Parts of Speech Problem
Oct 14th, 2009 by Kirsten
Posting from: Philipsburg, MT
I am in the throes of a grammatical crisis. For a variety of reasons, I have found myself reviewing the Parts of Speech. I learned that there were eight parts of speech. Purdue’s Online Writing Lab agrees with that number. However, its list of the parts of speech didn’t match what I recalled from grade school. Purdue lists articles as a part of speech but not interjections. Several other sources I’ve looked at list interjections but not articles.
This is an unacceptable situation. What is the correct answer here? What would be a definitive source on this?
Oh! Maybe the answer is there are nine parts of speech. Bam!
That would rock my linguistic world! But I feel I need a source on this so that I’m not just making up rules of the English language and disseminating them to others of my own accord.
I don’t think there is a definitive source, as categorizations can reasonably differ, e.g., I can understand the argument for including articles as adjectives. Perhaps this table will help you arrive at a satisfactory answer. (Mine is to concur with Uncle Warren.)
I always learned articles as adjectives, too. Screw Purdue! It’s an engineering school. What kind of source is that for grammar anyway?
Seriously, though, I am just about getting ready to write my own English curriculum website. I just haven’t found a good English 101 sort of site that I like.
I hope you have more success with that project than I’ve had working on my Psych 101 textbook …
“According to School House Rock” there (<- There’s another one!) are 9 articles of English speech. They are ….
Conjunction Junction
Unpack Your Adjectives
Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here
Interjections!
Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla (Pronouns)
Verb: That’s What’s Happening
A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing
Busy Prepositions
The Tale of Mr. Morton (Subjects and Predicates)
Kirsten, you should have watched more cartoons on Saturday mornings during the 70s.
I’m going to have to call GrammarFail on School House Rock if they are calling subjects and predicates separate parts of speech. A subject is a noun or a pronoun, and a predicate is a verb. They are not separate parts of speech.
The Russians have only 6 parts of speech.
Nominative (Naming things. Nouns.)
Genitive (Ownership)
Dative (Giving and taking)
Accusative (They used that one a lot in the Soviet era.)
Instrumental (My fav of course.)
Prepositional (Same as English)
The Russians apply these rules as endings to words and then compile their sentences. English is concatenated.I just have to ask myself how can a country with a language poised to carry science and technology better than English, with the population density of Montana, and the raw resources of the Mid East and Africa fail so badly? It’s got to be all that vodka.
Those are not parts of speech. Those are grammatical cases.
Does a subject have to be a noun or pronoun? I’m showing my ignorance here. Can’t a subject be about a verb or a preposition too? Like a book about running, or say “Ethel the Arrdvarrk goes Quantity Surveying”? I dunno.
Then I have to show my ignorance again. What’s the difference?
Yes, a subject has to be a noun or a pronoun. When you say “running” or “surveying” in the way you are using them, those are special derivatives of verbs called gerunds. A gerund is a noun form of a verb. In your first example, “about running” is not a subject. It’s a phrase where the gerund running is the object of the preposition about. There is no subject in “Like a book about running”; that is not a complete sentence. In “Ethel the Arrdvarrk goes Quantity Surveying” the subject is Ethel and surveying is a gerund which is a direct object.
This settles it. I’m going to put together a grammar for adults website.
It’s hard to see, but if you click parts of speech and grammatical cases in comment #9, you’ll click through to the corresponding Wikipedia entries.
Excellent. Thanks. I’ve never been exposed to the argument of the gerund before. Never heard of it. Looks like those authoritarian catholic schools did a good job. Better than those free form public schools I went to.
I’ve just been releived of a bit-o-ignorance. Thanks.
Tomorrow at noon is a talk on the nature of the 1993 Pentium bug.
http://math.arizona.edu/~weeklynews/poster.html?id=5521
I’m so excited. That I just can’t hide it. I’m about to lose control and I think I like it.
Oh Yeah!
Night Kirsten!
If you want to learn (1) good grammar, (2) good handwriting, and (3) that women or girls who are raped are responsible for that because they were somehow enticing their attacker perhaps with their immodest clothes and makeup or seductive manner or by being in the wrong part of town or what have you, then a nice authoritarian Catholic school is a great place to go!
As for the grammar, we diagrammed sentences. Did you ever do that? I know diagramming sentences has a bad rep among students, but it’s awesome for understanding grammar!
Yes we did diagramming. From 6th to 12th grade, from Tx to Nj. But I’ve never heard of the gerund. Neither the name or the concept. I’m going to study those pages as I’ve never been exposed to the concept before.
The need for good handwriting and language skills are more than self evident, yet need a degree coercion to get down a childs mind. That self hatred came along with the technical education shows the need for targeted rebellion to reject the bad. It’s too bad damned few know how to teach targeted rebellion. We tend to focus on accept it all, or reject it all.
Oh, so I need to ask. When will there be the most snow, when is your schedule open for me to come out for a cold blast?
I think late January is probably your best bet. February would be second place. We had a warm spell in February last year.
BTW, check this out: http://motorhomediaries.com/fallout-shelter/
I was wrong. I just found three instances in which a subject can be other than a noun or a pronoun:
1. An infinitive (a verb form). Example: To lie is a sin. (subject: To lie)
2. A clause. Example: That he was lying was obvious. (subject: That he was lying)
3. A direct quotation. Example: “Semper fidelis” is the motto of the United States Marine Corps. (subject: “Semper fidelis”)
Can anyone think of any more non-noun/pronoun valid subjects?