The Nature of Part-of-Speech Meaning
According to Y.M. Skrebnev, part-of-speech meaning is lexical. But lexical meaning is always more or less concrete, while part-of-speech meaning is rather abstract.
Traditionally, part-of-speech meaning is looked upon as lexico-grammatical. On the one hand, it is lexical because it appears on the basis of the concrete lexical meanings of the words constituting the part of speech in question. On the other hand, it is grammatical because, as opposed to lexical meaning proper, it does not create words as such; it only accompanies the lexical meaning of words.
Recently, there appeared a tendency to regard part-of-speech meaning as purely grammatical. To prove his theory, O.P. Sunik gives examples of nouns whose generalized meaning of 'thingness' has nothing to do with concrete things. Cf.: beauty, knowledge, etc.
So, what is part-of-speech meaning, after all? To answer this question, one should bear in mind that parts of speech have primary and secondary meanings. Primary meanings are basic and etymologically prior to secondary meanings. They are usually found in words that denote concrete things, actions, processes, and properties, i.e. primary meanings of parts of speech are lexico-grammatical. Cf.: table, run, red, etc.
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Secondary meanings are the result of a much higher degree of abstraction. They generally iose the connection with concrete images and can be qualified as grammatical. Cf.: the meaning of 'thingness' in the verbal noun opposition, the meaning of process in the adjectival verb soften, the meaning of property in the verbal adjective irritable, etc.
Parts of Speech as Onomaseotogical Categories
E.S. Kubryakova thinks that the essence of parts of speech lies in different relations of words to extra linguistic reality, i.e. in the onomaseological aspect. E.S. Kubryakova has worked out a multi-stage classification of parts of speech. At the first stage, all words are divided into those denoting things, i.e. nouns, and those denoting non-things (or properties). Words expressing properties are subjected to further analysis into those denoting temporal properties, i.e. verbs, and those denoting non-temporal properties. The latter also fall into two sub-groups: non-temporal properties of nouns, i.e. adjectives, and non-temporal properties of verbs, i.e. adverbs. Numerals render the above-mentioned meanings through a quantitative characteristic, pronouns - by substituting nouns and adjectives.
Notional and Structural Parts of Speech
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Traditionally, parts of speech are classified into notional (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and structural (prepositions, conjunctions, etc.).
Many Russian linguists nowadays deny the existence of structural parts of speech because they only possess a certain generalized grammatical meaning of relation, but lack all the other properties of parts of speech: they do not name anything, are morphologically invariable, and have no syntactic independence in the sentence. Some call them 'particles of speech'.
Most English grammarians stick to the classification of parts of speech into notional and structural. True, they use other terms. They call notional parts of speech lexical words, structural parts of speech - function words. They differentiate them on the following grounds.
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1. Lexical meaning. Lexical words are the main carriers of
meaning in a text. Function words have no lexical meaning: they
provide the mortar that binds the text together. As a rule, function
words serve two major roles: indicating relationships between
lexical words or larger units, or indicating the way in which a
lexical or larger unit is to be interpreted.
2. Stress. In speech, lexical words are generally stressed,
function words are usually unstressed.
3. Morphology. Lexical words may take inflections that
distinguish different grammatical forms of the same lexical unit.
Function words are generally invariable.
4. Head of phrase. Lexical words can be the heads of phrases;
function words cannot be the heads of phrases. Cf.:
her gold watch (D. Biber et al.) - noun phrase, can see (D. Biber et al.) - verb phrase, so lucky (D. Biber et al.) - adjective phrase, very quickly (D. Biber et al.) - adverb phrase.
5. Length. Lexical words may consist of a single morpheme,
but they are often more complex in structure. Function words are
characteristically short and lack internal structure.
6. Openness. Lexical words form open classes of words;
function words are members of closed classes. Closed classes are
highly restricted in membership, while open classes have very large
numbers of members. Open classes are so called because they
readily accommodate the addition of new members. The two main
avenues for the introduction of new members are:
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(1) borrowing from other languages (as with the noun sputnik.
for example),
(2) regular word formation processes, e.g. we can easily form
new nouns with the suffix -ee, adjectives - with the suffix -ish,
verbs — with the suffix -ize. and adverbs - with the suffix -wise. Cf:
gossip - gossipee,
bird - birdish,
period ~ periodize,
crab - crabwise.
A third avenue for adding to the membership of a class, very rarely used in comparison with the other two, is the creation of a new simple stem from the phonological resources of the language, e.g. nylon, which was coined in the 1930's.
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Closed classes, by contrast, are highly resistant to the addition of new members, though the term 'closed' should not be taken to imply that expansion is strictly impossible. Thus, we may find that new prepositions develop out of verb forms (e.g. regarding) and sequences of orthographic words (e.g. on account of). But while the development of new function words is a very slow process that may take centuries, the creation of new lexical words may be instantaneous.
7. Frequency. Function words are frequent and tend to occur in any text, whereas the occurrence of individual nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs varies greatly in frequency and is bound to the topic of the text.
In addition to lexical arid function words, the authors of the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English single out inserts. Inserts are a relatively newly recognized category of word. They do not form an integral part of a syntactic structure, but are inserted rather freely in the text. They are often marked off by intonation, pauses, or by punctuation marks in writing. They characteristically carry emotional and interactional meanings and are especially frequent in conversation. The authors of the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English refer to inserts:
1) interjections;
2) greetings and farewells;
3) discourse markers, e.g.:
Oh this 'II be a good idea! - Right, we can do this (D. Biber et al.);
4) attention signals, e.g.:
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Hey look - that's the way to do it (D. Biber et al.);
5) response elicitors, e.g.:
Pat, come over here in about twenty-five minutes, okay! (D. Biber et al.);
6) responses, e.g.:
Let's go and see Pip. - Okay (D. Francis);
7) hesitators, e.g.:
Not West Italy? ~ Well. Rome was suggested (A Corpus of English Conversation);
8) thanks;
9) the politeness marker please',
10) apologies;
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11) expletives, e.g.:
Oh Jesus, Ididn !t know it was that cold (D. Biber et al.).
As with function words, inserts are generally invariable. They may consist of a single morpheme (yes, no, please, etc.) or of an invariable lexicalized sequence (you know, I mean, excuse me, etc.).
Inserts sometimes have a deviant phonological structure, e.g.: hm, ukhuh, ugh, etc.
Inserts contain some sub-groups that are more or less closed, e.g. greetings, farewells, and response words yes and no. Other types of inserts can be created rather freely.
Inserts are more marginal than lexical words and function words. It can indeed be doubted whether some of the forms in our conversation should be recognized as words at all. But there is no doubt that they play an important role in conversation. If we are to describe spoken language adequately, we need to pay more attention to them than has traditionally been done.
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