Lexical categories

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Lexical Categories(or Parts of Speech)

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(or Parts of Speech)

Native-speaker Intuitions about Words

• We have intuitions about the existence of:– words– syntactic categories: words are not all of the

same kind (or category)

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same kind (or category)

Words and word-level categories (lexical categories)

My brother will meet a friend from college at the station.

Det N Aux V Det N P

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Det N Aux V Det N PMy brother will meet a friend from

N P Det N Advcollege at the station soon.

Acoustic wave forms

Kay saw two pieces.

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K..ay....s.......aw...t......wo...p.....ie....c.......e

Acoustic wave forms

You wore a lily.

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Y......ou...w..o....re...a.....l..i......l...y......

A paradox?

There is no acoustic evidence for the existence of words as independent units, yet we have

intuitions that words exist.

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Word-level categories: phonological evidence

(1) a. We need to increase productivity.b. We need an increase in productivity.

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(2) a. We need to inCREASE productivity.b. We need an INcrease in productivity.

Word-level categories: phonological evidence

(5) a. We want to record this movie.b. Do you have my record?

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(6) a. We want to reCORD this movie.b. Do you have my REcord?

Word-level categories: morphological evidence

Verbs: -ed, -s, -ingBase (Past) Present Gerundwalk walked walks walking

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walk walked walks walkingtalk talked talks talkingshow showed shows showing

child *childed *childs *childing


Adjectives: -er, -est

tall er tall est; short er short est

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tall-er, tall-est; short-er, short-est

*child-er child-est


Adverbs: -ly

sad-ly, desperate-ly, aggressive-ly

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y p y gg y

*child-ly, *walk-ly


Nouns: -s (number)

• idiot-s

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idiot s

*idiotic-s, *small-s, *big-s

Prepositions: no inflection

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- Semantic Definition:

Noun: person, place, thing, conceptBill, man, Boston, pencil, tranquility

Categories

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Verb: action, statehit, jump, love, appreciate, know

Adjective: property, attributehappy, pretty, big, misdirected

Adverb: property or manner of actionquickly, intelligently, happily, surely

Preposition: locations, instruments, action modifiers

in (the garden), near (Fred), with (a knife)

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( g ), ( ), ( )

What are these categories?

under locateChicago be

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knowledge exquisitepreview slowly

Functional categories

These categories are usually associated with a particular kind of a phrase.

Determiner: (the, a, this, that) requires a noun to

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form a phrase: the man, a girl

Degree Adverbs: (so, very, more) forms a phrase with an adjective or an adverb: very pretty, very quickly, so tall, so happily.

Conjunction: (and, but, or) form a sentence or a phrase from 2 sentences or phrases of the same type.

I studied chemistry and Bill studied linguistics.Mary studied but Bill played hockey.

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You can serve or receive the ball.

JabberwockyThrough the Looking Glassby Lewis Carroll

‘Twas brillig and the slithy tovesdid gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogroves,

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y g ,And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!”

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“Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas –only I don’t exactly know what they are!”

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y y y

- Alice

‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves

did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogroves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

V V

N

NAdj

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g

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!

V

Adj N

Adj or N N

Word-level CategoriesSyntactic Evidence: Distribution Tests

Syntactic Frame

Noun frame: Det _____th bl t t d t

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e.g., the problem, a cat, some students

The/a/some __ can be a pain in the neck.

Some chores can be a pain in the neck.

*Some destroy can be a pain in the neck.


Syntactic Frame

Verb frame: AUX _____________ill t h ld fl

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e.g., will want, should go, can fly

They could __ .

They could leave.

*They could problem. / *They could small.


Syntactic Frame

Adjective frame 1:Det ___ th t f t i d

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e.g., the strange fact, a nice day

This is very interesting.*This is very interest.

Adjective frame 2: Degree Adv ___e.g., very strange, extremely nice

This is very __.


Syntactic Frame

Adverb frame: Degree Adv ___ i kl it l

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e.g., very quickly, quite generously

Adverbial frame: He [VP treats her] ___e.g., treats her nicely

Adverbials: adverbs, PPs, etc. e.g., treats her with respect.

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Syntactic Frame

Determiner frame:__ (Adj) Noun

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e.g., the problem, a gray cat, some talented students

He wrote ___ other books.

He wrote the/those/some other books.

*He wrote interest other books.


Syntactic Frame

Preposition frame:right __

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e.g., right under the table, right around the corner

He found it right ___ the shelf.

He found it right on the shelf.

* He found it right wooden the shelf.

Education

Lexical categories