This week we went over “closed class” words. It’s still interesting to me that there are different classes of words in which words can be added and not added. Going back to “open class” words, the expansion of this class could be infinite, which is a little shocking. New words and phrases can always be created in the upcoming years. Already we have words like ‘homie’ and ‘y’all’ that were not present a few decades ago. It makes me wonder if the “closed class” words might ever change?
We also went over prepositions and helping verbs. Looking at newspaper headlines seems to be an excellent way to section off titles. By doing this yet again in class I have gained a knack for figuring out what certain words are classified as. Helping verbs were a little difficult, with trying to figure out transitive or intransitive verbs. However I think that after time and newspaper practice that anyone can know what each word is without a problem. It simply amazes me how much of the little grammatical rules that I have forgotten since grade school. It’s rather refreshing to be able to go back and relearn some of the rules and classes of grammar. I am not really having problems with the content of the course so far, but I do have a question about the “closed” and “open classes” words. Do you think that possibly in the future all words and classes will be placed into an “open class” and be constantly expanding? Could a new word take the place, or be exchangeable, with a word like “I” or “you,” and if so do you think this word would ever catch on in society?
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ReplyDeleteWell in the future, anything is possible. The thing with the english language and grammar is that every change that is ever made, is done to make the language easier to understand and write out. The possibility of an "open class" is likely because everything is expanding and everything will continue to expand. The thought of a word being exchangeable with 'I' or 'you' seems rediculous to think about but it also may be a possibility. I believe there could be one word exchangeable with 'I' and one word exchangeable with 'you' but not one word exchangeable with both 'you' and 'I'. That could cause confusion between first person and second person and that is the base of the english language. However, there is one word that could possibly re-define everything, and that word is "shizzle".
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