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Report Lexical Categories

Lexical categories are syntactic categories for elements at the word level of a language. The most important lexical categories are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and adpositions. Traditionally, lexical categories were defined notionally based on their meaning, but modern linguistics defines them morphosyntactically based on their grammatical properties. Nouns refer to people, places, or things and can be proper, common, or mass. Verbs express actions, states, or changes and are classified by their valency. Adjectives describe nouns, and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adpositions show spatial, temporal, or other relationships.

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286 views17 pages

Report Lexical Categories

Lexical categories are syntactic categories for elements at the word level of a language. The most important lexical categories are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and adpositions. Traditionally, lexical categories were defined notionally based on their meaning, but modern linguistics defines them morphosyntactically based on their grammatical properties. Nouns refer to people, places, or things and can be proper, common, or mass. Verbs express actions, states, or changes and are classified by their valency. Adjectives describe nouns, and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adpositions show spatial, temporal, or other relationships.

Uploaded by

Nancy Baligod
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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EXICAL

ATEGORY
LEXICAL CATEGORY
Definition:

A lexical category is a syntactic category for


elements that are part of the lexicon of a
language. These elements are at the word level
MOST IMPORTANT LEXICAL CATEGORIES ARE:

Noun
Verb
Adverb
Adjective
Adpositions (prepositions and postpositions)
LEXICAL CATEGORIES:
NOTIONAL DEFINITIONS

For example
 noun is defined as ‘the name of a person, place
or thing’,
 verb is defined as an ‘action word’, and
 adjective is defined as ‘a word expressing a
property or attribute’.
IN MODERN LINGUISTICS, HOWEVER, LEXICAL
CATEGORIES ARE DEFINED
MORPHOSYNTACTICALLY IN TERMS OF THEIR
GRAMMATICAL PROPERTIES.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: NOUN

 Proper Noun
 nouns that refer uniquely to particular entities or individuals
e.g. Sam, Elizabeth, Paris or London
 Common Noun
nouns which do not refer to unique individuals or entities
common nouns may be divided into mass nouns and count nouns. Count
nouns, as the name implies, denote countable entities, e.g. seven chairs, six
pencils, three dogs, many cars. Mass nouns, on the other hand, are not readily
countable in their primary senses, e.g. waters, butters, snows.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: PRONOUNS

 Pronouns are closely related to nouns, as they both function as NPs.


 Pronouns are traditionally characterized as ‘substitutes’ for nouns or as
‘standing for’ nouns, e.g. John went to the store, and he bought some milk, in
which he substitutes or stands for John in the second clause. This, however, is
true only of third-person pronouns like he, she, it, or they; it is not true of first-
person pronouns like I or second-person pronouns like you. First- and second-
person pronouns refer to or index the speaker and addressee in a speech
event and do not replace or stand for a noun.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: VERBS

 Verbs can likewise be categorized along a number of dimensions. One very


important dimension is whether a verb takes just a subject (an intransitive
verb), or a subject and a direct object (a transitive verb), or a subject, direct
object and indirect object (a ditransitive verb). This will be referred to as the
‘valence’ of the verb.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: VERBS
 Some verbs represent static situations which do not involve anyone actually
doing anything,
e.g. know as in Chris knows the answer,
see as in Pat sees Dana over by the bookcase.
 Some symbolize actions,
e.g. run as in Kim run around the track,
sing as in Leslie sang a beautiful aria.
 Others refer to a change of state,
e.g. freeze as in The water froze (the change in the state of the water is from
liquid to solid),
dry as in The clothes dried quickly (the change in the state of the Syntax,
lexical categories, and morphology clothes is from wet to dry).
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: VERBS
 Some represent complex situations involving an action plus a change of
state, e.g. break as in Larry broke the window with a rock (Larry does
something with a rock [action] which causes the window to break [change of
state]). This classification of verbs is quite complex and is more
appropriately in the domain of semantics rather than syntax.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: ADJECTIVES
• describe things that nouns refer to
examples of adjectives in include red, happy, tall, sick, interesting,
beautiful, and many others.
• Adjectives typically express properties of entities. Some
properties are inherent attributes of an entity; for example,
some apples are red because they are naturally so, whereas
some chairs are red because they have been painted red, not
because they are inherently red. Hence color is an inherent
property of apples but not of chairs.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: ADJECTIVES

• can be used in a sentence with the verb be:


• EX : He is happy. They should be ripe.
• can be modified with degree adverbs:
• EX : He is very happy. They should be completely
ripe.
• have comparative form by adding -er:
• EX : happi-er rip-er
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: ADVERBS
 Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and even other adverbs.
 nature of modification;
 manner adverbs, indicate the manner in which something is done
e.g. The detective examined the crime scene carefully,
The ballerina danced beautifully
 temporal adverbs, as the name implies, express when something
happened.
e.g. Kim talked to Chris yesterday.
Dana will see Pat tomorrow.
 degree modifiers, the most common adverbial modifiers of adjectives
and adverbs are words like very, extremely, rather.
e.g. a very tall tree, the extremely clever student, rather quickly.
LEXICAL CATEGORIES: ADPOSITIONS

 Postpositions are adpositions that occur after their object


e.g. He is the person being referred to.
The bank is located across from the bridge.
Prepositions are adpositions that occur before their object.

Prepositions (P): Express roles


Instrument
EX: with, He cut the bread with the knife
Possessor
EX: of, Monday is the best day of the week.
Spatial, directional and Temporal relations
EX: The food was on the table before it fell to the floor.
SUMMARY

BASIC LEXICAL CATEGORIES ARE:


Noun
Pronoun
Verb
Adverb
Adjective
Adposition (prepositions and postpositions)
HANK OU

OR

ISTENING

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