Understanding English Grammar: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and More
Nouns
Concrete Nouns
Concrete nouns are the most typical and central members of the class of nouns. They refer to people, things, and substances.
Abstract Nouns
Abstract nouns are related to ideas, concepts, and intangible objects.
Countable Nouns
Countable nouns refer to discrete, numerable objects.
Mass Nouns
Mass nouns refer to liquids, substances, powders, or qualities.
Common Nouns
Common nouns classify things into types (e.g., “horse” refers to all breeds of horses).
Proper Nouns
Proper nouns do not denote a type but are unique and refer to specific places or people (e.g., “Lilliput,” “Harry Potter”).
Verbs
Verbs semantically refer to actions, events, activities, and states. They are an open class category (excluding modal verbs) and are the heads of Verb Phrases (VP). They are predicates and never the subject of a sentence.
Form
Verbs tend to be regular and have only four inflections: plain, -s, -ed/-en, -ing. They sometimes carry auxiliary verbs, and some verbs carry specific suffixes (e.g., “realize”).
Meaning
Meaning is not as important when identifying word class. For example, the inflected verb “lost” may also be a noun, but its meaning remains similar.
Regular & Irregular Verbs
Verbs can be classified as regular or irregular based on their inflection patterns.
Full & Modal Verbs
Full verbs carry the full inflections of the language. Modal verbs act as auxiliaries and set the mood of a verb. They do not carry inflections and cannot be the head of anything (e.g., “could,” “would”).
Adjectives
Adjectives are attributes given to nouns, describing their characteristics.
Gradable Adjectives
Gradable adjectives allow comparisons (e.g., “more beautiful”). Some adjectives, however, do not allow comparisons (e.g., “deader”).
Other Grammatical Concepts
Form, Function, and Meaning
- Form: A constituent’s inner characteristics.
- Function: The result of composite form; the order or position in a sentence.
- Meaning: What elements indicate about other elements or their role in a sentence.
Open & Closed Classes
Open Class: Admit new elements and may result in new words (e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs).
Closed Class: Do not admit new additions (e.g., articles, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections).
Overlapping Forms
Some words can function as different parts of speech depending on context (e.g., “run” as a noun and a verb).
Fuzzy Edges of Words
The boundaries of words can be fuzzy due to the abstract nature of language and its relation to the world. Prototypical examples exist alongside less prototypical ones (e.g., “eat” is a prototypical verb, while “run” can be both a noun and a verb).
Parsing & Clauses
We separate grammatical categories by parsing. Clauses are the major units of sentences.
Phrases & Morphemes
Phrases are intermediate between clauses and words. Morphemes provide information about the grammatical class of words, particularly verbs.