parts of speech
Just as the body is understood from systemic components such as skeletal, nervous, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and reproductive, the language of its individual components is also understood. It has letters that form words; words that are combined to form sentences; sentences that can be expanded to form clauses; clauses that are combined to form paragraphs; and paragraphs that merge and develop into theses, dissertations, short stories, screenplays, news commentaries, novels, and anything else used to persuade, inform, or entertain. In essence, each word spoken can be classified as any of eight (8) categories assigned in an arbitrary, yet logical manner. Since writing is visually recorded speech, and speech is a compilation of useful utterances, it stands to reason that analysis of writing and speech would result in a table of parts aptly named parts of the sentence.
1. The largest group is the NOUN.
2. Each noun can be replaced by a PRONOUN.
3. Words that modify, change, count more, or describe nouns or pronouns are ADJECTIVES.
4. An important group of words tells what those nouns or pronouns are gold do. These are VERBS.
5. Words that modify, change, count more, or describe verbs in another way are ADVERBS. They also modify, limit, count more, or describe adjectives and other adverbs.
6. A small group of words that is indispensable is the one that consists of PREPOSITIONS.
7. Another small but important group contains the various types of CONJUNCTIONSwords that join other words, phrases, or clauses.
8. The last group, by far the smallest, consists of those words that express emotion: INTERJECTIONS.
The names of the eight groups are all derived from Latin and describe by their names the functions they perform. Each section will address the etymology of the name and give definitions and examples of the terms and how they fit into the larger grammatical scheme of communication.
Each of these eight groups will be treated separately as each has so many facets that deserve individual attention. Plus, the small bites will encourage a healthier digestion of the contents that have caused so much ulceration in those who have tried to swallow it all in one gulp only to regurgitate unchewed bits of grammatical matter. A quick glance (sort of like scanning a menu before a holiday banquet) could whet your appetite for the massive doses to follow. Briefly, here are the eight categories with lowercase letters. [also spelled miniscule] application sampling.
General principles:
All Words do one or more of the following:
1. Name people, places, things or ideas (nouns):
John – common name for male person [person]
John – unusual last name for the singer, Elton. [person]
San Juan – popular biblical entity; common surname of the actress, Jill. [person]
John – popular name for evening customer [person]
John – common name for the bathroom utility [thing or place]
beats – nocturnal mammal that flies [thing]
beats– wooden instrument to hit flies (balls) [thing]
verbaphobia – fear of words [idea]
Paris – nice place in France [place]
Coney Island – good place for franks [place]
Frank – basic currency of France (and 23 other places) [thing]
writer – the one who does what I do [person]
writing – what is this (in print) [thing]
writing – what is this (in written form) [thing]
onomatopoeia – words that suggest meaning by their spelling (buzz, murmur)[idea]
hello – Hello Goodbye [verbalized idea]
bye – bye (bye or bye) [verbalized idea]
2. take the place of nouns (pronouns):
Yo – takes the place of the individual from his own point of view (“I love you,” said Joe).
he – takes the place of things or ideas (We don’t think so.)
her, her, hers – take the place of feminine gender nouns (She gave Lucinda what was not hers to give her).
someone – takes the place of nameless individuals (Does anyone know what I’m talking about?)
3. show action gold mood (verbs):
eat – ingest food (animals and plants need eat to survive.)
to drink – drink liquid (animals and plants need to drink to survive.)
have dinner – eat and drink in a sophisticated environment (Should we have dinner at leisure tonight?)
party – eating that food in a more sophisticated environment at a higher cost.
be – exist (Where are you going to be tonight?)
feel – (transitive) touch (You’re too far. I can’t tap you.)
feel – sense (intransitive) (How feel after winning the game?)
hop – jump off the ground with a single movement (We needed hop over the tidal wave to avoid getting wet).
sense – perceive (I sense that you are outraged by my negative response to your application).
4. Description nouns or pronouns (adjectives):
big – (oversized) big truck (The Freightliner is a big truck.)
little – (small size) small truck (For comparison, the Ford F-10 is a little truck.)
red – have the specific hue or hue with a particular radiant frequency of 630 – 750 nanometers in the visible spectrum (The girl was wearing a little, red, Little Red Riding Hood.)
wild – uncontrolled (The wolf he saw had a wilduncontrollable appetite.)
hungry – craving food (The girl was not so hungry like the wolf.)
broken – does not work as intended (She wailed, “My toy is broken!”)
silent – without a sound (This is a silent evening.)
bright – high on the luminescence emission scale (The sun is too bright to look directly.)
5. Describe the action of the verbs. or the quality of adjectives and other adverbs (adverbs):
greedily – with animal voracity (The wolf looked greedily in Little Red Hood.)
very happy – more than fair happy (we are always very happy to see your mother.)
silently – without a sound (Walk silently overnight.)
bright – have more shine (Bright red is easier to see than dull red.) It can also function as the adjective as in he is not very bright.
diligently – vigilantly (The executioner proceeded diligently with his task.)
6. connect words each other with special relations (prepositions):
in water – surrounded by dihydrogen oxide. (The fishes are in Water.)
in water – entering dihydrogen oxide from outside its essence (We fell in the sea.)
with water – which has dihydrogen oxide in the company of other substances (Washing with soap and water.)
low – in a lower position (She gets low My skin.)
against – in contact with (hit the bat against the ball that caromed against the wall in left field for a triple.)
7. Connect words, phrases, clauses and sentences under coordinated, subordinate or correlative conditions (conjunctions):
and – [equal value] (Eating and drinking are essential to life.)
aim – [on the contrary] (I like spinach aim I hate pumpkin.)
either or – [conditional choices] (You’ll any Do what I say gold you will feel my wrath.)
unless – [conditional] (We’re not going to the beach unless you finish your (yuck!) pumpkin.
Yeah – [conditional] (if you like this, we’ll do some more).
8. show emotion (interjections):
yuck! – Yuck! this is horrible
Wow! – Wow! You look wonderful.
Spree! – Spree! We won.
All of the above are merely samples of each of the words that could be in that group. A full minimum is available for all words and their usage. Webster publishes this list as do Random House and Oxford University. These lists are called Dictionariesor list of all components of diction (speech).
The most important common denominator in learning any language is that a quantitative foundation of vocabulary is essential. Without knowing the words, understanding the grammar would be impossible. How do you acquire a large vocabulary? Memorize. Read. Hear. Talk. Mock. Write. Practice over and over again until the words come naturally. It’s not an easy task, but it’s certainly easier for a child whose brain is more receptive to new ideas than any of us who have spent generations immersed in a language.
Grammar is a system whose components, individually, are not difficult to understand; but when the entire system is considered as a unit, it appears to be an insurmountable task to expertly manage. Hundreds of texts have tried to organize the English party into digestible fragments. This is just another one that could be more didactic, analytical, and informative than the others.
