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date: 26 February 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This overview of (theoretical approaches to) English word classes is built around widely accepted criticisms of ‘traditionalist’ definitions of word classes, which have been characterized—mainly by structuralists, going back to Bloomfield (1933)—as purely notional and overly simplistic. Bloomfield and his followers argue that these definitions must be replaced by distributional ones. Following careful analysis of the arguments of both traditional grammarians and structuralist linguists, the chapter presents a more nuanced picture. Traditional grammarians did not rely only on notional criteria, and where they used them, they sometimes did so in a seemingly rather sophisticated manner. Furthermore, structuralists rely less on pure distributionalism than they claim they do. Finally, there are other current theoretical approaches beyond structuralism, including generative, cognitive, functional-typological, and psycholinguistic accounts. The chapter argues that there are strengths and weaknesses in each, and points to some recent work in which insights from different approaches are beginning to come together.

Keywords: word classes, notional criteria, distributional criteria, traditional grammarians, structuralist linguistics, generative linguistics, cognitive linguistics, functional typology, psycholinguistics

Willem B. Hollmann

Willem B. Hollmann has been a Lecturer in Linguistics at Lancaster University since 2003. His publications include articles in Cognitive Linguistics on summary vs. sequential scanning (2007) and cognitive sociolinguistics and Lancashire dialect (2011). He has published on Lancashire dialect grammar elsewhere as well, e.g. in English Language and Linguistics (2007). He has edited (with Anna Siewierska) a special issue of Functions of Language on ditransitive constructions, to which he contributed a paper as well (2007). One of the things he is working on currently is the role of phonological and distributional cues in lexical categorization. One paper on this topic will appear in a special issue of Studies in Language, which he is editing with Nikolas Gisborne.

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