Types of Word Classes/Parts of Speech

(Closed Class)
Site: KWASU-Virtual
Course: GST111 - Communication in English
Types of Word Classes/Parts of Speech
Book:
(Closed Class)
Printed by: Daniel OLAYIOYE
Date: Monday, 12 February 2024, 6:51 PM
 Table of contents
1. Preposition

2. Pronouns

3. Conjunctions

4. Interjection
 1. Preposition
The term preposition is derived from a Latin word which simply means ‘placed before’. A preposition is,
therefore, a non content word that shows different kinds of relationships between words. The relationships
may be mental, psychological or that of location.
Generally, prepositions come before the words they control. But in a few occasions, they may come after
such words e.g.
1. Where are you coming from?
2. From where are you coming?
Types of prepositions
Prepositions come in different typologies in English. These include the following:
1. Simple prepositions e.g. in, on, at, from, above, below, under, off, of etc.
2. Double prepositions e.g. away from, from within, in to, on to along with, aside from, as to, together with, up
to, out of etc.
3. Complex prepositions e.g. in contact with, in lieu of, by virtue of, by dint of, at variance with in respect of, in
charge of etc.
4. Disguised prepositions e.g. ashore, ahunting, afishing o’clock etc. The use of some simple prepositions is
illustrated in the chart below.
 The possible positions of prepositions in sentences
• In questions with wh- words however, we usually put the preposition at the end of the sentence e.g.

(a) Who are you talking to?

(b) To whom were you talking is also possible but this usage is extremely formal
• In relative clauses, we usually put the preposition at the end of the clause and omit the relative pronoun e.g.
(a) The people I was travelling with spoke French. However, in formal speech and writing we could also say:
(b) The people with whom I was travelling spoke French.
• In phrasal verbs the preposition (or adverb) must come after the verb e.g. Which bridge did they blow up?

Other guidelines for the use of simple prepositions.

• At: We use at with a point in time, someone’s age or to indicate a particular location e.g. At 4.30, at dawn, at
night, at (the age of) six, at the bank etc.
• On: We use on with a day or a date and with the morning/afternoon etc. e.g. On Monday, on Christmas day,
on 4 June, on the morning of 6 December, on Friday night etc.
• On time means at the exact time arranged and not before or after it. e.g. The 8.30 train started on time (i.e.
it started at 8.30 exactly).

• In: We use in with periods of time: e.g. in five minutes, in 1996, In the 9th century, in the
morning/afternoon/evening etc. We also use it to indicate the infliction of injury e.g.
(i) The player was injured in the knee.
(ii) I slapped the girl in the face.
• Since: As a preposition, it means from a point in time up to the time of speaking. It could be used as a
preposition, as an adverb and a conjunction e.g.
(i) Kemi has been here since Monday (as a preposition)
(ii) She left the village in 1980 and I haven't seen her since (adverb)
(iii) She has worked for us(ever) since she left school (conjunction)
• By, as a means of movement: We travel by sea/air, by bus/plane/train, by bicycle or on a bicycle etc. For a
bus on motion, we say; I was on the bus that had a ghastly accident.
• Into: We use into to indicate a movement from one place to another or to indicate entrance e.g. The
students climbed into the lorry
• Onto: We use onto for movement when there is a change in level e.g. The family climbed onto their roof to
escape the flood.
 2. Pronouns
I. Pronouns generally function either to replace a whole noun phrase (NP) as subject of a clause, or as the
main component (Head) of an NP. Pronouns are thus generally perceived as performing the function of
substitutes or ‘replacements’ for noun phrases. Where a pronoun functions to replace an NP, no determiner is
usually needed e.g.

The teacher invited the little Yoruba girl, because he liked her.

a b a1 b1

A determiner is however needed in a number of cases

Bisi cleaned the big room and the small one too.

II. Study the following sentences showing the interrelationship between pronouns and determiners:

(a) DETERMINER which house is yours?

PRONOUN which is yours?

DETERMINER this house is mine.

PRONOUN this is my house.

(b) DETERMINER ONLY The house is mine.

(c) PRONOUN ONLY Alice has hurt herself.

The boys were enjoined to love one another.

You will observe that many items can function both as determiners (a) i.e. they require a head, and as
pronouns which do not require a head. Others, however, can be determiner only, (b) or pronoun only.

III. Leech and Svartvik (1975, p.276) observe that, partly because pronouns differ among themselves, partly
because many pronouns are related to other categories, pronouns are examined under the following
headings:

DEMONSTRATIVES: this, that, these, those.

INTERROGATIVES: who, which, what, where, etc.

NEGATION: no, nobody, no one, nothing, etc.

PERSONAL AND REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS: I, my, mine, myself.

 RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS: each other and one another.

RELATIVE CLAUSES: who, whom, whose, which, that

QUANTIFIERS: some, any, and very and their combinations with-body,-one,-thing,-each, all both, either; much,
many, more, most, enough, several, a little, a few, less, least, etc.

In this PRONOUNS section however, we shall only briefly look at just one of the headings, Personal and
Reflexive Pronouns.

