Editing Part of speech (section)

==History==
The classification of words into lexical categories is found from the earliest moments in the [[history of linguistics]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Robins RH |year=1989 |title=General Linguistics |edition=4th |location=London |publisher=Longman}}</ref>

===India===
In the ''[[Nirukta]]'', written in the 6th or 5th century BCE, the [[Sanskrit]] grammarian [[Yāska]] defined four main categories of words:<ref name=Matilal>
{{cite book
|author = Bimal Krishna Matilal
|title = The word and the world: India's contribution to the study of language (Chapter 3)
|year = 1990
|author-link = Bimal Krishna Matilal
}}</ref>

* नाम ''nāma'' – [[noun]] (including adjective)
* आख्यात ''ākhyāta'' – [[verb]]
* उपसर्ग ''upasarga'' – pre-verb or [[prefix]]
* निपात ''nipāta'' – [[Grammatical particle|particle]], invariant word (perhaps [[preposition]])
These four were grouped into two larger classes: [[inflection|inflectable]] (nouns and verbs) and uninflectable (pre-verbs and particles).

The ancient work on the grammar of the [[Tamil language]], ''[[Tolkāppiyam]]'', argued to have been written around 2nd century CE,<ref name="Mahadevan">{{cite book |last=Mahadevan |first=I. |title=Early Tamil Epigraphy - From the Earliest Times to the Sixth century C.E., 2nd Edition |date=2014 |pages=271}}</ref> classifies Tamil words as ''peyar'' (பெயர்; noun), ''vinai'' (வினை; verb), ''idai'' (part of speech which modifies the relationships between verbs and nouns), and ''uri'' (word that further qualifies a noun or verb).<ref name=Ilakkuvan>
{{cite book
|author =Ilakkuvanar S
|title = Tholkappiyam in English with critical studies |edition=2nd
|publisher = Educational Publisher
|year = 1994
}}</ref>

===Western tradition===
A century or two after the work of Yāska, the [[Classical Greece|Greek]] scholar [[Plato]] wrote in his [[Cratylus (dialogue)|''Cratylus'' dialogue]], "sentences are, I conceive, a combination of verbs [''rhêma''] and nouns [''ónoma'']".<ref>Cratylus 431b</ref> [[Aristotle]] added another class, "conjunction" [''sýndesmos''], which included not only the words known today as [[Conjunction (grammar)|conjunctions]], but also other parts (the interpretations differ; in one interpretation it is [[pronoun]]s, [[preposition]]s, and the [[article (grammar)|article]]).<ref>''The Rhetoric, Poetic and Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle'', translated by Thomas Taylor, London 1811, p. 179.</ref>

By the end of the 2nd century BCE, grammarians had expanded this classification scheme into eight categories, seen in the ''[[Art of Grammar]]'', attributed to [[Dionysius Thrax]]:<ref>[[Dionysius Thrax]]. τέχνη γραμματική (Art of Grammar), [http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante02/DionysiosThrax/dio_tech.html#11 ια´ περὶ  λέξεως (11. On the word)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315015105/http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante02/DionysiosThrax/dio_tech.html#11 |date=2015-03-15 }}:
:λέξις ἐστὶ μέρος ἐλάχιστον τοῦ κατὰ σύνταξιν λόγου.<br />λόγος δέ ἐστι πεζῆς λέξεως σύνθεσις διάνοιαν αὐτοτελῆ δηλοῦσα.<br />τοῦ δὲ λόγου μέρη ἐστὶν ὀκτώ· ὄνομα, ῥῆμα,<br /> μετοχή, ἄρθρον, ἀντωνυμία, πρόθεσις, ἐπίρρημα, σύνδεσμος. ἡ γὰρ προσηγορία ὡς εἶδος τῶι ὀνόματι ὑποβέβληται.
:A word is the smallest part of organized speech.<br />Speech is the putting together of an ordinary word to express a complete thought.<br />The class of word consists of eight categories: noun, verb,<br />participle, article, pronoun, preposition, adverb, conjunction. A common noun in form is classified as a noun.</ref>

