9.2 Part of speech

This domain is for organization purposes and should not be used for any words. Use the domains in this section for words that belong to a particular part of speech. It is best not to use these domains, since they are based on grammar and not meaning. But if you have a small group of words that belong to a part of speech and you want to list them all, you can use these domains. You can also classify words in this section if you don't know what they mean yet.

9.2.1 Adjectives

Use this domain to list all adjectives. If there are many adjectives in your language, you should not try to list them all here. If you want to find all the adjectives, most dictionary programs can sort your dictionary by part of speech. However if your language only has a few adjectives, you can list them all in this domain. In the book, "Where Have All the Adjectives Gone?" R. M. W. Dixon [Dixon, R. M. W. 1982. Where have all the adjectives gone? Berlin: Mouton.] identifies seven universal semantic types that are often expressed by adjectives. They are: Age (new, young, old), Dimension (big, little, long, short, wide, narrow, thick, fat, thin), Value (good, bad, proper, perfect, excellent, fine, delicious, atrocious, poor), Color (black, white, red), Human propensity (jealous, happy, kind, clever, generous, cruel, rude, proud, wicked), Physical property (hard, soft, heavy, light, rough, smooth, hot, cold, sweet, sour), Speed (fast, slow). Words in the Human propensity class may be nouns. Words in the Physical property and Speed classes may be verbs.

  • What are the adjectives in your language?
    young, big, good, black, kind, hot, fast,
  • 9.2.2 Adverbs

    Use this domain to list all adverbs. If there are many adverbs in your language, it is probably not worth the trouble to list them here. The Shoebox program (and other dictionary programs) can sort your dictionary by part of speech.

  • What adverbs are in your language?
    quickly
  • 9.2.3 Pronouns

    Use this domain for the personal pronouns, including independent, subject, object, and possessive pronouns. It is best to collect all the pronouns in a chart. This way you are more certain of collecting them all and seeing how they are related to each other. A language may have more sets and more distinctions than English does, or it may have less. For instance some languages have a pronoun 'we' which includes the hearer, and another pronoun 'we' which excludes the hearer. Other languages have an indefinite pronoun that means something like the English word 'someone'. Many languages do not have the masculine (he), feminine (she), and neuter (it) distinctions that English has. It is necessary to determine the sets and functions of the pronouns for each language.

    Louw Nida Codes: 
    92 Discourse Referentials
    92A Speaker
    92B Speaker and Those Associated with the Speaker
    92C Receptor, Receptors
    92D Whom or What Spoken or Written About
    92H Emphatic Adjunct
  • What general words refer to the class of pronouns?
    pronoun
  • What pronouns refer to the speaker?
    I, me, my, mine
  • What pronouns refer to the speaker and those associated with the speaker?
    we, us, our, ours
  • What pronouns refer to the audience?
    you, your, yours
  • What pronouns refer to the people or things being spoken about?
    he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs
  • What pronouns are used for the subject of a sentence?
    I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
  • What pronouns are used for the object of a sentence?
    me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them
  • What pronouns are used in a possessive phrase?
    my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their
  • What pronouns are used in a possessive clause?
    mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs
  • What pronouns are used to emphasize the people or things being spoken about, especially when you are emphasizing that one person does something and not someone else?
    as for me (I), as for you (you), as for him (he), as for us (we), as for them (they)
  • 9.2.3.1 Reflexive pronouns

    Use this domain for pronouns that refer back to the subject of the sentence. These pronouns should be added to the chart of personal pronouns.

    Louw Nida Codes: 
    92E Reciprocal Reference
  • What pronouns express reflexive reference?
    self, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves, oneself
  • What pronouns express reciprocal reference?
    each other, one another
  • 9.2.3.2 Indefinite pronouns

    Use this domain for pronouns that do not refer to a definite person or thing, but can refer to anyone or anything. Some languages will not have all the sets of pronouns described below. Add each set you find in your language to the pronoun chart.