Task 4: One thing you can do however is to examine each of the items listed under the heading in the on text
of phrases, clauses and sentences. It will be clear to you that they perform replacement functions.

IV. Personal and Reflexive Pronouns (a) The relationship between personal and reflexive pronouns can be
examined in three ways:

(i) Distinction between personal and non-personal Gender, and within personal gender

between masculine and feminine; he/himself, she/herself on one hand, and it/itself on

the other.

(ii) Distinction between 1st and 2nd and 3rd persons: e.g. 1st: I; we/myself; ourselves.

(iii) Distinction between singular and plural number (of the example for ii above). Note that for
the 2nd person the same form is used in singular and plural personal and possessive pronouns
(i.e. you; your; yours), for the reflexive however, the Number distinction is marked, i.e.
yourself/yourselves.

Task 5: Since the pronoun is considered to be closed-system item, list or tabulate the items under the
personal and reflexive pronouns of English taking note of the marking of Person, Gender, Number and Case
(subjective or objective).

Let us examine Personal pronouns a little further by taking note of the importance of context and
grammatical position in the selection of person, number and gender on one hand, and case, on the other.

The choice of Person, Number and Gender is determined by meaning as supplied by the context of use.
Study the following examples and comment on the relations between NP and Pronoun:

(i) My wife is resting, but she will come out soon.

(ii) As soon as it was pushed, the car resuscitated.

(iii) The car resuscitated as soon as it was pushed.

(iv) As soon as the car was pushed, it resuscitated.

Also, the choice of subjective and objective is determined by grammatical position. The subject position
requires the subjective case, while the objective forms goes with all other positions. Examine this example of
the subject complement in all objective case:

(A) Who’s there?

(B) It’s me (informal) or (B2) I am.

Note that traditional grammar will rule out B1 and prescribe that it should be “It’s” or “I”. This is however
avoided in contemporary English because it sounds rather unnatural.

V. Let us conclude our discussions on Pronouns with the following highlight on further functional
classification of Pronouns:

(i) Place: Ojo is in Ibadan and Aina is there too.

(ii) Time: Ojo left on Monday and Aina left then too

(iii) Others: Bisi cleaned the big room very well, and the small one less so.

(iv) ‘So’ also replaces a predication (along with the pro-verb ‘do’): Mrs. Aina hoped Bisi would clean the
room very carefully, before her arrival but she didn’t do so.

(v) The operator (do) can sometimes achieve the pro-predication alone: e.g.

(A) She didn’t clean the big room

(B) Yes, she did.

 3. Conjunctions
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 4. Interjection
DEFINITION OF INTERJECTION

Interjections are words that forcefully convey strong emotions or surprises

An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous
feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as
exclamations (ouch!, wow!), curses (damn!), greetings (hey, bye), response particles (okay, oh!, m-hm, huh?),
hesitation markers (uh, er, um) and other words (stop, cool). Due to its diverse nature, the category of
interjections partly overlaps with a few other categories like profanities, discourse markers and fillers. The
use and linguistic discussion of interjections can be traced historically through the Greek and Latin Modistae
over many centuries.

An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses emotion. It interrupts, or interjects, the general flow of
writing. An interjection is usually punctuated with an exclamation point. Any word or words may be used as
an interjection. However, some are more common than others. Most interjections are just one word.
FEATURES OF INTERJECTION

It is used to indicate different feelings like fear, anger, happiness or joy

Interjections often stand alone i.e. it does not enter into the construction of the sentence
1. Interjections are generally not meaningful in the structure of the sentence.
2. Interjections are sudden, so we can't change them.
3. Interjections are an indication of the mood of the conversation.
4. Interjections are exclamations, which do not affect the rest of the sentence.

TYPES OF INTERJECTION

1. Primary Interjection
2. Secondary Interjection

PRIMARY INTERJECTION

These are single words used to express convey emotions.

Examples: wow-amazement, hey, oh-fancy, Aah-scared, yahoo-happiness, hmm-hesitating.

When primary interjections occurs as part of sentences, it is often followed by a comma as in Wow, what a
nice result

SECOND INTERJECTION

This is interjection in a sentence.

Ahh: that is great.

Alas! I’m lost

Congrats! You made it at last

PILOT QUESTIONS 1 – 10

Tick the correct options from a to c

 1. Aah! expresses ________ (a) fancy (b) scared (c) happiness
2. Boo! indicates _________ (a) fancy (b) disapproval (c) scared
3. Yahoo! means _________ (a) fancy (b) happiness (c) amazement
4. Hmm! indicates ________ (a) happiness (b) hesitating (c) scared
5. Ohh-la-la! means _______ (a) surprise (b) fancy (c) happiness
6. Alas! shows ___________ (a) surprise (b) fancy (c) happiness
7. Good God! is an example of (a) Primary interjection (b) secondary interjection (c) none of the above
8. Ooh! is an example of (a) Primary interjection (b) secondary interjection (c) none of the above
9. Congrats! you won is an example of (a) Primary interjection (b) secondary interjection (c) none of the
above
10. Hmm! is an example of (a) Primary interjection (b) secondary interjection (c) none of the above