adjective is an adjective that use as question sentence such as

    which one is yours?

e. Distributive Adjective is a word that show about one of several existing

    noun such as each, every, either ... or ...

f. Proper Adjective  is a adjective that started with capital such as The

    Indonesia Flag, An English book

g. Demonstrative Adjective a word refers to thing, animal, person that

    intended such as this, those,these, that.

h. Possessive Adjective explain about ownership such as it is my brother

     book.

 

4. Adverb is a word that added to explain the sentence more detail in time, place,

    manner, etc.

Kind of Adverb :

a. Adverb of time : Now, tomorrow, next week

b. Adverb of place : here, there, anywhere

c. Adverb of manner : slowly, quickly, well

d. Adverb of degree : almost, too, rather

e. Adverb of reason : why, therefore, thus, due

            Function Categories is still under the traditional term like word categories but function categories has several components outer part word categories so that it called minor and also called closed classes because the components can be added some a word or changed.

Function Categories in traditional term :

1. Articles are a, an and the that always precede noun, place  or thing.

2. Auxiliary as helper verb that has important function in English such as may,

    can, could, have, has, will, etc.

3. Preposition is a word that placed before or after noun or thing to explain the

     noun where is in detail such as  on, at, in.

4. Determiners are this (singular), these (plural), that (singular), those (plural).

5. Pronoun like a noun as  alternative of a noun. There are 6 kind of pronoun :

1. Personal pronoun

Subject : I, you, they, we, he, she, it

Object : me, you, them, us, him, her, it

2. Possessive Pronoun : my, your, their, our, his, her, it

    Possessive Adjective : mine,yours, theirs, ours, his, hers, its

3. Reflexive Pronoun : myself, yourself/selves, themselves, ourselves, himself,

    herself, itself

4. Demonstrative Pronoun : this, these, that, those

5. Interrogative Pronoun : what, when, where, etc

6. Relative Pronoun : who (subject for people), whom (object for people),

    which (subject and object for noun/thing), whose (ownership of thing).

6. Conjunction is a word to connect each word or 2 clause in one sentence become

    a unit such as and, that, although, etc.

CHAPTER II

CRITERIA FOR WORD CLASSES

 

            Words can be classified into different lexical categories according to three criteria: meaning, morphological form, and syntactic function (Kim, Jong-Bok Kim. Peter Sells, 2008 : 12).

1. Meaning or Semantic

Meaning in this criteria is not about meaning of word in the dictionary but meaning of an utterance that a speaker or writer have said to communicate with people. Then, the word has been said or written by the speaker and writer caused an action to act like give question, answering question, etc. This is called speech act that has two act are referring (what the word refer to the experience of speker or writer that can make a reference) and predicating (predict a word that speaker or writer have said and written). So, meaning or semantic is dealing not only text but with speakers and writers doing things with language.

2. Morphological Form

This criteria explain about how the word added with grammatical suffix and called derivational suffixes or inflectional suffixes such as verb (1,2,3), noun (plural, possessive pronoun or ownership), adjective (comparison degree), Adverb (adverb of manner).

Example from

a. N: trains, actors, rooms, man’s, sister’s, etc.

b. V: devoured, laughed, devours, laughs, etc.

c. A: fuller, fullest, more careful, most careful, etc.

d. Adv: fully, carefully, diligently, clearly, etc.

3. Syntactic Function or Distributional

The syntactic criteria for word classes are based on what words a given

word occurs with and the types of phrase in which a given word occurs (Miller Jim, 1988 : 39).

The point is the syntactic criteria explain about added a word that appropriate with environment or grammatical. Example :

a. I have no ..... . (friend, car, boyfriend, etc)

b. He can ..... . (cook, meet, run, etc)

c. She read the .....(math, mystery, thick, etc) book.

d. She treats John very ...... .(kindly, wisely, badly)

e. You walked right ..... the wall. (into, on, etc)

 

Not only those examples are added but determiner, article, proposition, auxiliary, conjunction can be added with correct grammar and environment appropriately.

 

 SUMMARY

 

            Knowing word categories and function will help a speaker or writer to be good in English. The different and many kind of word categories and function's name make a difficult learning. The main point that you should know :

 

1. Word categories and function have  grouped based on traditional term and

     several criteria.

2. Traditional term divide into word categories(noun, verb, adjective, adverb) and

     function categories (article, auxiliary, preposition, determiner, pronoun,

     conjunction)

3. Criteria word categories are meaning or semantic, morphological form, and

    syntactic function or distributional.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

Miller, Jim. 1988. Introduction  to English Syntax. Edinburgh University Press : Inggris (34-46)

 

Cartairs, Andrew-McCarthy. 1988. An Introduction toEnglish Morphology. Edinburgh University Press : Inggris (45)

 

Kim, Jong-Bok Kim. Peter Sells. 2008. English Syntax: An Introduction.  (12-17).

 

Capella University. Grammar Handbook. Capella University : America