  • What pronouns express indefinite reference of a person?
    person, who, someone, anyone, everyone, no one, each one, whoever
  • What pronouns express indefinite reference of a thing?
    thing, what, something, anything, everything, nothing, each thing, whatever, whichever
  • What pronouns express indefinite reference of a time?
    time, period, when, sometime, anytime, every time, never, at no time, each time, whenever, sometimes
  • What pronouns express indefinite reference of a place?
    place, where, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, each place, wherever, which way
  • What pronouns express indefinite reference of a reason?
    reason, why, for what reason, for some reason, for any reason, for each and every reason, for no reason, why ever
  • What pronouns express indefinite reference of a manner?
    manner, means, how, somehow, anyhow, every way, no way, each way, however
  • What pronouns express indefinite reference of an amount?
    amount, how much, however many, however much, plenty
  • 9.2.3.3 Relative pronouns

    Use this domain for pronouns used in relative clauses.

    Louw Nida Codes: 
    92F Relative Reference
  • What pronouns are used in relative clauses?
    who, whom, that, which, why
  • 9.2.3.4 Question words

    Use this domain for pronouns used in questions.

  • What pronouns are used in questions?
    who, what, when, where, how, why
  • 9.2.3.5 Demonstrative pronouns

    Use this domain for demonstrative pronouns.

    Louw Nida Codes: 
    92G Demonstrative or Deictic Reference
  • What pronouns are used to indicate a particular referent?
    a, an, the, this, these, that, those, specific,
  • 9.2.3.6 Personally

    Use this domain for words that indicate that someone does something himself, rather than through someone else.

  • What words are used to indicate that you do something yourself, rather than through someone else?
    personally, in person, direct
  • What words are used to indicate that you make something yourself rather than using a machine?
    by hand
  • 9.2.4 Prepositions, postpositions

    Use this domain to list all prepositions and postpositions.

  • What prepositions are in your language?
    in, on, at, from, to, away, toward, about,
  • 9.2.5 Conjunctions

    Use this domain to list all conjunctions.

  • What conjunctions are in your language?
    and, or, but,
  • 9.2.5.1 Phrase conjunctions

    Use this domain to list all phrase level conjunctions--conjunctions that join two words within a phrase.

  • What conjunctions join two words within a phrase?
    and, both...and, or, either...or, neither...nor, but,
  • 9.2.5.2 Clause conjunctions

    Use this domain to list all clause level conjunctions--conjunctions that join two clauses.

  • What conjunctions join two clauses?
    and, or, while, then, if, because,
  • 9.2.5.3 Sentence conjunctions

    Use this domain to list all sentence level conjunctions--conjunctions that join two sentences.

  • What conjunctions join two sentences?
    then, so,
  • 9.2.6 Particles

    Use this domain to list all particles.

  • What particles are in your language?
    He lives across the street.
  • 9.2.6.1 Classifiers

    Use this domain to list all classifiers.

  • What words indicate the class of something?
    (Japanese) -hon (long objects), -mai (flat objects), -ban (order in a series), -nin (people), -fun (minutes), -dai (large vehicles)
  • 9.2.7 Interjections

    Use this domain to list all interjections.

  • What interjections are in your language?
    Wow! Hold on! Good grief!
  • 9.2.8 Ideophones

    Use this domain to list all ideophones. If there are many ideophones in your language, it is probably not worth the trouble to list them here. The Shoebox program
    (and other dictionary programs) can sort your dictionary by part of speech.

  • What ideophones are in your language?
    knick-knack, flimflam
  • 9.2.9 Affixes

    Use this domain to list all affixes that do not fit in any of the subdomains under it. This section should be filled out by a linguist.

  • What affixes are in your language?
    -s, -ed, -ing
  • 9.2.9.1 Verb affixes

    Use this domain to list all verb affixes.

  • What affixes can be joined to verbs?
    -ing, -ed, -s
  • 9.2.9.2 Noun affixes

    Use this domain to list all noun affixes.

  • What affixes can be joined to nouns?
    -s, -en
  • 9.2.9.3 Derivational affixes

    Use this domain to list all derivational affixes. A derivational affix is joined to a root and changes it into a different word. Derivational affixes often change the root into a different part of speech. Adding a derivational affix usually changes the meaning of the root in a significant way.

  • What derivational affixes are there?
    un-, a-, self-, super-, -ment, -hood, -ous, -ly, -fy