1. Descriptive Grammar – 2S, 2016 Mrs. Belén Berríos Droguett
Unit 1 Word Classes
Descriptive Grammar – 2S, 2016
Mrs. Belén Berríos Droguett

2. Word classes Words can be classified in two main ways:
Simple and Complex
Open and closed
The first classification is closely related to the form of words, its constituents and the changes they can go through. At this level we can focused on:
Stems/Roots
Affixes:
Suffixes
Prefixes
Simple words will be the ones formed by one stem, while a complex word has always a stem plus an affix

3. Word classes
The second classification is related to their form also as well as their use in bigger grammatical structures
Open Class
Closed Class
Noun (N)
Determiner (d)
Verb (V)
Pronoun (pn)
Adjective (Aj)
Preposition (p)
Adverb (Av)
Conjunction (cj)
Operator verb (v)
Interjection (ij)
Enumerator (e)

4. Word classes
All of these classes are usually also called “Parts of Speech”, since they appear in any type of written or oral communication we use
Besides the two classification listed before, there are other classification used in understanding words, e.g.:
Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs (AITEG)
Words, in general, can be recognized from one class or another according to the context they appear
Open class words/units usually are the same for most grammatical books, however, in some texts (AITEG) they consider many more classes and subclasses of Closed class units
For this course, we will study only the closed class units listed in EGFT

5. Open class units/words
Open classes are called this way because they are “open” to receive or create new units according to the need
We can identify them from three points of view:
Form: they can be made up of morphemes, in this case, we can identify the use of inflectional and derivational suffixes
Function: the way it occurs in certain positions or structural contexts, thus, how it works in a phrase/clause/sentence
Meaning: it is not a strong criterion, however there could be seen some similarities in open class units and their definitions
According to Leech, these points can be ranked as:
Function  most important
Form  next important
Meaning  least important

6. Closed class units/words
Closes classes are limited and almost never admit ne words
Every of the classes contain few members, and in some cases, very easy to identify and list
They tend to appear at or towards the beginning of larger units
They can be identified as markers of the unit they introduce
According to some books, the classes can vary in name or numbers, so we will focus only in the ones mentioned previously