* 'Name' (''ónoma'') translated as 'noun': a part of speech inflected for [[grammatical case|case]], signifying a concrete or abstract entity. It includes various ''species'' like [[noun]]s, [[adjective]]s, proper nouns, appellatives, collectives, ordinals, numerals and more.<ref>The term ''[[wikt:onoma|onoma]]'' at [[Dionysius Thrax]], ''Τέχνη γραμματική'' (Art of Grammar), [https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/Τέχνη_Γραμματική#14 14. Περὶ ὀνόματος] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910222435/https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%A4%CE%AD%CF%87%CE%BD%CE%B7_%CE%93%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BC%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE#14 |date=2022-09-10 }} translated by Thomas Davidson, [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_grammar_of_Dionysios_Thrax#10 On the noun] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804023008/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_grammar_of_Dionysios_Thrax#10 |date=2020-08-04 }}
: καὶ αὐτὰ εἴδη προσαγορεύεται· κύριον, προσηγορικόν, ἐπίθετον, πρός τι ἔχον, ὡς πρός τι ἔχον, ὁμώνυμον, συνώνυμον, διώνυμον, ἐπώνυμον, ἐθνικόν, ἐρωτηματικόν, ἀόριστον, ἀναφορικὸν ὃ καὶ ὁμοιωματικὸν καὶ δεικτικὸν καὶ ἀνταποδοτικὸν καλεῖται, περιληπτικόν, ἐπιμεριζόμενον, περιεκτικόν, πεποιημένον, γενικόν, ἰδικόν, τακτικόν, ἀριθμητικόν, ἀπολελυμένον, μετουσιαστικόν.
: also called ''Species'': proper, appellative, adjective, relative, quasi-relative, homonym, synonym, pheronym, dionym, eponym, national, interrogative, indefinite, anaphoric (also called assimilative, demonstrative, and retributive), collective, distributive, inclusive, onomatopoetic, general, special, ordinal, numeral, participative, independent.</ref>
* [[Verb]] (''rhêma''): a part of speech without case inflection, but inflected for [[grammatical tense|tense]], [[grammatical person|person]] and [[grammatical number|number]], signifying an activity or process performed or undergone
* [[Participle]] (''metokhḗ''): a part of speech sharing features of the verb and the noun
* [[Article (grammar)|Article]] (''árthron''): a declinable part of speech, taken to include the definite article, but also the basic [[relative pronoun]]
* [[Pronoun]] (''antōnymíā''): a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person
* [[Preposition]] (''próthesis''): a part of speech placed before other words in composition and in syntax
* [[Adverb]] (''epírrhēma''): a part of speech without inflection, in modification of or in addition to a verb, adjective, clause, sentence, or other adverb
* [[Grammatical conjunction|Conjunction]] (''sýndesmos''): a part of speech binding together the discourse and filling gaps in its interpretation

It can be seen that these parts of speech are defined by [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]], [[Syntax|syntactic]] and [[Semantics|semantic]] criteria.

The [[Latin grammar|Latin]] grammarian [[Priscian]] ([[floruit|fl.]] 500 CE) modified the above eightfold system, excluding "article" (since the [[Latin language]], unlike Greek, does not have articles) but adding "[[interjection]]".<ref>[penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Quintilian/Institutio_Oratoria/1B*.html This translation of Quintilian's ''Institutio Oratoria'' reads: "Our own language (Note: i.e. Latin) dispenses with the articles (Note: Latin doesn't have articles), which are therefore distributed among the other parts of speech. But interjections must be added to those already mentioned."]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/quintilian/quintilian.institutio1.shtml |via=The Latin Library |title= Quintilian: Institutio Oratoria I|access-date= 2015-09-18|archive-date= 2012-01-20|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120120203103/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/quintilian/quintilian.institutio1.shtml|url-status= live}}</ref>

The Latin names for the parts of speech, from which the corresponding modern English terms derive, were ''nomen'', ''verbum'', ''participium'', ''pronomen'', ''praepositio'', ''adverbium'', ''conjunctio'' and ''interjectio''. The category ''nomen'' included [[substantive]]s (''nomen substantivum'', corresponding to what are today called nouns in English), [[adjective]]s ''(nomen adjectivum)'' and [[Numeral (linguistics)|numeral]]s ''(nomen numerale)''. This is reflected in the older English terminology ''noun substantive'', ''noun adjective'' and ''noun numeral''. Later<ref>See for example Beauzée, Nicolas, ''Grammaire générale, ou exposition raisonnée des éléments nécessaires du langage'' (Paris, 1767), and earlier Jakob Redinger, [https://books.google.com/books?id=C7BeAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA11 ''Comeniana Grammatica Primae Classi Franckenthalensis Latinae Scholae destinata ...''] (1659, in German and Latin).</ref> the adjective became a separate class, as often did the numerals, and the English word ''noun'' came to be applied to substantives only.

