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The Grammatical Categories of Words and their Inflections
How do words fit in phrases?
(Kuiper and Allan, Ch. 2.1)
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Word and lexeme
Examine the following simple dictionary entry
sept , n. Clan, esp. in Ireland.
Word and lexeme
A lexeme is a three part symbol:
form (or a number of forms)
syntactic category
meaning
Lexemes also have non linguistic properties, useage.
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Inflection & stem
Inflected forms of TRY.
try, tries, tried, trying, as in the following sentences: The horse must try, The horse tries, The horse tried, The horse is trying.
Each is a grammatical word form. The grammatical endings which create these different grammatical word forms are termed inflections.
Stem
is the form of the lexeme to which they are attached.
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Morphological processes
The processes whereby words come to have internal structure such as a stem and inflection are morphological processes
The categories for which words inflect are often called morphosyntactic categories. e.g. tense which accounts for the past tense inflection -ed in tri-ed is an example of a morphosyntactic category.
Properties such a present tense or past tense are therefore morphosyntactic properties.
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Inflection of nouns
Regular plural inflection
snapper snappers
bee bees
rosella rosellas
box boxes
Some nouns mark their plural in other ways
foot feet
mouse mice
louse lice
child children
ox oxen
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Other nouns never mark their plurals overtly
sheep sheep
deer deer
Still other nouns never occur without the plural marker, e.g. scissors and trousers.
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Exercise
Divide the nouns below into the following groups: nouns that can take a(n), nouns that can take the, nouns that have a plural form, and nouns that refer to things that can be counted.
alligator, wombat, Pittsburg, video, lawnmower, butter, Fred.
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Your answer should look like this:
a(n) the plural count
alligator √ √ √ √
wombat √ √ √ √
Pittsburg x x x x
video √ √ √ √
lawnmower √ √ √ √
butter x √ x x
Fred x x x x
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Exercise Find the nouns in the following poem:
The sick rose
Oh rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark, secret love
Does thy life destroy.
William Blake
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Inflection of adjectives
Adjectives may take two different endings, giving three forms, e.g.
big bigger biggest
tall taller tallest
Not all adjectives take the -er and -est endings, but use more and most, e.g.
evil more evil most evil
incredible more incredible most incredible
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Exercise
Divide the adjectives below into three groups: those which take the -er and -est endings, those which take more and most, and those which take neither of the above.
high, wide, dead, red, medical, ugly, narrow, absolute, painful, final
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Answers
-er, -est more, most neither high √ x x
wide √ x x
dead x x √
red √ x x
medical x x √
ugly √ √ x
narrow √ x x
absolute x x √
painful x √ x
final x x √
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Exercise Find the adjectives in the following poem:
The Lily
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble Sheep a threat’ning horn;
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.
William Blake
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Inflection of verbs
Verbs in English can belong to five different grammatical word forms: V-s V-ed V-ing V-en
call calls called calling called
Irregular forms: eat eats ate eating eaten
put puts put putting put
bring brings brought bringing brought
meet meets met meeting met
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Find the verbs in the following poem:
Nurse’s Song
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And whisp’rings are in the dale
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.
Then come home my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise,
Your spring & your day are wasted in play,
And your winter and night in disguise.
William Blake
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Exercise
Identify the grammatical category of the underlined words in the following passage:
Joanna's pink Ducati completed the journey from Malmö to Ravenna in just under two days.