Part of speech

Part of speech (part of speech, morphosyntactic category or word class) is an old classification of words according to their type. Modernly, the term "grammatical category" refers to a linguistic variable that can take different values that determine the specific morphological form of a word.

Categories in traditional grammar

The categories that it recognizes and the classification that traditional grammar proposes are based above all on morphology, although they also have relevance for syntax.

In the Spanish-speaking world, traditional grammar distinguishes nine parts of speech:

1. Substantive (or name)
2. Adjective
3. Article
4. Name
5. Verb
6. Adverbio
7. Intersection
8. Preference
9. conjunction

The first five (noun, adjective, article, pronoun, and verb) are the so-called variable parts of the sentence, since they can present various forms; and the other four (adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection) are the invariable parts, because they only have one form.

For example, in Spanish, the noun or the adjective can vary in gender and number without ceasing to be the same word, and the verb, which is the most variable category, can appear in any of its conjugation forms, varying in number, person, tense, mode, voice, and aspect. This variation of forms through the addition of morphemes is called inflection, and is typical of inflectional languages.

On the other hand, invariable words like the adverbs so or after, or like the prepositions in, to or of, like the conjunction but or like the interjection ea! only present a form that lacks relevant variants (it doesn't matter, for example, saying perhaps as perhaps; and the variants y/e, o/u are merely euphonious).

This classification of traditional grammar is not perfectly applicable to all languages, especially non-inflected languages (isolating languages such as Mandarin Chinese), or to many Amerindian languages, either because they lack inflection, because they lack prepositions, because verbs and adjectives form a single class, etc.

Ratings

In generative grammar, grammatical categories are divided into two large classes:

• Lex categories. They include the kinds of words that can be followed by a notional meaning add-on that can be preceded by another element that specifies or modifies them grammatically:
  • Verb. It has the [+V] (predictive) and [-N] (non-denominative). Select verbal supplements and is grammatically specified by elements such as denial and auxiliary verbs. Verbales Syntagmas form.
  • Sustantive. It has the [-V] (non-predictive) and [+N] (denominative). You can select name add-ons and be grammatically specified by determinants and quantifiers. Form Nominal Syntagmas
  • Adjective. It has the features [+V] and [+N]. It supports adjective supplements and grammatical 'grade' specifiers. Adjective or Adjective Syntagmas
  • Preposition. Characterized as [-N] and [-V]. It obligatoryly selects a complement (the element known by grammatical tradition as 'the term of preposition'). It is rare to carry grammatical specifiers, but there are some cases: they are usually grade specifiers or denial, as in John is [Very. of his people]; Not so down. Prepositional Syntagmas Form
  • Adverbio. Category with adscription problems according to the parameters [+/-N] and [+/-V]. There are proposals that assimilate it to the preposition with the difference that it would lack an obligatory complement. There is currently no unanimity. It supports adverb supplements and grammatical 'grade' specifiers. Shape Adverbial Syntagmas.

• Functional categories. They include words that cannot be modified and that are part of a closed class (i.e., it is not usual to increase their number by lexical creation):
  • Determinant
  • Quantifier
  • Assistant
  • conjunction
  • Complementary
  • Negative
  • Others. Modern studies of linguistic theory have proposed many other functional categories, whose inventory and characterization is not unanimously accepted.

The lexical categories have content or notional meaning, from the extralinguistic world: in this sense, they link to the major categories, according to the classification of word classes by the nature of its meaning. The functional categories have grammatical meaning, which is why they are called minor categories.

On the other hand, lexical categories maintain important parallels with open classes of words, while nouns, adjectives and verbs conform to patterns of lexical productivity. As stated above, and although a total identification cannot be postulated, the functional categories are linked to the closed classes of words.

This can be better understood with the following example. Note that it is possible to create new verbs or nouns (someone can invent, if it has not already been done, for example, wikipedizar or wikiaddicted), and these words will be understood by the speakers of Spanish and, furthermore, they can end up spreading in the language), but no speaker can invent or innovate "new pronoun" or a "new preposition", as they are closed categories, and only grammaticalization processes can give rise to new pronouns or prepositions.

Categories in modern grammar

In modern linguistic theory, the term part of speech includes many more aspects than the traditional term, which usually only refers to semantic classes of words. In general terms, a grammatical category is a morphological variable that can take different values for a class of words to which it is applied, for example, the class of verbs present variations or different realizations according to their tense, mood, person, etc., and each of these variables can take different values, for example in Spanish the variable "time" It can take the values of past, present or future. Usually parts of speech are subject to grammatical agreement constraints. Some of the most frequent grammatical categories among world languages are:

• In the preaching elements (verbs):
  • Grammatical aspect
  • Grammatical mode
  • Grammatical time
  • Grammatical voice
  • Valencia (intransitivity, transitivity, ditransitivity).
  • Animacity
  • Evidentiality
  • Intentionality (control)

• In the designative elements (name, adjective):
  • Grammatical case
  • Grammatical gender
  • Grammatical number
  • Grammatical definition
  • Deixis

• In designative and preaching elements:
  • Grammatical gender (in semitic languages).
  • Grammatical number
  • Animacity