Functional Categories

1. Functional Categories Lec. 3

2. 1. Open Class vs. Closed Classes When a new concept comes into our worldview, we almost label it with a new word: Borrowing from another language Reassigning an old word a new meaning When we make up a new word, we have what is called a neologism

3. Open Class vs. Closed Classes Open class: parts of speech that allow neologisms (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) Closed class: parts of speech that do not allow neologisms (prepositions, auxiliaries, conjunctions, articles, etc.)

4. 2. Lexical vs. Functional Categories Lexical categories (open): Categories that express content (N, V, Adj., Adv.) Functional categories (closed): Categories which are the glue that holds sentences together (articles, prepositions, modal verbs, auxiliary verbs)

5. Exercise/ underline functional words “If you’ll watch my feet, you will see how I do it”. She said; and lifting her skirt above her dainty ankles, glided across the floor on tiptoe, as lightly as a fawn at play. But Sidney Trove was not a graceful creature. The muscles on his lithe form, developed in the school of work or in feats of strength at which he had met no equal, were untrained in all graceful trickery. He loved dancing and music and everything that increased the beauty and delight of life, but they filled him with a deep regret of his ignorance.

6. Functional categories Prepositions usually express the relationship between a noun and a verb. Distributionally, prepositions always come before the articles/ determiners – if they are any- that come before the noun. Examples of prepositions (p. 44)

7. Functional categories / PREPOSITIONS There is no one in the room I sat on the beach There is somebody at the door Would you like sugar in your coffee Have you seen the notice on the noticeboard There is some water in the bottle Write your name at the top of the page Our flat is on the second floor The garden is at the back of the house

8. Functional categories Determiners are a class of items that appear before nouns, but typically after prepositions. There are a number of different subtypes of determiners: Articles: (the, a, an) Deictic articles: (this, that, these, those) Quantifiers: (every, some, many, most, few, all, each, any, less, fewer, no)

9. Exercise / underline all determiners “If you’ll watch my feet, you will see how I do it”. She said; and lifting her skirt above her dainty ankles, glided across the floor on tiptoe, as lightly as a fawn at play. But Sidney Trove was not a graceful creature. The muscles on his lithe form, developed in the school of work or in feats of strength at which he had met no equal, were untrained in all graceful trickery. He loved dancing and music and everything that increased the beauty and delight of life, but they filled him with a deep regret of his ignorance.

10. Functional words/ connecting words There 2 type of connecting words: Conjunctions (Conj.) also know as coordinators are words that tie together two coordinated words or phrases on an equal level. e.g. I ate [the pizza] and [the eggroll] I [ate the pizza] and [drink the soda] [I ate the pizza] and [Dave drank the soda]

11. Functional words/ connecting words Conjunctions of English: And, or, but, nor, neither…nor, either…or, if…then, both…and, however, nonetheless,

12. Functional words/ connecting words Complemntizers also known as (subordinating conjunctions). They differ form conjunctions in that they link two items in an asymmetric unbalanced fashion. They also generally link clauses E.g. Amy thinks that Dave forgot to pay his phone bill Amy thinks + Dave forgot to pay his phone bill

13. Functional words/ connecting words Complementizers / subordinating conjunctions of English: That, for, whether, because, after, although, while, since, until, before, provided, unless, though

14. Exercise Mark ……Susan cut down the tree. I wonder ……. Mark cut down the tree. I’m sure …….Mark cut down the tree. ……… Mark cut down the tree ……… Susan did. Bill asked ……… Mark cut down the tree. ………. Mark cut down the tree …… I’ll be really angry. Mark cut down the tree ……….. Susan didn’t.