7.1 - PARTS OF SPEECH PART - 1

LESSON NO. 7

PARTS OF SPEECH

 

Last two lines: “how to know the sorts of words one from another.”

-William Corbbett in a letter to his son, in the year 1823.

 

THE TERM “SORTS OF WORDS” MEANS “PARTS OF SPEECH.”

Parts of Speech

Introduction

Grammar is usually divided into two parts: accidence – also called morphology – i.e. the doctrine of all forms (including inflexions) of the words of a language, and syntax, i.e. the use of the forms (of words) for making sentences.

Human beings have given names to everything. All persons, places, things (Ravi, India, tree, pen); qualities (strong, tall, long, good); manners (quickly, rarely, definitely); actions (run, jump, laugh, lift); joining words (and, but, or) are names. These forms/names (accidence) have inflections too (Ravi = Ravi’s, he = his, it = its, etc. ) These names have been divided into the parts of speech according to their functions (syntax).

 

Parts of Speech

There are eight parts of speech as given below:

1.      Noun   

2.      Pronoun           

3.      Verb                

4.      Adjective       

5.      Adverb            

6.      Preposition      

7.      Conjunction    

8.      Interjection

1.    Noun

Definition:  The names given by us to persons, places, or things are called nouns: 

Examples:

1.      Ravi is a teacher.        

2.      Delhi is a famous city.

3.      This rose is beautiful.  

4.      His determination is commendable.

Note:  The word thing includes: 

1.      All objects that we can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell.

e.g. The sky, sound, heat, etc.

2.      Something that we can think of, but can’t perceive by senses, e.g. Youth, love, discussion.

 

2.    Pronoun

Definition:  Pronouns are words that are used instead of nouns. They are used for the avoidance of noun repetition. They are called noun-equivalents also: 

Examples:

1.      Ravi is happy because he received the first prize yesterday.

We use pronouns also for mentioning persons or things without naming them: 

2.      This is a good pen.

3.      Anyone can see that he is unwell.

 

3.    Verb

Definition:  

We created words for denoting actions (play, sing, throw, drink) and conditions (is, am, are). These words are called verbs.

Verb (Finite):  

It is a word whose function is predication, expressing the action done by, or the state of, the subject: 

Examples:

1.      Boys dance. (The verb predicates by telling the action of the subject.)

2.      Ravi bought a pen yesterday. (The verb predicates by telling the action and the object on which the action passes. (The next word, yesterday, modifies the action.)

3.      Radha is a teacher. (The verb predicates by stating the condition of the subject and completes the sense of the verb with the help of the complement, namely a teacher.)

 Infinite:  

It is a word that acts as an adjective, adverb, or noun in a phrase, or acts as the subject, object, or complement in a sentence: 

Examples:

1.      I saw him laughing   (Adj).

2.      I saw Ravi laughing loudly. (Adj. in an adj. phrase).

3.      He comes to sing in the morning. (Adverb phrase).

4.      Ravi came to dance (Adverb phrase)

5.      His job is to sing (Noun phrase)

6.      My job is to teach you sincerely. (Noun in a noun phrase).

In the aforesaid sentences, the words following the infinite verbs (in bold letters) create a phrase by combining themselves with the infinitive verbs, and they become a part of the phrase that the infinite verbs introduce. See also the box below:

7.      Seeing is believing. (Seeing is subject & believing is complement)

8.      I hate singing. (Direct object of the verb)

THE WORDS IN BOLD LETTERS ABOVE ARE “INFINITIVE VERBS.”