The parts of speech
Just as the body is made up of systemic components such as skeletal, nervous, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and reproductive, language is also made up of its individual components. It has letters that make words; words that are combined to form sentences; phrases that can be expanded to form clauses; clauses that are combined to form paragraphs; and paragraphs that are merged and turned into theses, dissertations, stories, scripts, news commentaries, novels, and anything else that is used to persuade, inform, or entertain. In essence, each spoken word can be classified into any one of eight (8) arbitrarily assigned categories, albeit logically. Since writing is visually recorded speech, and speech is a compilation of useful sentences, it stands to reason that analysis of writing and speech would result in a table of parts conveniently called parts of the sentence.
1. The largest group is the NOUN.
2. Each noun can be replaced by a PRONOUN.
3. Words that modify, change, say more about or describe nouns or pronouns are ADJECTIVES.
4. An important group of words says what those nouns or pronouns is it so gold make. These are Verbs.
5. Words that modify, change, say more about or describe verbs are ADVERBS. They also modify, limit, say more about or describe adjectives, as well as other adverbs.
6. A small group of words that is indispensable is the one that consists of PREPOSITIONS.
7. Another small but important group contains the various types of CONJUNCTIONS, words that join other words, phrases or clauses.
8. The last group, by far the smallest, is made up of those words that express emotion: INTERJECTIONS.
The names of the eight groups are derived from Latin and describe by name the functions they perform. Each section will address the etymology of the name, as well as give definitions and examples of the terms and how they fit into the larger grammatical scheme of communication.
Each of these eight groups will be treated separately as each of them has so many facets that they deserve individual attention. Additionally, small bites will promote healthier digestion of the content that has caused so much ulceration in those who have tried to swallow it all in one gulp to regurgitate chunks of grammar without chewing. A quick glance (somewhat analogous to browsing through a menu before a festive banquet) could whet your appetite for the massive doses to come later. In summary, here are the eight categories with lower case [also spelled miniscule] application sampling.
General principles:
All the words perform one or more of the following:
1. Name people, places, things or ideas (nouns):
John – common name of the male person [person]
John – Uncommon surname for the singer, Elton. [person]
San Juan – popular biblical entity; Uncommon last name for the actress, Jill. [person]
John – popular name for night customer [person]
John – common name for bathroom utility [thing or place]
bat – nocturnal mammal that flies [thing]
bat– wooden instrument for hitting flies (balls) [thing]
verbaphobia – fear of words [idea]
Paris – nice place in France [place]
Coney Island – good place for franks [place]
Frank – basic currency of France (and 23 other places) [thing]
Writer – one who does what I do [person]
writing – what is this (in print) [thing]
writing – what is this (in written form) [thing]
onomatopoeia – words that suggest a meaning by their spelling (murmur, murmur)[idea]
Aloha Hello Goodbye [verbalized idea]
goodbye – bye (bye or bye) [verbalized idea]
two. Take the place of nounspronouns):
I – takes the place of the individual from his own point of view (“I love you,” said Joe).
that – takes the place of things or ideas (we don’t think so).
she, she, she – take the place of feminine gender nouns (she gave Lucinda what was not hers to give to her).
someone – takes the place of anonymous people (nobody knows what I’m talking about?)
3. Show action gold mood (verbs):
eat – eat food (animals and plants need eat to survive.)
to drink – drink liquid (animals and plants need to drink to survive.)
have dinner – have food and drink in sophisticated surroundings (should we have dinner tonight off?)
banquet – eat that food in a more sophisticated environment at a higher cost.
to be – exist (Where are you going to to be tonight?)
feel – Touch (transitive) (You’re too far away. I can’t play you.)
feel – meaning (intransitive) (How feel after winning the game?)
jump – jump off the ground in one movement (we needed jump over the tsunami to avoid getting wet).
sense – perceive (I sense who is outraged at my negative response to his request).
Four. Describe nouns or pronounsadjectives):
big – (oversized) large truck (The Freightliner is a big truck.)
small – Pickup (small size) (In comparison, the Ford F-10 is a small truck.)
Red – have the specific tone or tint with a particular radiant frequency of 630 to 750 nanometers in the visible spectrum (the girl was wearing a little, Red, Little Red Riding Hood.)
wild – uncontrolled (The wolf he saw had a wild, uncontrollable appetite.)
hungry – wishing for food (the girl was not so hungry like the wolf.)
broken – does not work as intended (he lamented: “My toy is broken! “)
be quiet – no sound (this is a be quiet night.)
sparkly – high on the luminescence emission scale (the sun also sparkly to look directly.)
5. Describe the action of verbs. or the quality of adjectives and other adverbs (adverbs):
greedily – with animal voracity (The wolf looked greedily in Little Red Riding Hood.)
very happy – more than alone happy (we are always very happy to see your mother.)
silently – without a sound (walking silently overnight.)
sparkly – have greater brightness (Sparkly red is easier to see than dull red) .It can also function as an adjective as in It is not very sparkly.
diligently – in a vigilant manner (The executioner proceeded diligently with his task).
6. Connect words each other with special relationships (prepositions):
on water – surrounded by dihydrogen oxide. (The fishes are on Water.)
within water – entering dihydrogen oxide from outside its essence (We fell within the sea.)
with water – which has dihydrogen oxide in the company of other substances (Wash with soap and water.)
below – in a lower position (it gets below My skin.)
against – in contact with (Hit the bat against the ball that caromed against the wall in left field for a triple.)
7. Connect words, phrases, clauses and sentences under coordinated, subordinate or correlative conditions (conjunctions):
Y – [equal value] (Eating Y drinking are essential for life).
objective – [on the contrary] (I like spinach objective I hate pumpkin.)
Either or – [conditional choices] (You’ll either Do what I say gold you will feel my anger.)
unless – [conditional] (We won’t go to the beach unless you finish your (yuck!) Squash.
yew – [conditional] (if you like this, we will do some more).
8. Show emotion (interjections):
Yuck! – Yuck! This is horrible.
Woof! – Woof! You look wonderful.
Spree! – Spree! We won.
All of the above are mere samples of each of the words that could be in that group. A complete minimum is available for all words and their usage. Webster publishes this list as does Random House and the University of Oxford. These lists are called Dictionaries, or list of all components of diction (speech).
The most important common denominator in learning any language is that a quantitative vocabulary base is essential. Without knowing the words, understanding the grammar would be impossible. How do you acquire a large vocabulary? Memorize. Read. Hear. Speak. Imitate. Write. Practice over and over until the words come naturally to you. It is not an easy task, but it is certainly easier for a child whose brain is more receptive to new ideas than any of us who have spent generations immersed in a language.
Grammar is a system whose components, individually, are not difficult to understand; But when the whole system is considered as a unit, it seems like an insurmountable task to deftly manage. Hundreds of texts have tried to organize the English party into digestible chunks. This is just another one that could be more didactic, analytical, and informative than the others.
