Lexical Categories and Nouns Quiz

Lexical Category

• Lexical category is the term linguistics uses for word classes, traditionally called parts of speech
• Words are categorized into two main classes:
  • Major (open) class: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
  • Minor (closed) class: pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections, subordinations, demonstratives
• Open classes can expand with new words (affixes)
• Examples:
  • calculate (verb) → calculator (noun)
  • sing (verb) → singer (noun)

Nouns

• Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas
• Examples:
  • People: Juma, Asha, Mwajuma
  • Places: Tanzania, Arusha, Singida, Mbeya
  • Things: maize, mountain, stick, motorcycle
  • Ideas: love, wind, temperature, awareness, God

Types of Nouns

• Common nouns: general names for people, places, things, or ideas (e.g., student, city, animal)
• Proper nouns: specific names for people, places, things, or ideas (e.g., Asha, Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro)

Concrete Nouns

• Concrete nouns are names for things that can be observed by the senses (e.g., water, perfume)

Abstract Nouns

• Abstract nouns are names for ideas, qualities, thoughts, characteristics, concepts, or emotions that cannot be seen or touched (e.g., love, shyness, happiness, freedom)

Collective Nouns

• Collective nouns name a group of people or things as one (e.g., family, library, army, organization)
• Countable and uncountable nouns exist

Plural Noun Formation

• General rule: add -s to most nouns
• Exceptions: Add -es to nouns ending in s, sh, ch, x, or z; Change y to i and add -es to nouns ending in y if the vowel is not before the y; Change f to v and add es to nouns ending in f or fe; Add -s to nouns ending in o
• Examples
  • lamp → lamps
  • fox → foxes
  • radio → radios
  • monkey → monkeys
  • thief → thieves
  • roof → roofs

Irregular Plural Nouns

• Some nouns have irregular plural forms (e.g., woman → women, foot → feet)

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

• Countable nouns can be plural (e.g., snakes, chairs)
• Uncountable nouns cannot be plural (e.g., water, furniture, anger)

Verbs

• Verbs express action or state of being
• Transitive verbs: verbs with a direct object receiving the action (e.g., Musa kicked the ball)
  • Monotransitive verbs: have one direct object (e.g., She cut the cake)
  • Ditransitive verbs: have two objects (e.g., He gave him the money)
  • Complex transitive verbs: have a direct object and a compliment (e.g., I gave Suzi a gift)
• Intransitive verbs: verbs without a direct object (e.g., The water boiled)
• Linking verbs: connect the subject of a sentence to a noun or adjective that describes the subject (e.g., Amani became a teacher)

Helping Verbs / Auxiliary Verbs

• Helping verbs accompany main verbs to express additional information about possibility, etc.
• Examples: "be," "have," "do," "can," "could," "may," "might," "must," "should," "will," "would"

Adjectives

• Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns (describes them)

Adverbs

• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, indicating manner, time, place, or frequency - Adverbs of manner: how something is done (e.g., quickly, slowly)
• Adverbs of time: when something happens (e.g., yesterday, soon, often)
• Adverbs of place: where something happens or is located (e.g., outside, below)

Pronouns

• Pronouns take the place of nouns
• Examples: I, you, he, she, it, they, me, him, her, we, us, them, someone, something, both, neither, either, etc.
• Personal pronouns: for referring to specific people or things- (e.g., I, he, she, we, you, they)
• Relative pronouns: used in clauses to connect an idea to another idea (e.g., that, which, who, whom, whose)
• Demonstrative Pronouns: point out things (e.g., this, that, these, those)
• Indefinite Pronouns: refer to an unspecified person or thing (e.g., anyone, something, nobody, somebody)
• Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns: refer back to the subject in the sentence (e.g., himself, herself)
• Interrogative Pronouns: ask questions. (e.g., who, whom, whose, what, which)
• Possessive Pronouns: show ownership (e.g., mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs).

Prepositions

• Prepositions show relationships between words or phrases (e.g., above, below, from, to, around, on, under)

Conjunctions

• Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses.
• Coordinating conjunctions: connect similar parts of a sentence (e.g., and, but, or, nor, so, yet)
• Subordinating conjunctions: connect an independent clause to a subordinate clause to form a complex sentence. (Example: although, since, that, unless, until, while, when...)

Articles

• Articles are words that modify nouns.
• Definite article: "the" refers to a specific noun
• Indefinite articles: "a" or "an" refer to a general noun - Use "a" before consonant sounds
  • Use "an" before vowel sounds