Chapter II. Parts of speech (general survey)

The problem of parts of speech is one that causes great contro­versies both in general linguistic theory and in the analysis of sepa­rate languages. We shall have to examine here briefly a few general questions concerning parts of speech which are of some importance for Modern English.

The term " parts of speech" (as well as the corresponding terms in Russian, German, French, and other languages), though firmly established, is not a very happy one. What is meant by a " part of speech" is a type of word differing from other types in some gram­matical point or points. To take the clearest example of all, the verb is a type of word different from all other types in that it alone has the grammatical category of tense. Thus, while it is perfectly rea­sonable to ask, " What is the past tense of the word live? " (the answer of course is, lived), it would make no sense to ask, " What is the past tense of the word city! " or " What is the past tense of the word big? " Those words just have not got any past tense, or any tense whatever, for that matter: the notion of tense cannot be applied to them. Tense is one of the distinctive features characteriz­ing the verb as against every other type of word. However, th^ question is much less simple with reference to some other types of words, and a general definition of the principles on which the classi­fication of parts of speech is based becomes absolutely necessary.

We cannot here go into the controversy over these principles that has lasted a considerable time now, and we will limit our­selves to stating the principles of our classification and pointing out some difficulties inherent in it.

The principles on which the classification is based are three in number, viz. (1) meaning, (2) form, (3) function. Each of these requires some additional explanations.

(1) By meaning we do not mean the individual meaning of each separate word (its lexical meaning) but the meaning common to all the words of the given class and constituting its essence. Thus, the meaning of the substantive (noun) is " thingness". This applies equally to all and every noun and constitutes the structural meaning of the noun as -a type of word. Similarly, the meaning of the verb as a type of word is that of " process", whatever the indi­vidual meaning of a separate verb may happen to be.*We shall have to dwell on this later in considering every part of speech in detail.

(2) By form we mean the morphological characteristics of a type of word. Thus, the noun is characterized by the category of number (singular and plural), the verb by tense, mood, etc. Several types of words (prepositions, conjunctions, and others) are characterized by invariability.

(3) By function we mean the syntactical properties of a type of word. These are subdivided into two, viz. (a) its method of com­bining with other words, (b) its function in the sentence; (a) has to deal with phrases, (b) with sentence structure. Taking, as we did previously, the verb as a specimen, we can state that, for example, a verb combines with a following noun (write letters) and also with a following adverb (write quickly). As to (b), i.e. the syntactical function of a verb in a sentence, it is that of a predicate.[1]

Two additional remarks are necessary before wo proceed to the analysis of parts of speech in detail.

In the first place, there is the question about the mutual rela­tion of the criteria. We cannot be sure in advance that all three criteria will always point the same way. Then, again, in some cases, one of them may fail (this especially applies to the criterion of form). Under such circumstances, it may prove necessary to choose between them, i. e. to attach to one of them greater value than to another. We may say, provisionally, that we shall treat them in the order in which they have been enumerated, viz. meaning shall come first, form next, and function last.

It will also be seen that the theory of parts of speech, though considered by most scholars to be a part of morphology, [2] cannot do without touching on some syntactical problems, namely on phrases and on syntactical functions of words (point 3 in our list of criteria). We shall regard the theory of parts of speech as essentially a part of morphology, involving, however, some syn­tactical points.