=== <span class="anchor" id="Types of Part of Speech"></span>Classification ===
Works of [[English grammar]] generally follow the pattern of the European tradition as described above, except that participles are now usually regarded as forms of verbs rather than as a separate part of speech, and numerals are often conflated with other parts of speech: nouns ([[Cardinal number (linguistics)|cardinal numeral]]s, e.g., "one", and [[collective numeral]]s, e.g., "dozen"), adjectives ([[Ordinal number (linguistics)|ordinal numeral]]s, e.g., "first", and [[Multiplier (linguistics)|multiplier numeral]]s, e.g., "single") and adverbs ([[English numerals#Multiplicative adverbs and adjectives|multiplicative numerals]], e.g., "once", and [[Distributive number|distributive numeral]]s, e.g., "singly"). Eight or nine parts of speech are commonly listed:

* [[Noun]]
* [[Verb]]
* [[Adjective]]
* [[Adverb]]
* [[Pronoun]]
* [[Preposition]]
* [[Grammatical conjunction|Conjunction]]
* [[Interjection]]
* [[Determiner]]

Some traditional classifications consider articles to be adjectives, yielding eight parts of speech rather than nine. And some modern classifications define further classes in addition to these. For discussion see the sections below.

Additionally, there are other parts of speech including [[Grammatical particle|particle]]s (''yes'', ''no''){{efn|name=yes no|1=Yes and no are sometimes classified as interjections.}} and [[postposition]]s (''ago'', ''notwithstanding'') although many fewer words are in these categories.

The classification below, or slight expansions of it, is still followed in most [[dictionaries]]:
;Noun (names): a word or lexical item denoting any abstract (abstract noun: e.g. ''home'') or concrete entity (concrete noun: e.g. ''house''); a person (''police officer'', ''Michael''), place (''coastline'', ''London''), thing (''necktie'', ''television''), idea (''happiness''), or quality (''bravery''). Nouns can also be classified as [[count noun]]s or [[mass noun|non-count nouns]]; some can belong to either category. The most common part of speech; they are called naming words.
;Pronoun (replaces or places again): a substitute for a noun or noun phrase (''them, he''). Pronouns make sentences shorter and clearer since they replace nouns.
;Adjective (describes, limits): a modifier of a noun or pronoun (''big, brave''). Adjectives make the meaning of another word (noun) more precise.
;Verb (states action or being): a word denoting an action (''walk''), occurrence (''happen''), or state of being (''be''). Without a verb, a group of words cannot be a clause or sentence.
;Adverb (describes, limits): a modifier of an adjective, verb, or another adverb (''very, quite''). Adverbs make language more precise.
;Preposition (relates): a word that relates words to each other in a phrase or sentence and aids in syntactic context (''in, of''). Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun with another word in the sentence.
;Conjunction (connects): a syntactic connector; links words, phrases, or clauses (''and, but''). Conjunctions connect words or group of words.
;Interjection (expresses feelings and emotions): an emotional greeting or exclamation (''Huzzah, Alas''). Interjections express strong feelings and emotions.
;Article (describes, limits):a grammatical marker of definiteness (''the'') or indefiniteness (''a, an''). The article is not always listed separately as its own part of speech. It is considered by some grammarians to be a type of adjective<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar'' by Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker & Edmund Weine. OUP Oxford 2014. Page 35.</ref> or sometimes the term '[[determiner]]' (a broader class) is used.

English words are not generally [[marker (linguistics)|marked]] as belonging to one part of speech or another; this contrasts with many other European languages, which use [[inflection]] more extensively, meaning that a given word form can often be identified as belonging to a particular part of speech and having certain additional [[grammatical category|grammatical properties]]. In English, most words are uninflected, while the inflected endings that exist are mostly ambiguous: ''[[-ed]]'' may mark a verbal past tense, a participle or a fully adjectival form; ''[[-s (disambiguation)|-s]]'' may mark a plural noun, a possessive noun, or a present-tense verb form; ''[[-ing]]'' may mark a participle, [[gerund]], or pure adjective or noun. Although ''[[-ly]]'' is a frequent adverb marker, some adverbs (e.g. ''tomorrow'', ''fast'', ''very'') do not have that ending, while many adjectives do have it (e.g. ''friendly'', ''ugly'', ''lovely''), as do occasional words in other parts of speech (e.g. ''jelly'', ''fly'', ''rely'').

Many English words can belong to more than one part of speech. Words like ''neigh'', ''break'', ''outlaw'', ''laser'', ''microwave'', and ''telephone'' might all be either verbs or nouns. In certain circumstances, even words with primarily grammatical functions can be used as verbs or nouns, as in, "We must look to the ''hows'' and not just the ''whys''." The process whereby a word comes to be used as a different part of speech is called [[conversion (word formation)|conversion]] or zero derivation.