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.”
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
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.
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.
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.”