1. Parts of Speech
According to meanings and forms of the
words and their functions in sentences, English words can be divided into
ten sorts: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, numerals, verbs, adverbs, articles,
prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.
These ten sorts of words belongs to
two bigger categories:
Notional Words: nouns, pronouns,
adjectives, numerals, verbs, adverbs
Form Words: articles, prepositions,
conjunctions and interjections
As the terms imply, notional words have
certain terminal meanings and serve as members of sentences, e.g. subjects,
attributes, adverbials; whereas form words play structural roles and show
the relationship between words or between other parts of the sentences,
or help to build various tenses, voices and moods, etc.
2. Functions of words and their grammatical functions
The following table show the functions of words and their grammatical functions:
Parts of Speech | Abbreviation | Functions | Examples | Syntactical Functions | |
Notional Words | Nouns | n. | represent the names of people or things | school, worker | serve as subjects, objects, predicatives, etc. |
Pronouns | pron. | replace nouns or numerals | I, some | serve as subjects, objects, predicatives, etc. | |
Adjectives | adj. | indicate the quality and characteristics of people or things | new, good | serve as attributes, predicatives, etc. | |
Numerals | num. | indicate quantity or order | one, first | serve as subjects, objects, predicatives, attributes, adverbials | |
Verbs | v. | indicate actions or situations | study, see, be | serve as predicates | |
Adverbs | adv. | explain verbs, adjectives or other adverbs | very, quickly | serve as adverbials | |
Form Words | Articles | art. | indicate whether a noun refers to a general sense or special sense | a, an, the | |
Prepositions | prep. | indicate the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and other words | of, in, from | ||
Conjunctions | conj. | connect words, phrases, or sentences | and, or, but | ||
Interjections | interj. | express the feelings on speaking | oh, hello |
Unlike Chinese, nearly all English words
(except prepositions, conjunctions and interjections) have certain changes
in forms. e.g.
single and plural forms
of nouns: map---maps, man---men
nominative case, objective
case, and possessive case of pronouns: I, me, my
original, comparative degree
and superlative degree of adjectives: hard, harder, hardest
infinitive, past form, past
participle and present participle of verbs: do, did, done, doing
cardinal and ordinal forms
of numerals: one, first
indefinite articles
(a, an), definite article (the) and zero article (i.e. the situations where
no articles are used)
The Syntax
1. Members of the Sentence
In English, there are seven members
of the sentence:
Note: S = Subject
V = Verb
P = Predicative
O = Object
Oi = Indirect Object
Od = Direct Object
C = Complement