FORM CLASSES

THE FORM CLASSES By Sherri Byrd English Grammar: ENG 371 Student of Dr. Mark Canada University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 1998

INTRODUCTION

To classify words, grammarians use two large categories called form and function. Function is how the word or the phrase is used within the sentence or clause, while form classifies the word or phrase by a simple definition along with some general rules. For example, a noun is classified in form as a word that can made be plural or possessive. The following sentence gives an example of the difference between the two categories:
We admired the stone wall. In this sentence "stone" in function is an adjectival that modifies "wall." In form "stone" is a noun because it can be made plural or possessive: "stones" and "stone's."

This can be better understood in a Web site titled "Adverbials." We can change the class of a word by adding prefixes or suffixes. Example: The word "play" is a verb, but it can be changed to an adjective by adding -ful to make it "playful." The girls play. The girls are playful. Therefore, the class of the word has changed from a verb to an adjective.

Form
There are four form classes:

Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb

Here are some characteristics of the different form classes that will help you distinguish between them:

Nouns
Characteristics of nouns:

depicts a person, place, or thing
determiners and articles (my, the, a)
some derivational affixes: -ion, -ness, -ment, and -er
some inflectional suffixes: -s, -'s, -s'
can be made plural or possessive

Verbs

Characteristics of verbs:

depicts an action
always obeys the verb expansion rule: tense + (modal) + ("have" + "-en") + ("be" + "ing") + main verb
some derivational affixes: -ify, -ate, -ize, en-, de-
inflectional suffixes: -s, -ing, -ed, -en

Adjectives

Characteristics of adjectives:

describes a noun
some derivational affixes: -y, -ous, -ful, -ish
inflectional suffixes: -er, -est

Adverbs

Characteristics of adverbs:

describes a verb
derivational affix: -ly
inflectional suffixes: -er, -est

All of these form classes have derivational and inflectional affixes. These affixes are prefixes or suffixes that change the meaning or the class of a word. Example: Adding in- or un- to a word can make the word negative. She is happy. She is unhappy. The first sentence means that she is happy, and the second one means that she is not happy. An affix may not work for every word in a class, however. Example: Adding -ful to a verb can make it an adjective, but this is not true for all verbs. You could make "thank" into "thankful," but you could not use this suffix in the verb "talk" to make it "talkful." You would add a different suffix: "talkative." The only explanation that can be given for these inconsistencies is that these are rules in the English language that deal with the morphology of word and how they are used. It is something that can be chased back for centuries. This is why it is always useful to have a dictionary if you ever have any questions about a word and its different classes.

Form Class	Derivational Affixes	Inflectional Suffixes
Noun	-ion, -ment, -ance*	-s, -'s,-s',* -es*
Verb	en-, be-, de-, -ify, -en, -ate, -ize	-s, -ing, -ed,-en
Adjective	-ous, -y, -ful, -fic, -ic, -ate, -ish, -ary, -ive, -able*	-er, -est
Adverb	-ly,-wise, -ward*	-er, -est

*These affixes very often can help you determine the class of the word. For example, most words that end in "-ly" are adverbs.

These are only a few examples of affixes that can be used to change words to other classes. To learn more about some affixes and their meanings, go to a site titled Morphemes .

DEFINITIONS

adjective: member of the form classes; modifies a noun; most adjectives can be inflected to be made comparative or superlative (small, smaller, smallest) and can be qualified or intensified (rather small, very small); some derivational endings (-ous, -ish, -ful, and -ary).
adverb: member of the form classes; modifies a verb--names time, place, reason, manner, and the like; some can be qualified (very slowly, rather slowly); can be made comparative or superlative (more slowly, fastest); some derivational endings (-ly, -wise, -ward).
derivational affixes: a prefix or suffix that is added to a word in a form class to change its meaning or class.
form classes: categories of words that have derivational and inflectional morphemes. Most English words belong to one of the four form classes.
functional shift: a shift in which a word changes classes without the addition of affixes (They call him everyday. -- verb. The call came in after lunch. -- noun).
inflectional suffix: a suffix that changes the grammatical role of a word in a sentence. Example: the suffix -s forms the third-person singular form of most verbs (He talks to his boss every morning.)
noun: a member of the form classes; fills headword slot in a noun phrase; can be plural and possessive (dogs, dog's); derivational endings (-ion, -tion, -ment, -ness); can sometimes function as adjectivals and adverbials (They formed a baseball team.)
verb: a member of the form classes; depicts the action in the sentence; can always be marked with auxiliaries; inflectional endings (-s, -ing, -ed, -en); derivational endings (-ify, -ize, -ate).

TIPS

The Form Classes classify most of the words in the English Language.
All of the classes have derivational affixes, which can change the class of one word to another class.
Remember, if you ever wonder in what situation a word should be used or what the correct affix for a word is, you can refer to a dictionary.
Knowing the affixes of the classes can help you improve your lexicon (vocabulary) to make it more varied. Your writing can also improve because it will help you flow from one class to another easily.

Example: If you know that you can make a noun from a verb by adding -ion(

act--action), then that is another way to use that word and you have another word in your "mental dictionary."

EXERCISES

I.    Change the form of these words by adding the correct derivational affixes.
             Noun              Verb           Adjective          Adverb

    1.                                    act

    2.        form

    3.                                     teach

    4.                                                                partial

    5.                                                                                                beautifully

II.   Use Inflectional suffixes to make the sentences grammatically correct.

    1. The school was work hard for donations.

    2. The boy paper was written on the computer.

     3. That ladder is the high among the three.

4. This picture is the pretty of the two.

5. All of the dog bones were put in their bowls for their dinner.

Click here for answers to these exercises.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kolln, Martha and Robert Funk. Understanding English Grammar. 5th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1998.

This grammar textbook gives some very useful information on many topics of English.

Fromkin, Victoria, and Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language. Fifth Edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. 1993.

This book gives a good understanding of the background on some interesting aspects of the English language like morphology, grammar, and phonology.