3 Word classes in the history of Western grammar
Abstract
The list of word classes found in the major reference grammars of Romance languages largely overlaps with that of the grammarians of classical antiquity. This does not mean that the grammatical tradition remained unchanged for more than two thousand years. First, the history of the establishment of the ‘classical’ list is not at all so static and perfectly straightforward as is often assumed. Furthermore, several revisions of such list were proposed during the Modern Age: some of them gained general acceptance, like the establishing of a new category (the adjective), the removal of an old one (the participle) and a partially new classification of pronouns. Finally, we deal with some new proposals for the classification and the definition of word classes, dating back to the first half of the twentieth century: in particular, those of Jespersen, of Brøndal, and of Tesnière. None of these has found a consensus: probably, the traditional list is still preferred due to its greater practical usefulness.
Abstract
The list of word classes found in the major reference grammars of Romance languages largely overlaps with that of the grammarians of classical antiquity. This does not mean that the grammatical tradition remained unchanged for more than two thousand years. First, the history of the establishment of the ‘classical’ list is not at all so static and perfectly straightforward as is often assumed. Furthermore, several revisions of such list were proposed during the Modern Age: some of them gained general acceptance, like the establishing of a new category (the adjective), the removal of an old one (the participle) and a partially new classification of pronouns. Finally, we deal with some new proposals for the classification and the definition of word classes, dating back to the first half of the twentieth century: in particular, those of Jespersen, of Brøndal, and of Tesnière. None of these has found a consensus: probably, the traditional list is still preferred due to its greater practical usefulness.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Table of Contents VII
- Abbreviations XI
- Introduction 1
-
I. Romance word classes: theoretical and historical foundations
- 1 Theoretical foundation for a classification of words 13
- 2 How to classify words 41
- 3 Word classes in the history of Western grammar 69
- 4 Parts of speech in the Romance grammars of the Renaissance 97
-
II. Word classes in the major Romance languages
- 5 Nouns 117
- 6 Adjectives 147
- 7 Determiners 177
- 8 Pronouns 207
- 9 Quantifiers 237
- 10 Negation and negative expressions 265
- 11 Verb classes 297
- 12 Auxiliary verbs 325
- 13 Grammatical categories of the verb 345
- 14 Verbal categories expressing syntactic dependencies 367
- 15 Adverbs 401
- 16 Focalisers 431
- 17 Modal particles 449
- 18 Prepositions 471
- 19 Conjunctions 499
-
III. Word classes in smaller Romance varieties
- 20 Word classes in Occitan 527
- 21 Word classes in Sardinian 549
- 22 Word classes in Romansh 575
- 23 Word classes in Ladin 607
- 24 Word classes in Northern Italian dialects 633
- 25 Word classes in Southern Italian dialects 661
- 26 Word classes in Romance-related Creoles 689
-
IV. Romance word classes and their interfaces: new horizons
- 27 Word classes and psycholinguistics 725
- 28 Word classes and learner varieties 743
- 29 Word classes and corpus linguistics 769
- 30 Word classes and neurolinguistics 797
- 31 Exploring the behaviour of connectives within a textometric perspective 819
- Index 843
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Manuals of Romance Linguistics V
- Table of Contents VII
- Abbreviations XI
- Introduction 1
-
I. Romance word classes: theoretical and historical foundations
- 1 Theoretical foundation for a classification of words 13
- 2 How to classify words 41
- 3 Word classes in the history of Western grammar 69
- 4 Parts of speech in the Romance grammars of the Renaissance 97
-
II. Word classes in the major Romance languages
- 5 Nouns 117
- 6 Adjectives 147
- 7 Determiners 177
- 8 Pronouns 207
- 9 Quantifiers 237
- 10 Negation and negative expressions 265
- 11 Verb classes 297
- 12 Auxiliary verbs 325
- 13 Grammatical categories of the verb 345
- 14 Verbal categories expressing syntactic dependencies 367
- 15 Adverbs 401
- 16 Focalisers 431
- 17 Modal particles 449
- 18 Prepositions 471
- 19 Conjunctions 499
-
III. Word classes in smaller Romance varieties
- 20 Word classes in Occitan 527
- 21 Word classes in Sardinian 549
- 22 Word classes in Romansh 575
- 23 Word classes in Ladin 607
- 24 Word classes in Northern Italian dialects 633
- 25 Word classes in Southern Italian dialects 661
- 26 Word classes in Romance-related Creoles 689
-
IV. Romance word classes and their interfaces: new horizons
- 27 Word classes and psycholinguistics 725
- 28 Word classes and learner varieties 743
- 29 Word classes and corpus linguistics 769
- 30 Word classes and neurolinguistics 797
- 31 Exploring the behaviour of connectives within a textometric perspective 819
- Index 843
