Minor parts of speech: Difference between revisions
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General characteristics: | General characteristics: | ||
* the word classes can be defined by listing all elements. | * the word classes can be defined by listing all elements. | ||
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These properties contrast with those of the [[Major_parts_of_speech|major parts of speech]]. | These properties contrast with those of the [[Major_parts_of_speech|major parts of speech]]. | ||
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Revision as of 10:43, 19 April 2017
General characteristics:
- the word classes can be defined by listing all elements.
- the words of minor parts of speech have a 'grammatical' meaning, i.e. they are function words. They express a grammatical, meta-linguistic or indexical function.
closed word classes (i.e. new words in the language will not belong to any of these classes)
- diachronically words of minor parts of speech emerge and disappear very slowly if at all. A change in a minor class usually goes hand in hand with a change in the grammar.
- they are heterogeneous and difficult to group. Therefore, we cannot provide tests, but since we are dealing with closed classes, we can provide listings.
Minor parts of speech in English:
1. Determiners
2. Auxiliaries
3. Conjunctions
4. Complementizers
5. Particles
6. The infinitive marker to
These properties contrast with those of the major parts of speech.
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